2017 AVP Treasure Hunt

Last week I held my 3rd Treasure Hunt for the AVP, you know the crowd, the Axe Valley Pedallers, my cycling club. Before writing up this report, I checked back to last year's event and saw that we had 22 participants forming themselves into 9 teams. For this year's event, we had 20, making 5 full teams of 4; it couldn't have been planned better.

This year, we also had a change to the format, with a minimum £5 donation per team going to my club's charity, DAAT - Devon Air Ambulance Trust. Before continuing with the ride report, let me digress onto a related topic of charity donations. The AVP has always been a supporter of DAAT, indeed, I understand this dated back to the formation of the club in 2005. In recent years, however, the DAAT logo on all our jerseys has not necessarily reflected the level of financial support we've given to this great organisation. Last year, we agreed to increase our subs by £1 so that we could guarantee a flow of at least £100 of donations to them. This was certainly a step in the right direction, but it had the effect of removing any further incentive to raise more. So, in this year's AGM I fought to remove the sub levy while still committing to guarantee we'd donate at least £1 per member by the year end. So, what difference has this made? From all the events we've so fare run this year, we've already raised 2x our 2016 achievement, with £45 coming from the Treasure Hunt!

Back to hunt .. the route was mostly a well pedalled one for us pedallers; from Seaton, via Seaton Hole, to Beer, up past the caves and down to Branscombe beach. From here we climbed collecting treasure all the way to the observatory returning to the famous Donkey Sanctuary in Branscombe for refreshments and the debrief!

Our treasure hunters went on safari through the seasons in search of sculptures, counted petrified fungi, made calls from green telephone boxes, stared at skulls and journeyed back in time to when St Winifreds School Choir sung Grandma! Yes, it was a surreal adventure for our brave Pedallers! And if you're interested to know if our champions, Roger & Becca, walked away with the yellow jersey again, the answer is, no, we have new victors for 2017. I think teaming up with a fellow pedaller to devise the fiendishly challenging clues, threw all, just, I guess happens when the Times crossword changes its question setter!

I guess with the continuing success for this event, I'll be back again next year to do it all again.

2016 AVP Treasure Hunt

Last year I devised and ran a cycling treasure hunt .. I thought it may be a one off, I had time on my hands, I was on sabbatical. So when it was suggested I run another, I must admit I accepted with some trepidation. Matters became even more fraught when my proposed co-orginiser dropped out. Anyway, with the help of Mrs TdF, the route and clues were drawn up and with assistance of my old RideLondon buddy, we recce'd the course. What we ended up with and with the luck of the weather, was a very credible event.

The 2nd Annual Axe Valley Pedaller's Treasure Hunt was held on Sunday 8th May 2016, the hottest day so far of the year. 22 cyclists, extending across the generations, pedalled over to the start at Millers Farm Shop, Kilmington when the owner's son, James had kindly permitted us to setup Treasure Hunt HQ.

9 teams formed up while maps and questions were issued. After the ride briefing, all riders departed at 10:10. The clock on this ride was to be a key factor as in addition to the usual, who can find the most treasure (or answer the most questions) there was also to be a King of the Mountains (KOM) award for the most questions answered in the quickest time. Then, in case of a draw, we had a caption competition as a tiebreaker which was also turned into an award of its own.

The route took our Pedallers over a 12.5 mile route, starting in Axminster before heading out into the beautiful countryside of Smallridge, Membury and returning along the Yarty Valley.

As with all Treasure Hunts and quizzes there are always questions which cause controversy in the post event debriefing .. were there 5 crosses or 7? were there 34 or 72 boards on the mill? and which railway bridge did you mean? .. and this was no exception! However, when one team gets all 26 questions correct the question master has to feel vindicated; fiendish clues provide for a worthy winner.

In this year's event, we actually had 2 potential winners. 2015 champions, Becca and Roger were firm favourites. In last year's event, they gathered in 100% of the treasure and on Sunday, joined by Graham, they proved their metal again in being the only team to secure another clean sweep! The 2nd team who coulda shoulda won, was that of Andy and Wes. They incredibly finished an hour ahead of our champions and missed out on the overall award by only 3/45 points, and even then, these 3 dropped points were only marginally short of what was required on the answer sheet! Without doubt, however, Andy and Wes came away uncontested with the KOM award, with an average of 2 mins per correct question versus the winners at 3 mins. This was truly a competition for all!

Then there was the caption competition which based on a Pedallers' laughometer, team Andy/Wes and Mark/Dawn had the greatest appreciation in that order and so the award went to Mark & Dawn

We'll be back next year with a new route, new questions and seeing whether Andy & Wes can finally topple Becca & Roger's crown! See you in 2017.