ULopoly (Treasure Hunt!) 2011

Photo thanks to: Helen Herriott and Thomas Wood

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Saturday 11th June saw the day of the famous UL treasure hunt, this year organised by Lizzy and Peter, who had created ULopoly, similar to the traditional monopoly but involving towers through London rather than streets. With glorious sunshine it was going to be a fantastic day!

The day began in the Crosse Keys with keen team members turning up early to ensure a famous Wetherspoon’s breakfast before a day of running round London, looking for clues, taking photos and answering questions. Teams were then divided up into groups of around three and each was sent to a different London tower. Any subsequent team landing on your tower then paid the original team rent and so a points system was created.

While the organisers moved around pubs and rolled the dice, the teams were sent throughout London, with some people unlucky enough to roll from Queens Tower, back to the City and then South again. I don’t think I have ever done so much exercise in one day nor seen so many London Churches – including, Shoreditch, Southwark, Pimlico, St Martin in the Fields, Jewry, Foster Lane, St Clement Danes, Aldgate and also this years Dinner venue (Browns), to name but a few places that our team visited.

There were some unlucky chance cards such as having to buy everyone in the UL a pint- leading to a considerable loss of points, however points were collected for ‘passing Go’ or in this case ringing on a Sunday! One team was ‘unlucky’ enough to be forced to go to the Pub for half an hour (the equivalent of being sent to jail) and some teams lost members who disappeared to ring for weddings, the majority of people however spent the entire day charging round looking for clues around churches including looking for dates, names and other information- the questions took us to many interesting places such as Francis Crick’s house and the place where the East India Trading Company was founded.

Following the final roll of the dice at 5pm, there was a mad rush back to the Blackfriars before 6 to ensure no points were lost for lateness, Peter and Lizzy were waiting and after looking at the photos and checking answers and with surprisingly few disputes over scores – the winning team consisting of Rupert, Charles and Jenny was announced and they were awarded a bottle of Port, where as the losing team of Garry and Dom received a Spanish cucumber possibly contaminated with E-coli…

Many thanks to Peter and Lizzy for organising such a great day it was really fun and a great success. Congratulations to Rupert, Charles and Jenny for winning! I’m looking forwards to next year’s adventure.

by Jenny Willis