How It All Began

As you can see in more detail if you go to our Club History page, quizwalks, as we call them today, were started by a club called the Elmbourne Young People's Club, EYPC for short. By the time of that first walk in 1957 the club, which also fielded two local football teams, was meeting one evening a week in a small hall it hired in Tooting, South London.

The hall had facilities for playing table-tennis, darts and snooker. Some evenings a card school would start up in a quiet corner; the game was always "Three Card Brag". There was also a record player around which jiving to the latest records took place.

The age range for the club was wider than its name suggests. In 1957 the club organisers, John Cooper and Frank Roberts, were both in their early 40s. At that time most members would be in their 20s, with a sprinkling of teenagers and thirtysomethings making up the rest.

The EYPC had a very cheaply produced newsletter called "News and Views". It cost club members "3d" a copy. In an edition published in autumn 1957 it says the latest records in the club collection were:

- Teddy Bear / Loving You by Elvis Presley
- Diana / Don't Gamble With Love by Paul Anka
- Last Train to San Fernando by Johnny Duncan
- Streamline Train / Railroad Steamboat by the Vipers Skiffle Group

That same edition also contained an extract from the proceedings at the September meeting of the Club Committee. It read:

"It was reported that arrangements were underway for a Hikers' Treasure Hunt to take place on Sunday 29th September, starting from Reigate."

That was the beginning. It was called a Treasure Hunt then. And the first one, a circular walk from Reigate Station in Surrey, was organised by John Cooper and a club member called Derek Wilmot.

What made the EYPC's first Hikers' Treasure Hunt different, and still distinguishes quizwalks to this day, was that it didn't involve cycling or driving around the countryside. Instead it was about walking deep in the countryside and competing in small teams to try and solve a pre-prepared series of cryptic clues set by the organiser about things seen along the route.

For some years Treasure Hunts were all day affairs of about eight to ten miles, typically starting at around 9.45am to10.00am on a Sunday morning from a railway station, usually in Surrey. Almost everyone travelled by train as few owned cars.

In the 1970s we renamed our walks quizwalks, which better describes what they're about. We now hold them on Sunday afternoons over routes of around 3 to 4 miles. They are always circular walks, and always start from a pub, not a station.

First Footsteps: Reigate Station, 29th September, 1957

We are indebted to the late Les Bradbury, chairman of our club between 1974 and 1986, for our forthcoming reconstruction, 50 years on, of that first walk. Why? Because Les, who took part in that walk as a 27-year-old, was the type of person to keep things. And to his collection of papers on the EYPC (consisting of club magazines, photos and so on) he began to add details of the club's treasure hunts, starting with the very first.

So which way did they go on Sunday, 29th September 1957? Well, it was a classic Surrey walk. We estimate the walk was 10.3 miles. The re-walk on Saturday 29th September 2007 will be quite a bit shorter and there will be an option (which will be welcome to many) to make it shorter still by avoiding the climb up Colley Hill near the start. .

The picture left, taken around 1960, shows (standing left to right) Andy Wilson, Les Bradbury and Reta Bradbury with (sitting) Ken Halls and Roger Heath. Of these, all except Ken Halls were among the competitors who set off at around 9.45am from Reigate Station on that dank Sunday, the 29th September 1957.

Their exploits that day were written up by the joint walk organiser, Derek Wilmot, in an article entitled "The Things That Happen On A Treasure Hunt", published in the November 1957 issue of the EYPC's "News and Views" magazine. Here's what he had to say about Andy Wilson (still a member of our group to this day and recently retired as treasurer) and his rescue of a female competitor stuck halfway up the side of Colley Hill.

The scene: a damsel in distress, marooned high up on a greasy plateau. Our hero, a beautiful fur, anti-brain-freezer - alpine climber for the use of - under which exquisite teapot warmer (I mean hat) was Andy. "Courage, dear ones" comes from under the hat and with complete disregard for personal safety proceeds to rescue the aforementioned damsel. Unlike the heroes of the silent film era the hat did not claim his reward. Good old Andy!

Now fast forward to the winners of the walk that day, husband and wife team Les and Reta Bradbury. Their rapid progress was halted only when, as the afternoon was wearing on, they reached Dungate's Farm. And, as Derek Wilmot tells us, it wasn't just the heavy mud there that held them up.

After the hunt no one could say that Reta lacked any of the following qualities - tact, patience, good manners, and a real sense of feeling for dumb animals. As Reta was about to go sloshing through a farmyard of mud, mud, glorious mud, she spied some thirty cows with the same idea in mind and about to cross from the opposite side.

Reta came to an abrupt stop. So did the thirty. They eyed each other with suspicion over this no-mans-land of black, slimy, squelching mud. The thirty, with the firm belief in the safety of numbers, proceeded in the general direction of the milking sheds. And Reta, I may say, didn't waste much time in seeking a more suitable position in which to practise the age-old custom of "After you, Claude".

Les, with an anxious eye on his watch, was shouting "C'mon, Reta, C'mon, Reta". Our Reta wasn't having any. She wasn't prepared to throw all those foregoing virtues to the winds and she waited till the cudsters were safely under lock and key.

Finally to Roger Heath. A 14-year-old schoolboy that day, he was partnered by one, Jack Parham. This is how, as Derek Wilmot records it, he and Jack met their Waterloo on the steep slopes of the North Downs.

"The funniest thing," says Les (Bradbury) "was, whilst I lay hidden, to see Roger and Jack go tearing up a hill - off the course - which could only be compared with the side of a house. With Roger issuing strange gibberings and both of them going like demented beings pursued by some hideous thing from outer space they were last seen on the distant skyline, hopelessly lost."

That hill (which Roger and Jack climbed at the wrong spot) was Colley Hill, All being well, on the 29th September this year, Roger (now the club's membership secretary and, along with his wife, Joyce, still a regular competitor in the club's quizwalks) will get another chance, 50 years on, to find the right way up Colley Hill.

Will he succeed the second time around? WATCH THIS SPACE.

Postscript

There is also a newspaper article (right), written by John Cooper himself and published on November 10th 1957 in the Balham and Tooting Gazette, which gives his account of the events of 29th September 1957.

Incidentally we understand that the 11th Wimbledon Scouts have now disbanded. But if there are any former scouts out there who think they may have taken part in the walk we want to hear from them - and soon!