Pablo's Armchair Treasure Hunt

Armchair Treasure Hunt 1992

Title: Armchair Treasure Hunt 1992
Setters: Paul Coombs & Brian Jackson
Themes: Sets of Objects

Hunters' Tales

Having first mistaken the telegraph pole for a ski-lift pylon (impending skiing holiday on the brain) I had discounted the possibility that the [calendar pictures] were a sequence leading to the treasure, but a second look when all other avenues of investigation had drawn blanks revealed it for what it really was. So where was there a merry-go-round in a car park with some goal posts? OK, so perhaps its a roundabout with a car-park nearby which has a height restriction on the entrance to discourage 'travellers', but can't make much sense of the Dec 31 drawing.

With "within five miles of a Logica office" strongly suggesting Leatherhead or Cobham and only one day left before going skiing, it had to be worth scouring the countryside. All the letters of Leatherhead occur in the 'hton..asie...' code [Pure coincidence - PC] so this looked like a possible hint. The trusty OS map marks two car parks near roundabouts on the A24 south of Leatherhead so these were obvious starting points. The first roundabout/car park/goal posts looked promising, with a walk in the woods ending up at a suitable looking barn but no sign of any telegraph poles. A new car park on the A246 (not shown on the map) was only a few hundred yards away, so decided it was worth investigating. Found the sign post and after that it all fell into place.

Brian Mills

The clue which led me to it was the "rotated/reflected Logica L's" code "From the ones from the seven five/from the ones with no fives". I could not interpret the first clue but the second led me to take the first letter of each 'missing link' which was number 5 in the corresponding sequence. The ones I had which met this condition were F, E, C, A, M. By looking for the places within five miles of a Logica office ... Fetcham emerged as a contender, with only one likely roundabout as the starting point for the sequence of pictures (on the calendar pages) which led to the treasure.

Martin Milnes

Continuing the theme of missing items, we decided that the word 'Leather' was conspicuous by its absence from the wallet: it just says "Genuine" [Not meant to be a hint - PC]. This indicated Leatherhead. The pictures on the calendar pages ... [told us] ... we were looking for a car park by a roundabout near Leatherhead. We assumed that the treasure would be in a rural location so tried the by-pass, on which there are four roundabouts. At the fourth one we found height restriction. The rest is history.

Lydia Frew, Steve Martin & Janette Paterson

I managed to crack the Logica-like letters code. This told me to look for the ones with no fives. I looked through my list of answers and the only letters I could come up with at the time were Five (towns), Hand (every director ... ), and Connecticut (state flags), This gave me F, C and H. With a bit of further deduction I could put in Nahum Tate as well, giving me a T.

I then put the Logica offices in order of preference, with the furthest ones away from London being last. Central London was a bit too difficult for hiding a treasure and Feltham was too obvious, so I started with Cobham and Leatherhead. Looking hard at some maps ... I remembered FETCHAM where I used to play Dungeons and Dragons many years ago...

... I remembered three roundabouts in that area and decided that the only way was to tour round and look for a roundabout with a car park at one of the exits ... The first one fitted the bill, on the A246 at Bocketts Farm.. I walked down the hill, through the height restriction and following what I thought was the road by the fields. This brought me to Bocketts farm and a building that looked just like the one in the picture! But here everything stopped and I could find no more clues. Disappointed I went home.

However, that evening I examined a map of the area and found that the other road away from the car park led to a crossroads reminiscent of the footpath signpost! I drove back on the Sunday and followed that path...then it all fitted together and I found the treasure ... ticket number 4. A rainy day, a howling gale and an awful lot of mud but a lot of satisfaction.

Steve Hames