Mystery 2010 The Taste of Paradise Newport
A Very Brief Résumé    
Starting at the Glebe in Stoke, we left on foot to the train station at 16.45, as Ronnie hadn’t arrived; allegedly!! 'We’ll have to catch the train instead', said Yuppers, and handed out some prepaid tickets. What foresight was that ……
 
We jumped aboard the 17.07 train to Stafford and once there we slipped our way across the town in icy conditions to the Sun Inn, a recently refurbed Titanic pub.
 
The first clue sent out was a photograph of the coin slots on the bar billiards table which miraculously Pedro had s’potted’ correctly.

 

    
Pork pies and home made chips were provided to keep everyone’s hunger pangs at bay. Best pork pies ever! And the ale was pretty good too.
  Ronnie finally arrived, running very late, much to the annoyance of Yup who was trying desperately to run a tight ship, (well it was the Titanic) and whisked us off to The Royal Oak at Church Eaton, south west of Stafford. The little 'lumberjack' was the small clue from here of course. 

The beers were not impressive so we climbed back on board the coach where the awards for guessing the correct venue began.
The first prize of £20 was awarded to Bolt from the Blue with his guess of Oakengates, near Telford.  It was nowhere near of course, but it happened to be the nearest.  Oakengates was actually researched and was very nearly chosen for this year's mystery.  Spike became the runner up with Telford.

Guesses ranged from as near as Ashbourne, to the far flung location of The Dog and Duck on Wicklow Hill in Ireland.

 
The Taste of Paradise in Newport was of course this year’s venue. The sound bite clue ‘mmmmmmm’ was an obvious clue. You can probably hear it again if you turn your speakers on and refresh the page.

There was also a photo of the toilets amongst the clues issued which may have helped with your guesses and I'm sure most of you came face to face with it on the night?

We arrived just after 9pm and entered the building, a carpet warehouse look-a-like building down an alleyway.

 
A buffet meal was set up after platters of mixed starters and poppodoms had been served, comprising chicken tikka masala, chicken tikka jalfrezi, lamb dupiaza and chicken bhuna; all with rices and a variety of nan breads. Beer and wine had been previously delivered, as the restaurant is unlicenced, and all seemed to go down well.  Well done to everyone at the 'Taste'.

 
Yuppy began his award speech after the starters, by setting up his little assistant, the one-eyed Mr Tahoohigh, with the toughest, meanest flashing pirate eye patch available in all of the seven seas, and a blow up parrot which deflated as the evening wore on. As he turned to face the ship’s crew he realised he was not the only one sporting an eye patch…..  Sadly we have no photos to record the scene.  If anyone discovers any please let me know.

 
The ‘Last to Pay’ award went to Triglett amidst a round of boos, and the 'Red Herring' prize went to Bolt for spotting the red bar billiards table at the Steamboat Inn at Long Eaton, Nottingham.
 

Several awards were announced for contributions made to the past year’s events and Yuppy’s little assistant, Captain Pugwash, took great delight in handing them out.

Another great mystery night…. But aren’t they all ??

Yuppers