YKN TREASURE OF THE CARING HEARTS - AN EXCEPTIONAL DAY

SEBERANG PERAI 27 Mar 2010: What an exceptional day - a day that culminated in the realization of a hattrick of YKN titles for me and a successful defense of the YKN title for team HRU! :p Who would have thought it was possible given the strength in the field which was boosted due to a postponement of the NPC-Astro-Maxis Treasure Hunt. A number of regular teams including ours had at the eleventh hour, decided to jump onboard the only "ship sailing on the day" - the annual YKN Treasure of the Caring Hearts, captained by none other than the vibrant Sam Rahman.

The flag off ceremony which took place at the Securities Commission in Bukit Kiara was graced by the presence of YB Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and a number of other dignitaries. Teams were given 8 hours to attempt 30 questions and 4 treasures along a journey from Bukit Kiara to Sungai Dua (near Seberang Perai) that included a mid-point stop in Ipoh.

Using ourselves as a yardstick, I would tend to agree with the contention of most people (whom I had chatted with) that the regulation hunting time of 8 hours was short of being sufficient. During the hunt, we were largely untroubled by the route questions and made only a single stop for treasures - purchasing all our treasures at Giant, Sunway City Ipoh. Yet, we made it to the end-point with less than 10 minutes of regulation hunting time to spare. Compounded by the stern test provided by the treasure riddles, it did not surprise me to hear that in the end, fewer than 10 teams had finished the hunt with no penalty points, and fewer than half of the participating teams had avoided "disqualification".

2 of 4 treasures were especially challenging. T2 was one of them. With picture treasures, one has to identify a word or words that would best represent each picture and finally piece together all these words to form the treasure. But when one of the pictures is that of a lesser-known person, picture treasures can be rather daunting, just like in the case of the third picture in T2. I am not sure how many of you out there know Carol Alt? We didn't have a clue and initially struggled to solve this treasure! But through sheer perseverance, we stumbled onto the correct treasure in Giant and reverse engineered her name, for confirmation.

In the case of T4, we were quite satisfied with our solution of "Ayam Brand" with the following explanation ...........

A constant = A y

mother = ma
figure = anagram keyword (figure ~ solve) that would turn ma => am
first = initial keyword
first of before = b

money = rand (currency of South Africa)

from the main = Tuna, Mackerel, Sardine etc (sea fare)

..... until Margaret brought up the point that y was more likely to be regarded as a variable than a constant! In the end we did solve the treasure as intended. But in any case, we did pull the right fish off the shelf in the first place (must have been our lucky day, lol).

T1:

Private worker or a very big fellow may lead you here,

Where treasures can be found if only you peer,

An option above all else it claims to be,
Of fruit in a can? O' yes, please bring me!
Ans: First Choice Canned Fruits (any variety) - found in Giant / Cold Storage.

T2:

Ans: First Choice Choc Malt - found in Giant / Cold Storage.

T4 (Bolded):
A constant mother figure at first, before money comes from the main.
(no less than 400g, sealed in a tin, thank you!)
Ans: A can of Mackerel (any brand) of weight > 400g.

The treasure riddles bring to the table an interesting discussion. First Choice is a home grown brand belonging to Cold Storage. Other than Cold Storage, Giant would be the only other store that stocks the First Choice products. So would you consider it unfair that the setter had made no mention of this exclusivity in T2 that could have possibly sent some hunters on a wild goose chase?

In my opinion, T2 when viewed upon as a stand-alone does appear to be rather unfair. But when considered in collaboration with T1 (which had clued hunters to Giant), I felt the setter did enough to justify leaving out any mention of Cold Storage or Giant in the T2 riddle.

Our exceptional day did not end without first creating some anxious moments at the dinner table because of an exception that I had overlooked in the last of the 5 MKJR questions. It was a painful mistake which fortunately cost us nothing more than 5 points. Nonetheless the heart did enjoy a very good workout!

---

27-28 Mar - YKN Treasure of the Caring Hearts

(Maximum possible score: 125)

1st: Chai Koh Khai, Chong Voon Kiat, Margaret Sha (120)

2nd: Khong Yin Swan, Liew Kok Seng, Chong Foo Seong, Teoh Cheow Teong (117)

3rd: Yeoh Ban Lye, Teng Wei Chiat, Liong Chian Min, Jayaram Menon (115)

4th: Peh Kok Hun, Loh Chee Kwan, Tommy Ng, Lim Say Chye (109)

5th: Lim Soo Khian, Sin Yoong Leong, Julie Tan, Goh Teck Koon (107)

6th: Johan Salul, Dr Ben Lau, Aziz Abd Rahman, Izhar Shukor (102)

7th: Pavananthan, Fuad Dahlan, Hamidah Kassim, Shandra Dass (98)

8th: Tan Kok Cheeng, Anwar Jeffrey & team (95)

9th: Ahmad Zahrol & team (86)

10th: Rajj Melambaran, Shirley Hoe (80)