Christmas Challenge 2016 Results...

The scores have been counted. The results are in. 

So who featured this year? A big shout-out to Goetz for getting in a mighty speedy reply and being the first entry received... Big Steve followed with the first of his entries... with a follow-up set of additions / corrections a few days later... after he'd managed to con me into telling him part of one of the answers at Peter Hajek's EPP: he pulled me aside during some idle banter and took me into Peter's study, pointed at a puzzle in the corner and said "Please tell me who deigned that puzzle." Of course it was one of the puzzles in my collage and without giving it a second though I told him it was Ronald Kint-Bruynseels. And then I realised what he'd just done to me! Chutzpah! 

We also had a first time entry from Steven Canfield, who amused the judges (me!) with some interesting attempts that sounded (intentionally!) more like album and band names ("I know I've seen this before by Early Dementia") - thanks for playing along Steven! 

Nick Baxter played it cool and submitted his entry five minutes before the deadline, blaming his tardiness and some missing names in his entry on some American football (an odd mixture of chess, rugby and full body armour, I believe) games. [I assume he was watching, not playing.] 

FWIW I gave points for designers and puzzle names and didn't use the makers in the end as there wasn't any need for a tie-breaker... and in the end we have Steven Canfield in third place on 83 points, Nick Baxter in second on 94 and Big Steve Nicholls in first place (again?!) on 100 (out of a possible 102) - having only failed to identify a single puzzle... something in common with the others in the top three, although Goetz managed to identify Yusei by Takeyuki Endo... :-)

...next year's will clearly need to be harder! 

Thanks to all who played along - Steve, I shall be in touch and send you something puzzling... 

Hope your 2017's are all wonderfully puzzling! 

...and if anyone's curious, here are the answers: 

1 Ze Orange / Stephen Chin 

2 Mr. Monkey / Shiro Tajima

3 Katie Koala / Brian Young & Junichi Yananose

4 Number Blocks / Goh Pit Khiam, Made by Tom Lensch

5 The "Discuss" Puzzle / R Journet

6 The Stickman No 25 Puzzlebook (Milestone Book) / Robert Yarger

7 My Butter / Yoh Kakuda

8 Merkaba / Lee Krasnow

9 Magic Domino / Wil Strijbos, Made by JC Constantin

10 The Opening Bat / Brian Young

11 Yusei / Takeyuki Endo

12 Ladybird / Robrecht Louage

13 Tetraxis / Jane Kostick

14 Little Bruce / Ken Irvine

15 Meteor / Stewart Coffin, Made by Mark McCallum

16 (Oskar’s) Matchboxes / Oskar van Deventer, Made by Eric Fuller

17 Triangular Prism / Stewart Coffin, Made by Wayne Daniel

18 Pachinko Box / Wil Strijbos

19 Axis Hedgehog / Radek Micopulos

20 Replica of Wooden Rubik's Cube Prototype / Erno Rubik & Tony Fisher

21 Fairy’s Door / Mike Toulouzas

22 Dovetail Burr / Robert Sandfield, Made by Perry McDaniel

23 Stickman 28: Edelweiss / Robert Yarger & William Waite

24 SMS Box / Brian Young & Junichi Yananose

25 Eureka Puzzle / John Kirkman, Made by Brian Young

26 Double Puzzle / Charles O. Perry

27 Easy Livin’ / Ronald Kint-Bruynseels, Made by Pelikan 

28 Tube it in / Wil Strijbos, Made by Eric Fuller

29 Tricklock T1 / Rainer Popp

30 4L Co-Mo DD / Johan Heyns

31 Slide Packing / Hajime Katsumoto, Made by MINE

32 Tricklock T10 / Rainer Popp

33 The Slipperyslabs Puzzle / R Journet

34 Zipper / Iwahiro (Hirokazu Iwasawa)

35 Bram's Magic / Bram Cohen & Oskar van Deventer (Thinkfun)

36 Hales Lock 2 / Shane Hales

37 Stickman 23: Perpetual Hinge Box / Robert Yarger

38 The Circle / Shane Hales

39 Brandenburg Gate / Jos Bergmans

40 Irmo Puzzle Box / Eric Fuller

41 Cocobolo Maze Burr / Kagen Sound

42 Minotaur Burr / Frank Potts & Brian Young

43 Stickman 5: Borg Box / Robert Yarger

44 “Exchange” Puzzle / Wil Strijbos

45 Gold Coast Parking Meter Puzzle / Brian Young

46 Caramel Box / Mineyuki Uyematsu & Yasuhiro Hashimoto

46 Power Tower / Jack Krijnen & Goh Pit Khiam 

47 Tricklock T3 / Rainer Popp

48 Nine Drilled Holes / Saul Bobroff

49 Tricklock T8 / Rainer Popp

50 Portable Pen Box / Eric Fuller (John Devost Pens)
51 Sweta Cross / Wil Strijbos

  ...and well done to everyone who spotted the obvious error: a little bit of the Borg Box peeking out to the right of Wil's Exchange Puzzle - sorry about that!