Brian’s Big Baffling Bolt

Several moons back Brian asked if a couple of us would mind playtesting part of a puzzle he was developing – OF COURSE, we’d love to – and a little package with an oversized brass bolt duly appeared in the post. The accompanying note invited us to remove the washer that was sandwiched between a pair of brass nuts (insert own inappropriate joke here – it’s all about knowing your audience). It also said that Brian was worried it might be too simple...

The following weeks showed Brian he needn’t worry about it being too easy... I spent about a week solving it, or so I thought, before I passed it onto the next volunteer... and so it proceeded with most taking a week or more before they passed it on... with all of us giving Brian some feedback along the way...

Fast forward a month or two and Brian and Sue arrive to spend some time with us and attend an MPP and Brian opens up the box he’s posted over to himself and produces a few advance copies of his Big Baffling Bolt for sale - I throw cash at him to secure my copy and then watch at MPP as the available copies are eagerly hoovered up by puzzlers desperate to test themselves...

I don’t get to play with it until a couple of days later while Brian’s still visiting... the bolt (and attachments) all look very much like the prototype I thought I’d solved, only it now rests on a rather handsome Papua New Guinean Ebony base.

The solve starts off pretty much as I remember it, but after a little while I find myself facing a bit of a brick wall that I hadn’t encountered previously and I notice that Brian is grinning at me – turns out I’d fluked an important part of the puzzle and the designer in Brian had been deeply offended – to the point that he had designed out any chance of ever fluking that part of the solution again... what a nice man!

I spent a long time on that little bit of the solution until Brian reminded me of something and a little while later I’d retrieved the washer from between the two nuts. (Don’t...) 

The rest of the puzzle was totally new to me and I rather liked that bit... but I need to say that the first series of challenges is truly sublime – definitely worthy of its place as a celebration of 30 years of all that is wonderful about Mr Puzzle. 

Happy Anniversary Mr Puzzle! 

...and now that Brian has more formally released his Big Baffling Bolt at IPP40, I feel like I'm allowed to tell my story, so there you go.