The Creation of
Cross Trails!

Have you ever woken at night with a flash of inspiration, known you should get up and write it down, and then forgotten it all by the morning? It happened just after Christmas for local board games inventor Colin Leamon – but he reached for his pen!

“It was one of those Eureka moments really,” said Colin, “I had recently agreed to sell my board games company to Treasure Trails and had just that day bought the West Briton when the idea came to me – why can’t we have a Treasure Hunt in a newspaper? I phoned Steve Ridd (MD of Treasure Trails) and he agreed we had the germ of a good idea.”

Designed to be a ‘coffee break’ quiz that is fun yet challenging - the game is different in that it makes use of the previous week’s paper for its clues and answers.

“We are the market leaders at writing fun, challenging clues for our outdoor Trails,” added Steve, “Crosswords have existed since the year dot – and Suduko is a worldwide success, so the idea of setting clues to answers buried in advertisements and news stories which lead people around an imaginary Treasure Island seemed a winner.”

The titles within Cornwall and Devon Media were the first choice for the new game and Head of Content Matt Dixon liked the idea straight away.

“We know loads of people keep their papers from one week to the next, and quite often share them with friends and neighbours,” said Matt,  “ Our existing games page is already popular, so the idea of a game that had people flicking through the paper in a fun and challenging  way seemed to fit our aims ideally. We are THE newspaper for the local people and like anything that gets our readers involved. Equally, as not all the answers are in the news stories our advertisers also get a benefit from additional exposure.”

The games launched in both the West Briton and the Cornishman, with the chance to win a M&S voucher, and the solution to this week’s quiz will be posted on www.thisiscornwall.co.uk next Wednesday.

CrossTrails is copyright and trademark protected by Treasure Trails Ltd.