The Animated Tale of PTHIX: Yikes!

The following post has been sent in by Fred from Scooby Doo - he's asked me to share it with you lot. Take it away Fred!

Hello world! I'm Fred from Scooby Doo (you know, the cool blonde one). Last Thursday, after months of preparation and hard thinking and drinking, it was finally the day of the Ninth Actuarial Pub Treasure Hunt, or PTHIX. This time it was being organised by myself and the rest of the Scooby Gang, with a general cartoony theme. We were hoping to see lots of our toon friends out in York, having a good time and getting a little merry. Unfortunately, things started badly. Shortly after me, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and the two dogs had arrived in York in the Mystery Machine, Scooby Doo got kidnapped!

This was not what we had planned. To be honest, if it was Scrappy that had been stolen, we wouldn't have bothered to search. But Scoob's different. He's like family. Hell, to Shaggy he's like a wife. Luckily, we had a secret weapon to help up us get him back. Well, not so much a weapon, more an army. Twenty teams of toons, desperate to help us get our favourite dog back.

Here's a picture of me and Shaggy at the start. Don't let our smiles decieve you: we are actually quite worried.



The girls and Scrappy were also quite worried:



One by one, we beckoned the teams to the table and gave them their instructions. Would they be able to decipher the cryptic clues to discover the identity of the kidnapper and the location where Scoob was being held? Would they be able to answer the many trivia questions to prove their cleverness? Would they be able to drink, drink, drink and still walk? Would they find any good Treasure to bring back to us? And most importantly, would they be able to keep hold of their unique fruit or vegetable (from raisin to watermelon, and all sizes in between) that they won in the First Scooby Doo Fruit & Veg Raffle? Only time would tell.

It took the best part of a couple of hours to send everyone on their way, but eventually we found ourselves with empty beer glasses and hungry stomachs. Dinner time. Shaggy agreed to eschew the traditional abandoned empty mountainside kitchen, and instead we opted for Thai. During the meal, I asked for a doggy bag for Scrappy but they just laughed at me.

Towards the end of the meal, we received a tip-off that the real identity of the kidnapper was not what it appeared. In fact, the whole thing had been masterminded by evil Rolf Harris! I tried to inform the teams of this, but due to some magic, my text message ended up being encoded with their quiz sheets. A final piece of the puzzle for the teams to wrestle with. Not to worry, that wasn't my problem, and the meal was lovely and most welcome.

We began to meet the teams in the prearranged meeting place, the hostelry known as Thomas's. Our friends had journeyed far and wide around York, and some had found evidence of where Scooby was being held, enough so that by the end of the evening, we were able to rescue the poor little doggy and have Nasty Rolf incarcerated at her majesty's pleasure, where he remains to this day.

There was much partying and drinking and revelling and carousing. But I had to decline the offer of a trip clubbing, mainly due to having tonnes of stuff to carry home. Scrappy went though, and as far as I'm aware, didn't get into a single fight! Shaggy took Scooby Doo home to recover.

It took us a few days to finish off the marking, mainly because most of the rest of the gang were unavailable at the weekend. But finally, we were able to crown a winner: Some of the Wacky Racers had been able to take time off from the racing calendar and come down to York for the evening:



They scored well across the board in most categories and ended with a mighty 199 points, 15 clear of second the second place team (a team of toons united only by their small-animalness: Dangermouse and Penfold, Jess the Cat and Minnie Mouse). And just behind them, was Evil Dick Dastardly, as ever failing to quite beat the more fair-playing Racers.

As a special treat, we gave all teams the opportunity to eat a lovely dog biscuit when they returned to us. They were Scrappy's favourite brand, as you can see below:


A final word from Scrappy Doo: "Buy yummy Bonio dog biscuits! For Puppy Power! Yum!"

And a final word from me, Fred from Scooby Doo: Bye folks!

And so ends Fred's message. Well, it sounds like people had a good time - shame I had to miss it. I'd have liked to have seen the Smurf dancing too (I'm not sure Fred was aware he'd missed something so exciting!) This has been the third PTH of the year, so it's hopefully time for a short rest. But the next one is due to be the first actuarial pub treasure hunt not organised by Actuarial (Hello the girls from Marketing!), which should maybe breathe some fresh life and new ideas into things.