I remember setting a question in a past hunt, of which the intended answer had the word "EASTWARDS" in it. I can't remember where I keep that question; and I can't remember how exactly I worded it. If I'm not wrong, only Main Tembak got the correct answer. But basically I mentioned something like "Going there to gain time". I got the idea of that question from the famous story, Around The World In 80 Days. Indeed, going eastwards is a time-gaining process. And if one were to go to the east, and making a full circle around the world, he will eventually gain an entire day!
The following question made me remember my own question for obvious reason:
Q20) CRUISE WESTWARD HOLDING SOME AMMO.
A20) LIGAMAS SDN BHD
It's not about going to the east, but instead to the west. While I used the EASTWARDS in my question in its literal sense, the above question has a cryptic significance to that word WESTWARD. Essentially, WESTWARD is used to indicate a reversal of the order of letters found in a word (s).
This was how the CoC explained the answer:
CRUISE = SAIL
AMMO = MAGAZINE
WESTWARD = reversal indicator
HOLDING = container indicator
SOME = take only some letters from the fodder.
Hence, SOME MAGAZINE = MAG
Therefore,
SAIL holding MAG = SAMAGIL
and then WESTWARD (reversed) to become LIGAMAS
During the hunt, my team mates were all too busy spotting an answer to a preceding question. And I spotted LIGAMAS. But I didn't think it would fit. I saw the reversed SAIL almost on the spot, but I didn't think this answer could fit. And in fact, it didn't! But, y'know, in the end I satisfied myself that the CoC must have erred, and so I alerted the rest. We made a second trip to the sector and duly written down this answer which, of course, was the intended answer.
Two points I'd like to raise about this solution. Firstly, about the AMMO = MAGAZINE part, which I don't quite agree. I don't think it is very fair to use the synonyms of the fodder where we need to take only some of the letters therefrom. I can accept "some AMMO = AM or MO", but to expect the conversion to, say, BULLET first, and then followed by taking only BU or LET therefrom on account of "some" is just a bit too much.
Having said that, however, I can also see the logic of the acceptability of the above because treasure hunt is not exactly the same as cryptic crosswords. In the case of a treasure hunt, the required answers are all fixed—they're found on the signboards. Hunters are therefore required to narrow down possible answers and then spot them on the board. In that sense, I can accept the conversion of AMMO to MAGAZINE first before taking out MAG therefrom.
But now we come to a more important issue, i.e. the sequence of the indicators in the clue.
Still using the same basic analysis as above, we can now simplify the clue like this:
The following question made me remember my own question for obvious reason:
Q20) CRUISE WESTWARD HOLDING SOME AMMO.
A20) LIGAMAS SDN BHD
It's not about going to the east, but instead to the west. While I used the EASTWARDS in my question in its literal sense, the above question has a cryptic significance to that word WESTWARD. Essentially, WESTWARD is used to indicate a reversal of the order of letters found in a word (s).
This was how the CoC explained the answer:
CRUISE = SAIL
AMMO = MAGAZINE
WESTWARD = reversal indicator
HOLDING = container indicator
SOME = take only some letters from the fodder.
Hence, SOME MAGAZINE = MAG
Therefore,
SAIL holding MAG = SAMAGIL
and then WESTWARD (reversed) to become LIGAMAS
During the hunt, my team mates were all too busy spotting an answer to a preceding question. And I spotted LIGAMAS. But I didn't think it would fit. I saw the reversed SAIL almost on the spot, but I didn't think this answer could fit. And in fact, it didn't! But, y'know, in the end I satisfied myself that the CoC must have erred, and so I alerted the rest. We made a second trip to the sector and duly written down this answer which, of course, was the intended answer.
Two points I'd like to raise about this solution. Firstly, about the AMMO = MAGAZINE part, which I don't quite agree. I don't think it is very fair to use the synonyms of the fodder where we need to take only some of the letters therefrom. I can accept "some AMMO = AM or MO", but to expect the conversion to, say, BULLET first, and then followed by taking only BU or LET therefrom on account of "some" is just a bit too much.
Having said that, however, I can also see the logic of the acceptability of the above because treasure hunt is not exactly the same as cryptic crosswords. In the case of a treasure hunt, the required answers are all fixed—they're found on the signboards. Hunters are therefore required to narrow down possible answers and then spot them on the board. In that sense, I can accept the conversion of AMMO to MAGAZINE first before taking out MAG therefrom.
But now we come to a more important issue, i.e. the sequence of the indicators in the clue.
Still using the same basic analysis as above, we can now simplify the clue like this:
SAIL westward holding some MAGAZINE
SAIL reversed containing MAG
LIAS containing MAG
LIMAGAS
and NOT LIGAMAS.
Therefore, based on the sequence of the indicators found in the sentence, that answer, LIGAMAS, is wrong.
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