We had quite a hunt today, even though the weather wasn't really on our side. It was drizzling during the first hour or so after the flag off, but thankfully the weather improved during the second half of the hunt. On the whole though, it was a pleasant day since the hunters did not have to walk in the hot and humid condition.
The KK Challenge 5 attracted 14 teams. Because of the timing of the hunt, several regular teams were unable to participate. But on the other hand, I'm happy that we've attracted some new teams to participate in the KK Challenge series for the very first time today. And we had quite some surprises too!
As usual, I designed this hunt to allow the top team to achieve very near to the full score while at the same time not to fail the weaker teams too badly. I'm glad to report that I have more or less achieved my plan—out of the 14 teams, only 2 teams failed the hunt.
I am pleasantly surprised that 2 relatively new teams created history when they beat a number of regular teams by breaking into the top 5 positions. In this sense, I'm happy to note that we've attracted new breed of treasure hunters who've improved in such a short time. The only question remains now is whether they will have the consistency to keep repeating the feat.
In terms of standard, I have not introduced anything new in this hunt. I have basically maintained my style of extensive wordplay, and as in my previous hunts, the local hunters have always been weak when dealing wordplays because they simply don't have the habit of looking up for words in the dictionaries. This is one aspect of treasure hunting which I think is not going to improve very soon in our local scene. Consider this question which most teams had to waste so much time on:
Q6) He left a jar here.
A6) The Leaf
A "jar" is of course a noun. But in this particular clue, I meant it as a verb, meaning to shake, jerk or vibrate etc. It's in this verb sense that "jar" is an anagram indicator. But when I set this question, I knew that most of the hunters will struggle with this question because they simply don't have the habit to check other possible meanings of the word "jar". And if I were to set a similar clue in my future hunts, they will still not check the dictionary! Some people will never learn, I guess.
There were also plain word-substitution questions such as:
Q2) Complete motivation.
A2) SHEER INSPIRATION
and
Q40) Simple fashion.
A40) Easy Way
However, it would have been uncharacteristic of my hunt if it's without the so-called "reserved for the CoC" questions. I did throw in a couple of them, but I'm glad to say that at least one was successfully solved. I shall discuss these interesting questions in separate posts later.
Other assortment of questions based on other themes such as observation/spotting skills, basic initial, reversal, containers etc were also given generously in this hunt. On the whole, I think it was quite an even spread of questions to cover most of the major cryptic themes.
The team, Cili Padi, of which my brother, Harry, was a member caused something of a stir when they sneaked in to the thrid place and ended up with the bronze medals. But although they have only hunted for the second time in an open hunt (they hunted together in the Novice Hunt 1), they have actually been training "secretly" by using the questions from my KK Challenge series 1 to 3 recently.
Another team which made heads turn was No Plastic Bags. Hunting for only the third time, and second time with the current members, they managed to find their way to fourth position. I must congratulate them for doing such a great job! However, I thought they could've done even better if not for some unforgiveable mistakes! So this is a good warning to the regular teams—that there are emerging strong teams out there!
De StoneS confirmed that their recent win in the Novice Hunt 1 was not a fluke when they finished with an impressive 79 points. They must have worked really hard on their treasures this time (which, I think, saved their day) and solved 3 out of 4 of the treasure clues.
But in the end, it was an anti-climax. As expected, team Main Tembak won decisively with 94 points. It's a bit sad to note that most of the regular hunters started the hunt this morning fighting only for the silver medals, saying that the gold medals have been taken even before the flag off!
The top 7 teams for the KK Challenge 5 are like this (maximum score—100 points):
1) Bernard Liew, Alvin Wong, Christine Netto, Audrey Chin—94pts
2) Frederick Samson, Tan Cher Kian, Teo Chen Lung, Leslie Yew—79 pts
3) Harry Koh, Buddy Jiliun, Sophia Lai—73pts
4) Julia Chan, Mior Azman Musa, Jaco Swanepoel, Paul Callaghan—72pts
5) Johan Amilin, Siti Nur Liyana, Siti Nur Hanaa, Johari Jan—68pts
6) Ellen Yee, Shirley Lim, Mary Lokupi, Felix Joikon—67pts
7) Christie Kong, Claire Andrew, Grace J Chin, Saidah Mohd Sahid—65pts
The Winning team, Main Tembak beside me, from left, Bernard Liew, Christine Netto, Alvin Wong and Audrey Chin.
Second place winners, Tan Cher Kian, Teo Chen Lung, Leslie Yew and Frederick Samson.
Third place winners, Harry Koh, Buddy Jiliun and Sophia Lai.
I just want to show the kind of fun some of you have missed. This was taken during the presentation after the hunt. Looking at this mother and daughter of the Jolly Roger team, it keeps me smiling all day long.
8 comments:
I want to put on record that Team De StoneS donated a colour printer for this hunt. I have allocated that printer for the first prize. However, Team Main Tembak, having won that printer, donated it back again for a KK Challenge 6. I suspect these people are doing all this to make sure that there is indeed gonna be a KK Challenge 6!
So thank you to Team De StoneS, and then Team Main Tembak for the colour printer.
But enough already, guys, someone should finally win it and keep it in the KK Challenge 6. I'm getting sick of brining that printer to and from hunts over and over again!
My special thanks, too, to a Rotarian friend, Mr George D. Ligunjang, who donated a bottle of wine for this hunt. Regretfully, however, he was unable to join us today because of a last minute matter which prevented him from having fun!
George's absence was a disaster to his team, Just FOUR Fun, which suffered badly on some of the clues in Malay. According to one of his team members, Liaw, to him, Malay and Italian are exactly the same - he knows nothing about both languages! HAHAHAHA!
Hi Corny,
Again, it was a fun hunt today. Good job to the organiser (this compliment should come with another hunt soon I hope from you).
Yes, I agree, the printer should be won by someone by the next hunt. We suggest that it should be given to either the best novice hunters (you can categorised Novice & Season Hunters b4 the hunt) or the most improved novice hunters (judging from KKC-5's score). Anyway, you have the final say....we felt indeed sorry to the 'poor' printer...enough of torturing, the main intention to donate the printer is to encourage new hunters to join, so why not make it a prize specially for them?
Looking forward to the ISM Hunt next year...but would really appreciate if someone can organise one this year....and how come the Kiwanis Hunt, KKJC Hunt, Toyota Hunt missing from our calender??
teo,
Thanks for the compliment, my friend.
Although I prefer hunting much more than setting hunts, I had a lot of fun in the KK Challenge 5. The audience was very sporting during the answer presentation, and all of us had good laughs, didn't we?
Whenever I set my hunts, I try my best to make it fun not only during the hunt itself, but rather throughout up till the time to go home. Only then will it be something special to everyone, win or lose. Only in that sense, it's really money's worth. It makes the hunters to eagerly look forward to the next one!
However, teo, both Alvin and I have full-time jobs. So I'm afraid we're unable to organise too many hunts in KK. What you've seen this year is a bit extraordinary.
I will try my best to continue my KK Challenge series for as long as I can. We must all pressure Main Tembak to continue with their Tembak series too.
I don't know if we can also keep up with the Novice series too. But to be quite honest, I enjoy doing my KK Challenge series a bit more because I'm able to apply my artistic creations in the questions for some interesting tricks. I can't really do that in the novice hunt.
Someone brought up the issue of insufficient hunting time of 5 hours during the presentation. But I must beg to differ; I have designed the hunt to have a good spread of easy to moderate to tough questions.
There were questions which required less than a minute to solve. Others probably required slightly longer time. Others still required perhaps 10 - 15 minutes. Very few others required a lot of hunting experience, lateral thinking, and much more time. But these latter ones were very few.
I was also there in most sectors during the hunt to observe the hunters in action. And I noticed that in some sectors, they spent too much time trying to break the clues. Working more than 30 minutes on a single question is not such a good idea, especially when it's still in the early stage of the hunt. Although I did give easy questions beyond that, hunters should not rely on hoping to make up for lost time in those later sectors. I kept repeating myself to manage time carefully. Trust me, guys, 5 hours hunting time was good enough for this hunt.
I couldn't resist inserting another photo during the final presentation showing just the kind of fun the hunters had.
To the mother and daughter in the foreground, I didn't realise that I was that funny! I hope you were laughing with me, and not at me!
Hi Cornelius,
We were definitely laughing WITH you lah!! That's a great pic! I'll post it on my FB to show everyone what fun a Hunt is! Thanks again for all your hard work. It really was a good holiday spent, well worth the money for clean and fun family time!
As everyone has been saying, I too am looking forward to your next Challenge!! We need to improve!
Johan was quite impressed when we got home and both my daughter and myself were saying "NEXT hunt - we should....." and he said, "Wah...NEXT hunt???" Usually, he needs to motivate and get us out of bed! hehe...I think the addiction has SPREAD! :)
cheers,
Hanaa
Hi Hanaa,
Thanks for the kind words. But I'm afraid everyone will have to wait for a while for the KK Challenge 6. I limit my KK Challenge series to only once a year (except for last year). So the next one will be in 2010. Usually, I organise the KK Challenge around July/August, but I'll see if I can find the time to organise it a little earlier next year.
So it should be quite interesting because according to Bernard, the ISM hunt is now fixed on 24 January 2010. Shortly after that will be the KK City Hunt 2010, so if I can organise the KK Challenge 6 within the second quarter, it won't be too far apart. Someone should ask Alvin to organise his Tembak series in the third quarter.
I received an interesting email from one of the hunters regarding Q1 of this hunt. She raised the issue of grammatical inaccuracy in the answer.
Q1) Enggang dan tenggiling masing-masing mempunyai apa di kedai ini?
A1) 3G SHOP
There are of course three "G" in "enggang" and "tenggiling" each. The objection is that in order to be grammatically accurate, the answer should have been 3Gs Shop, because there is more than one G, hence the answer should be in plural form.
That is a very good point. But hunters should remember that the nature of treasure hunt questions and solutions in Malaysia is that we can think (and answer) in both English and Malay. In this particular case, we're reading the solution in Malay, i.e. tiga G (3G). Therefore, no "S" is required after "G" and it can still be grammatically correct.
Post a Comment