The 13th Annual John H. Watson Society Treasure Hunt has officially ended. Familiar names were among the leaders in all four categories, US and International individual entries and US and International groups.
International contestants, The Unclubbables — A. K. Alexander and Henri B. Vernet (France) — had a rare perfect score of 140.
Our International contestants did an admirable job as Oksana Shishkina-Korolenko (Russia) finished in first place with 139 points while perennial contestants Enrico Solito of Italy and Mark Doyle of Australia finished tied for second place ahead of Alessandro Melillo of Italy, who had 128 pts.
In the international team competition, Societe Sherlock Holmes of France finished with 139 points with team members Britt Bailly-Salins, Cédric Chardon, Eric Torres, Olesia Shishkina-Korolenko and Anne du Ranquet, who were trained by Alexis Barquin and Thierry Saint-Joanis.
Meanwhile, the Sound of the Baskervilles of Seattle with team members Cameron Brandon, Margie Deck, Nancy Holder, Naching Kassa, and Steve Mason missed only one question on their way to winning high honors for US contestants with 139 points.
The top individual scorer for US participants was Regina Stinson (132 pts) who finished ahead of Todd Reston (127).
The correct translation of the anagram was Watson’s familiar statement, “I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air.”
Quizmaster Rich Krisciunas said, “The thing that always amazes me is how many times someone comes up with an answer I didn’t foresee that fits. I go back and re-read the story and have to admit that the person deserves credit for their answer and my list of correct answers grows. This happened multiple times this year. One of my questions dealt with vowels in the surnames of characters. Several of the international contestants reminded me that ‘y’ is a vowel. I also had one answer that appeared in the original edition of the Strand but had been removed in subsequent printed editions. The city ‘Buffalo’ was also mentioned in two stories including Valley of Fear.”
Congratulations to the winners, and to everyone with the willpower to dive in and do their best! (That’s more than the Boy-in-Buttons could have managed this August!)
Also, a HUGE thanks to Rich Krisciunas (Bullpup Hector) for quizmastering again — it is no small feat, and we are very grateful to him for his service!
Finally, below, you can download and read the answer key.