The clues were as perplexing as the puzzle they were supposed to solve: Julie Andrews' ''Do-Re-Mi'' illustrated with pictures arranged in the form of a telephone dial pad; a flying sheep, followed by a woman caught in a big butterfly net; a tiny plastic back scratcher and a performer urging the audience to give itself ``a big hand.''

Those were among the riddles hatched by Miami Herald mischief maker and humor columnist Dave Barry and former Tropic magazine editor Tom Shroder for the 18th Herald Hunt -- an urban scavenger hunt wrapped in a mystery designed as a contest.

''It's like Sudoku and the crossword puzzle all at the same time,'' said Elizabeth Acheson, a librarian from West Palm Beach who participated in the Hunt. ``It helps if you're twisted.''

About 6,000 people descended on downtown Miami on Sunday afternoon to decipher the clues and compete for the grand prize -- a trip to Amelia Island Plantation -- and the notoriety of Most Twisted Individual.

This year's winner: a team of five Miami Sunset Senior High School alumni in their mid-30s, some of whom flew into town just for the Hunt.

''It was a lot of work, a lot of stress,'' said Antonio Ginatta, a Miami attorney and member of the winning team, which also included Frank Estadt, a Phoenix restaurateur; Greg Nguyen, a Miami high school teacher; Beesham A. Seecharan, a New York attorney; and David Jones, a Miamian who quit the Hunt about an hour before his teammates cracked the code.

Suffice it to say that the final solution involved giving a name, a telephone number and map coordinates to a person in a pink flamingo T-shirt standing on the corner of Northeast Second Avenue and Fifth Street.

It took some teamwork for the winners to figure it all out. ''Different ones of us would see different things,'' said Seecharan, ``and the collaborative part of it is what made it come together.''

This year's Hunt -- with clues planted in Bicentennial Park, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, and the steps of AmericanAirlines Arena -- likely was the second most difficult in the event's history, in Barry's estimation.

''We did have an utter catastrophe back in the '80s,'' Barry recalled, blaming former Tropic Editor Gene Weingarten for the Most Difficult Hunt Ever.

Thankfully, the Hunt ended before sundown, but not without causing an untold number of headaches.

''When you draw it up, it seems really clear,'' Barry said of the clues that he and Shroder designed.

But clearly many were stumped, particularly by one clue that involved a tiny plastic back scratcher in the shape of a hand, a performer at the Arsht Center who urged the audience to ''clap until your hands bleed,'' and a map of downtown that came with a special Hunt pamphlet in The Miami Herald's Sunday edition.

The answer to that clue was the number 6 -- all answers to Hunt clues were numbers -- but many missed the reference to a ''big hand,'' the allusion to a ''little hand,'' and the virtual ''clock'' in the map, where the hands pointed to ``6 o'clock.''

It was that clue in particular that caused the Hunt to go on about one hour longer than expected, Shroder said.

Shroder was almost apologetic that he and Barry had caused such consternation among the contestants.

''The hardest thing about this is judging the level of difficulty of each puzzle,'' he said, then quickly added, ``I think people had a good time.''

Indeed, many Hunt contestants appeared harried and frustrated as they wandered about downtown, maps in hand. But most said they enjoyed the experience.

''I like brain-teasers,'' said Rick Dronsky, a retiree from Cooper City who tackled the Hunt with a group of friends from Mosaic Outdoor Club of South Florida. ``It's a festival. You get out, get some exercise, meet lots of people, see Dave Barry. It's got it all.''

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