A software engineer has helped devise a series of fiendishly complex puzzles for people to solve over the festive period in one of Britain's most difficult treasure hunts.

Matthew Selby, 43, from Epsom, his older brother Alex, and three others have spent a year and a half coming up with 12 pages of brain-busting questions and picture puzzles for Pablo’s Armchair Treasure Hunt which will be unveiled on Friday.

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE ONE OF THE DIABOLICAL DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

Their team have been the first ones to crack the code and locate the treasure for the past three years.

Mr Selby, who works at telecom software solutions company Teoco in Leatherhead, said: "We have always enjoyed taking part in the treasure hunt every year and it’s something we look forward to.

"People take it in turns to set it and we thought maybe it’s our turn to have a go and see if we can do it and put something back."

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Brothers Alex and Matthew Selby

The treasure hunt was first established in 1985 by staff at information technology firm Logica, which had offices in Cobham. The company was bought by CGI in 2012.

This year the quiz  was renamed Pablo’s Armchair Treasure Hunt after its founder Pablo Coombs, who died in 2007. The quiz was given its own website to continue the Christmas tradition as an independent, stand-alone event.

After working out where the treasure was located in 2012, Mr Selby drove all the way up to Bath with his seven-year-old daughter as night fell.

They followed the clues to a pitch-dark wooded area and he said: "We had to find a path through there to a log under which was the treasure. We were delighted".

His brother Alex, a mathematician who works with computers from his home in Cambridge, said the treasure is usually hidden under a tree somewhere in England.

He said: "Our team were involved in solving it for lots of years. We enjoyed that a lot and thought we would put something back into it and give people something to think about over Christmas."

Back in 2000, he won £1m by cracking the Eternity puzzle in just seven months. The game's inventor expected that it would take at least three years to solve.

Intelligence clearly runs in the family as Matthew Selby’s son Oscar got an A* in his maths GCSE at the age of just seven.

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The poster for this year's Christmas armchair treasure hunt

The Stamford Green Primary School, Christchurch Mount, Epsom, pupil became the youngest person ever to achieve the top A* grade in a GCSE exam.

The team which came up with this year’s armchair treasure hunt also includes Alex Selby’s partner Ingrid Jendrzejewski and his friends Mark Owen and Jon Culver.

About 20 teams, made up of a handful of people each, take part each year but they are hoping to attract more participants.

This year's hunt will appear on its website on Friday and it ends at Monday, January 12 at noon. It is open to everyone for free and will appeal to those who like a mental challenge of solving puzzles and crosswords.

There are no cash prizes but the highly-coveted trophy is awarded for being the first to reach the treasure and another trophy is awarded for the best solution.

To take part visit www.pablosath.com

Can you solve this picture puzzle from a previous armchair treasure hunt?

Clue: London landmarks were part of the theme that year. 

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Please send your answer to alice.foster@london.newsquest.co.uk