By Lou
July 9 2003

The first ever Quinssa Treasure Hunt took place at Twickenham on Saturday 5 July 2003. All those who took part in the event started arriving at the Cabbage Patch from 12 o'clock, only to find that those who had organised the event weren't there! This was the day that we found out that certain pubs open their doors at 12, and not 11! (The fact that we couldn’t remember which the 15th pub was, didn’t help much either) However, it gave those with cunning plans time to let the rest of their team know how they were planning on winning, and show the rest of the team the various Internet maps and list of all Twickenham pubs with their addresses that they had obtained!

The sensible participants sampled the various culinary delights that the Cabbage Patch had to offer before setting off on their pub crawl, oops Treasure Hunt; the others just got stuck into their pints!

At this point, Barbara thought it was time to show off one of Jason the Orang Utan’s mates – a recently acquired teddy bear in a jester’s costume! – which, it has to be said, took the fancy of every female there. He was then baptised Andre, and disappeared/bear-napped (whatever you want to call it) for the rest of the day! No good could come of this, eh N.G.A.!

At about 1pm the organisers decided it was time to start handing out the answer sheets to all the teams. One team – HE KNOWS – disappeared very quickly. The answer sheets were in their hands and POW! they had gone, no doubt to start their dubious campaign to win the hunt. With the rest of the teams leaving fairly promptly, the Laybacks decided to seize the opportunity and tried to bribe the organisers!

Once all the teams had left the Cabbage Patch, Barbara and I thought it was time that we had our well-earned brunches, whilst we waited for the late arrivals, Simon and Anne! However, our peace was broken by a disturbing text message from a member of the HE KNOWS team, who was holding Andre hostage! Eek, eek, eek! A suitable reply was duly composed, and the peace was restored. (IF I’D THOUGHT HE’D BE IN ANY DANGER, I’D HAVE THREATENED HER WITH ACE!!)

Once Simon and Anne had been despatched, it was a quick drive back to Barbara’s to dump the car, and a quick march down to The Sussex Arms to see if we could see any of the teams. Barbara and I only had time to buy our pints and sit down before HE KNOWS arrived. Obviously, they didn’t want to talk with us, as a team member tried her best not to notice us! FAILED - despite BatQuin’s best efforts! It was very difficult not to spot us. I mean who could miss Jason the Orang Utan! Beverages were drunk outside, and our group was joined by Harley’s Evil Step Mum, who was passing by on his motorbike. HSC and Quinssa were united for 5 minutes, and after buying some raffle tickets HESM sped off!

HE KNOWS were eager to off load Barbara and me (not before showing us various pages off the Internet, I hasten to add), and ran off to the next pub on their list.

We then decided it was time to visit another pub, and after the long trek from The Sussex Arms to The Prince Blucher, another pint was needed. After offloading some of our Season Ticket Application forms with the Manager, we went to the garden to await the possible arrival of another team. Failing to see any teams in the Prince Blucher, we downed our pints and went off to The Kings Arms. Lo and behold, the Laybacks and the Uxbridge Untouchables were all there! Were they comparing notes, exchanging answers? Did we get there in time to stop any possible cheating – who knows and who cares! If other teams could do it, so could they!

By this time, Barbara and I thought that we’d better downgrade to halves as we didn’t want to be half cut by the time we got back to the Patch! Off went the Laybacks and the Uxbridge Untouchables, which left us in peace to enjoy our halves. However, the peace was soon to be broken by the arrival of Simon and Anne, who didn’t seem to be affected by the head start the other teams had over them! Various phone calls were received from HE KNOWS querying their answers and our clues. HOW DARE THEY! Don’t they know who we are. They had to be fined for that!

Once Simon and Anne had left, we decided to head back towards Twickenham centre and visit The Fox, hoping that we would bump into the final team – Dolores and the Pikies from Hertfordshire – en route. Vicious rumours had been circulated about them by other teams, which needed to be stopped; however, they couldn’t be found. Where had they gone?

At The Fox, we were rudely interrupted by a phone call from HE KNOWS, informing us that they had arrived back at the Patch. Trying to gloat were you?? However, Barbara and I were determined to continue our pub crawl, so the call was ignored.

Having spotted some Quins supporters in The Eel Pie in the morning, Barbara decided that we should grab them, but they had taken flight (a wise move, I must say)! So off to The Hobgoblin we went, followed shortly after by The Laybacks. Then the bribes started! And yes we succumbed! The clue from the Twickenham Tup was given to them for a suitable fee, and they disappeared. Simon and Anne, and the Uxbridge Untouchables were seen passing so we thought we had better make our way back to the Cabbage Patch to finish off the Treasure Hunt!

The treasure hunt finished just as it had begun – the organisers were last to arrive! I thought they might have got our pints in, but no!!

Answer sheets were collected and scores added up! The organisers were pleased to note that EVERY team got at least ONE question wrong (yep, even HE KNOWS with their dubious antics)!

The results were as follows:

1st Place:	HE KNOWS (14 points) (well there’s a surprise!)
2nd Place:	Anne and Simon (12 points)
3rd Place:	Laybacks (12 points) – third because they arrived back at the Patch later than Simon and Anne
4th Place:	Uxbridge Untouchables (10 points)
5th Place:	Dolores and the Pikies from Hertfordshire (9 points)

I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of HE KNOWS to thank all those who helped them finish top! You all know who you are!!

Everyone who took part received a small prize and the winners chose:-
A Heineken T-Shirt
A Heineken Beach Towel
A Heineken Cool Bag
and a voucher promising a ticket for our 1st away game (Rotherham) and a ticket on The Quinssa Coach.

As the Cabbage Patch had kindly agreed that we could hold a raffle, everyone decamped to the front of the bar, and Barbara then disappeared to sell raffle tickets to everyone in the Patch. Among the winners were our very own Lex, Binky, BatQuin, Ruth, AJB and BaldRick.

In all, Quinssa raised £137.21 for the British Paralympics Association, which I’m sure is only the start of their fundraising campaign for the BPA.

Barbara and I would like to thank everyone who took part and all those who bought raffle tickets from us.

A big thank you must go to NEC Harlequins for donating the prizes. We appreciated the gesture, and I’m pretty sure the prizes went down well with everyone!

Finally, Quinssa would like to thank the following pubs for their help in making the Hunt possible:

The Cabbage Patch
The Rugby Tavern
The Hobgoblin
The Twickenham Tup
All Bar One
The Fox
The Eel Pie
The Barmy Arms
The George
The Three Kings
The Red Lion
The Kings Arms
The Prince Blucher
The Sussex Arms
The Prince Albert