BBC Radio Norfolk Treasure Quest Comes To Nordelph

For those of you who are not avid listeners to Radio Norfolk, every Sunday morning between 9.00 and 12.00 they host an interactive treasure quest. Presenter David Clayton in the studio reads out a series of cryptic clues, and listeners phone, text or e-mail in to help solve the clues and guide presenter BeckyBetts in Radio Norfolk's radio car driven by Ian Forster to various locations throughout our region.

On 6 December 2009 it was Nordelph's turn to be star of the show as final destination in a route that took in Barton Bendish, Tottenhill, Tilney All Saints, Wisbech and finally....
Obviously destinations are kept secret (though we deduce that a certain member of the Parish council was in on the secret!).

The final clue was "When giving his defence in court he relied on the one of the horn. Take these eight and put them right. Find the treasure where you pause in memory". Unscambled this gave Pled (defence) and Horn, eight letters which are an anagram of Nordelph, and the place where you pause in memory was the war memorial outside the village hall.

This last clue was only solved woth about ten minutes to go, and the radio car on the outskirts of Wisbech with the final location in the village still uncertain.
Chris and Jean Manning heard this on the radio hurried down to the viallge hall to find Messrs Richard Balls and Ron Stannard hiding in Richard's car. The game was up, a quick dash back to get cameras, and a knock on a couple of doors as they returned, just in time for the radio car's arrival, and Becky finding the treasure with 50 seconds to spare

.

The pictures above record the momentous occasion -- Becky with Richard Balls announcing her sucess on air, and Becky and driver Ian with the group of residents who had made it to the hall in time.

By using the BBC's 'catch-up' service, the iPlayer, it's also possible to listen to the programme for a short while (seven days) after transmission. If you're reading this in time, the link: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p005cl60 will lead you to the broadcast; it's 3 hours long, but it isn't necessary to play it all -- using the timeline below the main window you can seek out the last 15 minutes or so, which is where Nordelph gets involved.

As a postscript, a crossword addict of our acquaintance, whose evening highlight is the deciphering of some cryptic piece of cruciverbalism (his words, not ours!) is distinctly underwhelmed by the quality of the clue. He suggests the impressively compact 'Porn held tight', which includes a suitable piece of misdirection, in that 'tight' should be interpreted in the sense of 'drunk', which to any experienced crossword solver would indicate a rearrangement of the letters. Anyone do any better?