Thame Motorsport Club Treasure Hunt

21st September 2003

Report by James Walters.

Sunday the 21st September saw the running of the annual club treasure hunt and barbeque. This year the trusty organising team of Messrs Walters and Gamage had decided on a slightly more tricky route running North of Aylesbury, around Wendover and back to the Red Lion.

The clues were also more cryptic than usual as a result of the ease in which last years clues were deciphered. This increasing of the challenge proved a good move, as it resulted in a much greater spread in the results, and also resulted in the teams taking a greater length of time in completing the course than had been anticipated. We had seven entries, with Andy and Steve Bostock ending up as the winners, with 73 points, out of a possible 88, in a tightly fought race with the Precious Cargo (71 points), of the Walters and Tyce clan. Behind these we had a joint third place of teams Fire Trap and Broken Toe, who finished with 65 points each. The judges suspected some collusion here by the club chairman, and his guests. However, there were some interestingly different answers, which meant that we allowed them to get away with it.

The "Has Beans" came in next, after running very close to the three-hour time limit. This team, the Slingerland family (senior), had obviously taken great care over tracing the clues, with 54 points the tally at the end. The other Slingerland team, driven by Rob, and tirelessly navigated by Liz and Rob’s brother managed 51 points between them.

Last but not least came Organised Chaos, with the trusty Discovery of Sue Gamage, being navigated by Kate Walters and four kids. They achieved 49 points. However, they were the first car home, and I suspect that they should be congratulated really, especially as they provided all the salads, and purchased all the burgers and sausages for the Barbeque afterwards.

All in all a great day was had by all, and the weather stayed nice for us as well. However, it would have been nice to have had greater support from other club members.