Treasure Hunt At Styal, Sunday 13th June 2004

By Alan Brown

For some strange reason which eludes us, David and Ruth Harrison and I found ourselves saddled with arranging this year's event even though we distinctly remember coming in a solid second last time round.

So with the fixture rescheduled to fit our busy social calendars, we realized at Pat and Harry's excellent End of Season Party that our fingers needed airing and soon! Preparations went smoothly and we were always lucky with the weather as all dry runs and the actual day were fine and sunny. Nothing like a soggy list of clues to turn competitors off !

And so it was that we found ourselves sitting on sun chairs waiting for people to arrive only to be told by the first arrival that directions to the car park were incorrect. Some start ! We'd had a dry run of the Hunt itself with my brave soul mate Caroline trudging round to check that the directions made sense. Apparently they did - after hefty alteration - and all teams managed to get to the end safely. This was a relief to us organisers as we were the first event to trial the new safety procedures for Club activities. And no one seemed to object to signing the disclaimer sheet ...

We then spent a harrowing 90 minutes worrying if anyone had gone astray - well Jonquil was loose in wildest Cheshire by herself ! - before distracting ourselves with tea and ices at Styal Mill.

Bang on schedule the teams returned. All looking a bit pre-occupied and muttering about a non-existent milk churn ... However with the judges' marking final and with no recourse to the European Court available, everyone accepted the results : there was only one mark between all teams - well there were only three ! - and prizes were distributed.

Jonquil, the lucky winner, tried to give away all the chocolates and didn't seem to mind being in line to organise the next treasure hunt. However, she did depart muttering darkly about not worth holding another treasure hunt if only three teams turn up. Where were you all on such a lovely day? Feedback to any committee member on whether we should have another Treasure Hunt would be very useful please.

Thanks from me to Ruth and David for doing all the hard work and making my contribution feel just like a walk in the park !