Brit wins £100,000 online treasure hunt

The Receda Cube was found by Andy Darley after a two-year search

A treasure hunt run by online game Perplex City has been won by a British puzzle solver.

Andy Darley, from Middlesex, will now claim the £100,000 reward after he successfully solved the clues and found the buried Receda Cube after a two-year search.

Darley unearthed the Cube at 12.30pm on 4 February in Wakerley Great Wood near Stamford in Northamptonshire.

"I never thought for a moment that I would be the person to find the Cube. I was playing for the puzzles, and the stories, but it wasn't until a few days ago that I thought I was in with a chance," he said.

"As I pulled the Cube from the sticky, wet clay, and even afterwards as I was waiting to return the Cube, all I could think about was how bizarre the whole thing really was."

Darley will formally hand over the Cube at a ceremony on 24 February and receive a cheque for £100,000.

Perplex City used online advice and puzzle cards, bought in shops and on the internet, which contained optical illusions, cryptography and riddles. They all pointed to a specific location where the cube was buried.

The idea for a clue-based treasure hunt was created by Kit Williams in 1979 with his book Masquerade. Williams created a jewelled golden hare and buried it before publishing a book filled with obscure clues to its location. 

The hare was unearthed in 1982 by Dugald Thompson, who did not solve the puzzle but got enough information from William's former girlfriend to guess the location.

Thompson tried to set up a similar hunt through his software company Haresoft but the idea was not popular and the hare was sold at auction for £31,900.