Wil's Queen's Day Puzzle Party

Two weeks ago today I found myself on a plane across to Schiphol and after retrieving my luggage (yes I was only going for a couple of days but I'd taken some puzzley-things I'd rather not have had in my hand luggage) and heading toward the train station I discovered that some planned engineering works and some not-so-planned signal failures were playing a little havoc with the usually great Dutch rail service. I worked out more or less what I thought I should do and texted a friend, just to be sure... and he ended up giving me a running commentary on which trains to look for where, as my normally simple journey to Eindhoven became more and more complicated...

When I got off the train in Eindhoven my personal rail-re-router met me at the platform and after checking into the hotel and ditching the stuff I didn't need we headed off to Louis' place for a little light puzzling, some chat, a little playing with the kids (in fairness, Louis and Mieke picked up all of the required football training) and some really delicious dinner!

Louis and I spent a while looking over the latest prototypes for my Exchange puzzle (Yip!) and once again he amazed me with his eye for detail on the different experimental variants he'd tried and the reasoning behind some of the latest changes. Expecting a long day on the Sunday, I retired to my hotel fairly early that night... and Louis collected me bright and early the next morning for the short drive out to Wil's place in Venlo.

The traffic was really light so we ended up getting there earlier than we'd intended to and found ourselves being greeted like long lost friends. Wil gave us some coffee and offered us an amazing array of cakes and tarts, and we did a little catching up before the rest of the puzzling world arrived. 

Over the course of the next hour or two there was a steady stream of folks arriving - at first Wil would answer the doorbell himself, but soon that became a bit difficult as his house rapidly filled up with puzzlers either chatting or raking through his hundreds of plastic crates - so in the end whoever happened to be nearest the front door just let the latest arrivals in and made them feel welcome. 

I was chuffed to see Michel van Ipenburg in the flesh after reading his puzzling newsletters about all his latest acquisitions and seeing him on Facebook - and as Goetz Schwandtner pointed out, I'd actually seen Michel at the last DCD when we were chatting about Goetz' Fidgety Rabbits (only in a puzzle blog would that sound entirely sensible...) but I was being a bit dense and hadn't put two and two together that day. Later on in the day, Michel was wandering around and dishing out copies of Stressful that he'd made up in really small colourful binder clips to pretty much everyone who was there ... thanks Michel! It's going to live next to my somewhat less colourful and rather obese looking ones. :-) 

 

I must have spent hours trawling through Wil's plastic crates finding some absolute gems from IPPs-past - stopping occasionally to try and solve something -sometimes succeeding, more often than not putting it back the way I'd found it and hoping that nobody had noticed my failure! 

Some puzzlers had brought along some of their designs to sell and I ended up spending a lovely time chatting to Ton Delsing about some of his sliding tile puzzles. He took great pleasure in showing me some of the tricks and constraints that he'd built into some of his puzzles and kept encouraging me to have a bash at some of them. I bought a couple of them ["Sliding Puzzles" - it seemed appropriate! and "Cat & Dog" which Ton told me was a tough puzzle] and I've had a little play with one of them since then and scrambled Cat & Dog ... and no amount of fiddling since then will return it to any of the target orders - I may need to spend a little time thinking about this one ... or perhaps taking it away on holiday with me!

Louis and I had a chat with Peter Knoppers [of Buttonius-fame] who'd done the laser-cutting for my Exchange puzzle about the latest variations and then we worked through half of the solution to make sure that everything fitted properly - and it did - beautifully - so we asked Peter to let rip on the rest of them. 

Peter had also brought along a couple of puzzles that I'd ordered off his web-site including a copy of Oskar's EGGcentric, his own Di-Half-Hexes from IPP32 and a Crazy Elephant Dance Kit. 

Somewhere around lunchtime a huge feast appeared in Wil's kitchen and folks helped themselves to an vast array of incredibly yummy-looking food. I'd piled up a plate and wandered outside into the sun (yip, I did venture outside in spite of all the puzzle-goodness inside!) where I found some puzzlers I hadn't met yet with some I had - having a great time chatting and munching and occasionally fiddling with the odd puzzle as well. I found myself feeling a little guilty as there really was a United Nations of puzzlers there that day, happily chatting away in Dutch, German and occasionally English - but whenever I happened to open my mouth, the conversation would invariably switch to English and carry on, having included me - puzzlers are a really inclusive bunch!

After lunch I had a spotted a Binary Burr (or was it a Ternary Burr?) on one of Wil's shelves and seen that there was a piece sticking out... my OCD kicked in and I was unable to leave it in that condition so I picked it up and began playing with it. Very quickly I realised that it wasn't one of the early moves that had extended it so I ended up wandering up and down aimlessly through the sequence of moves not really getting very close to restoring it back to its brick-like shape. While I was doing that, Goetz-master-of-all-puzzles-n-ary wandered in so I did the obvious thing and gave it to him and asked him to take it back to the starting position. He took it and sized it up much as a twisty-puzzle-solver would give a scrambled cube the once-over and then proceeded to whizz through a bunch of moves with jaw-dropping dexterity that had it back to the starting position in about a minute. OCD satisfied, we replaced it on the shelf...

Later in the afternoon I set myself a bit of project and picked up Wil's copy of the Popplock T1. I'm a big fan of Rainer Popp's puzzle locks and the T1 seems to have attained an almost legendary status - not just because it's virtually impossible to find one, but also because it's a really tough puzzle. Knowing that Louis had recently opened it, I knew I could get some help if I needed it so I sat myself down and began fiddling... the T1 is a really solid-looking lock and the haps seems to be sprung and travels all the way through the body, peeking out the bottom when you compress it. A careful examination shows a few "interesting" markings / buttons around the body, but at this point nothing really moves. I spent a little while on it before discovering the first set of moves and I have to say that they totally blew my mind - I just wasn't expecting this thing to do THAT! There was the vaguest of clues to the eventual move just before it went, but nothing to suggest what was about to happen... Having made some progress, I was then pretty stumped as to where to go next - there was a world of new things to try, none of them seemed to really do anything though... so I wandered upstairs and found Louis and asked for some pointers - which he duly provided and after a couple of false starts we had it open ... and it really is EPIC! 

Later in the afternoon Wil was dishing out some laser-cut assemblies he'd brought back from his latest trip to Japan to everyone who was still there... I know there's a Cherry dodecahedron and a Clover dodecahedron in there, but I still have no idea what the set of triangular pieces is going to turn into. (Louis has subsequently assembled his copy and pronounced himself surprised at the eventual shape - so I have NO IDEA!)

That evening Wil took the Van Grol-clan, Rob, Louis, Chris and I out to dinner at his local Chinese restaurant where they treated us to some wonderful delicacies all served in great big platters so we could all try everything. Wil entertained old and young alike with puzzles and magic and we had a terrific meal. After the meal, the manager ushered a pair of us into a storeroom to pick up a couple of large boxes that clinked a lot when we picked them up... :-) 

 

Back at Wil's place we puzzled even more, with Louis obliging and opening Wil's Bronze Revomaze for him so that he could display it in the lovely clear sleeve that Neil had made for him. Judging by Wil's reaction he was over the moon with the new clear sleeve and promptly gave it pride of place in one of his special cabinets. 

Somewhere after 11pm we called it a day and after dropping Chris at the station, we headed back toward Eindhoven with stacks of new puzzle-related stories buzzing around in our heads. Next morning I did battle once more with trains (signal failures again), planes and automobiles to get myself home - a really fantastic puzzling weekend thanks to Louis, Wil and all the folks who helped make Wil's last Queen's Day Puzzle Party for a while such a wonderful day. [Queen Bea's abdication means next year it's a King's Day PP!]

JC Constantin’s Welle / Wave

Puzzle-wise there are quite a few variations on the Gray Code theme out there.

They can all trace their roots from the ancient Chinese Rings puzzles, through to more recent variations in puzzles like Mag-Nif’s The Brain and Thinkfun’s Spin Out, but more recently they have been “owned” by the likes of Kugellager.  There are a couple of versions of Kugellager out there with varying levels of moves required to solve them, but my favourite is now Welle…

 

Three adjacent wavy tracks interfere with a sliding panel that allows the ball bearings to progress up and down the tracks … but the implementation is sublime as the balls rise and fall on their own as you move the slider left and right, making the 100-odd moves an absolute pleasure … and once you get all three balls to the bottom, the cherry on the top is that you can remove the balls from the their holes and pop them back in at the top again thanks to the clever little one-way holes at the top of the tracks. 

 

It’s not the biggest or the baddest, but it’s definitely the most elegant variation on the theme out there…

Goetz Schwandtner has written an excellent paper on this family of puzzles – including Welle – over here … if you haven’t read it yet, it’s highly recommended! 

DCD 2012 aka MPP8

Just over a year ago Nigel and I flew across to The Netherlands to attend the 2011 Dutch Cube Day in Eindhoven. Luckily our fellow MPP-er Louis lives in Eindhoven and he took care of us while we were over there ... afterwards I blogged about it a bit and we talked about it to all and sundry at subsequent MPPs ... and it seems that folks liked what they heard. This time Nigel and I were joined for an early Saturday morning flight from Birmingham by Chris, and Ali and Oli flew across to Amsterdam from Luton. We all met up with Louis who’d caught the train from Eindhoven to Schipol and then the six of us made our way across to The Hague, scene of this year’s DCD. 

We all managed to check-in when we got there, although there were a couple of fraught minutes until the hotel found Ali’s booking in the name of Mr Alistair instead of the more orthodox use of his surname. When the hotel restaurant opened at 11:30 we all piled in for some lunch as most of us had been at the airport from 4:30 that morning. While we were happily munching away Wil Strijbos pulled up in his red van and hopped out with Christiaan Eggermont. They joined us for a bite to eat after they’d checked in and then headed off to the venue to unpack Wil’s wares for the Sunday. 

We walked round there after lunch and notionally helped Wil unpack his crates in order to justify our presence. Bernhard Schweitzer had obviously been there for a while already as most of his stuff was already unpacked. It was great to see Bernhard again after a bit more than a year at the previous DCD. I spotted Joop doing his rounds as one of the organisers and reminding the prospective sellers that they were supposed to be saving their trading for the next day – although I did notice a couple of my mates coming out of there with little parcels or treasure in spite of Joop’s best endeavours. 

Rob's well-laid dining table

Mid-afternoon we all headed off toward Rob Hegge’s place for a bit of a puzzle party. We’d spoken about DCD in Washington and I’d mentioned there would be a bunch of us MPP-ers coming over so he’d offered to organise a bit of a get-together. We arrived with Wil and Christiaan in tow to Rob, Frans de Vreugd and Simon Nightingale all furiously puzzling away, and a little while later Rik van Grol and the rest of the gang arrived. (Only half of us could fit in the red van so the others took a cab from the hotel.) 

Rob had laid his dining room table with all of his IPP puzzles and about half of us promptly sat down (after we’d said hello to everyone, promise!) and began confusing ourselves. The rest scattered themselves around his lounge peering into the many cabinets jam-packed with puzzles. Rob was a great host keeping us plied with caffeine and fruit juice and the odd round of snacks. He happily sought out some of the less well known puzzles in his collection and hauled them out for folks to have a go on ... Nigel for one was glad to be able to give one of Brian Young’s big Telephone Boxes a bit of a once over. Not sure anyone opened the (Karakuri) Grand Piano though...

I spent a while trying my hand at Tan-Talizing and failed miserably, only to see Louis solve it in a matter of minutes, take his customary photo of the solved puzzle and then break it up while I tried not to watch... although I have to say that he did a very good job of obscuring anything useful in the process. 

At one point Rob brought out his Roger Shaker and Ali had a pretty good go at it, actually solving it! Locking it up again proved a bit tougher and we had to drag Wil in to try and salvage the position... and even though Wil was seen prancing around the room performing all manner of strange callisthenics, the puzzle remained resolutely open ... sorry Rob.

We had to drag ourselves away from Rob’s treasure trove to meet Bernhard back at the hotel for some Italian and just managed to get back in time to find him, and after dumping our gear, we all (11 of us!) set off following Bernhard to an Italian joint he remembered from previous visits ... after a couple of false starts and wrong turns we found it and they pushed a few tables together for us. I knew the food was going to be superb when Bernhard didn’t hesitate and ordered his standard Carpaccio and a main course (read last year’s story if that doesn’t make sense!). Several courses of superb food duly followed, liberally interspersed with some (apparently) very fine wine ... with several puzzles floating around the table among the courses. As always the banter was highly entertaining and when Louis noticed that the wall tiles looked a bit like the panels on a puzzle box, he proceeded to try and solve the wall! (And he was stone cold sober at the time, promise!) It was an outstanding meal with fantastic company ... and if you’re ever in Voorburg, you could do a lot worse than look up Fratelli's for a bite to eat! (You’re on your own on the company though...) 

Back at the hotel, we found ourselves drawn to the bar area for yet more puzzling and I eventually stumbled up to my bed just before midnight...

Next morning Louis and I headed back to the venue a little after the opening time and the rest of the gang followed along at a more leisurely pace having sussed out Wil and Bernhard’s tables the previous afternoon. 

Anyone seen Vinco?

This year DCD was held in Sint Maartenscollege in the school hall, with tables set up for the speed-cubers down one side and puzzle tables taking up pretty much the rest of the hall... and clearly a lot of new folks had arrived between us leaving there on Saturday and getting back on Sunday – there were stacks of new puzzle tables piled high with interesting puzzles, optical illusions and games. 

We signed in and each received a micro three-piece cube puzzle courtesy of Richard Gain (the microcubologist) and the organisers – a really nice touch!

Inside the room it was wonderful recognising puzzlers from DCD last year and from Washington earlier this year – every one of them stopped to say hi and ask how we’d been in the interim – good people... 

Wil had brought a couple of things along for me, including a Five Nails puzzle from Jan Sturm for my Shropshire puzzle mate Dale, and a couple of Cola Bottles (#5 and #7B) to add to my collection – but I’ll be writing about those in due course...

Jack Krijnen had a table selling some of his designs (you’re not likely to come across Burrly Sane available for sale like that...) and had a few placed out for folks to play around with ... including a very simple looking 2D puzzle consisting of about 5 pieces and the object is to make the classic outline of a house... WAY tougher than it looks and I’m still kicking myself for not taking a copy...

Ceremonial handover

My main reason to looking out for Jack was linked to our meeting at DCD last year. Just before that he’d published a couple of pics on a forum of a tiny burr set he’d crafted for himself, and in the interim he’d decided to make a few more copies for sale, and I’d managed to get in early enough to secure a copy and I was going to be picking it up at DCD ... it really deserves an entire post on it’s own, and that’s what it’ll get – but for now I’ll just say that it is even better in the flesh than it looks in the pics and it is an awesome piece of woodwork! [Thanks Jack!] 

We spent pretty much the whole day wandering between the tables and noticing new things each time we went past a table ... the lunch that the organisers laid on was great and the Midlands Mob spent a while munching and talking puzzles with Simon and Frans while giving our legs a bit of a break...

After lunch we had a couple of lectures – firstly from Frans de Vreugd on his puzzle-hunting trip to Sri Lanka with Peter Hajek. Frans entertained us with some great stories and interesting insights, all illustrated with a terrific set of photos from the trip and a bunch of carved objects all of which had secret compartments hidden inside them. As most of us hadn’t been exposed to any puzzle boxes from Sri Lanka, it made for a really interesting talk. He was followed by Edo Timmermans who gave an inspiring talk on modelling mathematical constructions using simple little magnetic balls – the sort we’ve all played around with at some point... except that his creations were on an EPIC scale – take a look at his YouTube channel and I guarantee that you’ll be thoroughly amazed at what can be done with these simple little ‘toys’ in the right hands.

Fidgety Rabbits (the white things they're holding!)

After that I spent a while chatting with Goetz Schwandtner who’d brought along a couple of really fascinating derivatives of the standard Chinese rings ... the first was a copy of the Fidgety Rabbits puzzle from this year’s Design Competition – it’s a binary implementation with 7 sliders, each of which can be in one of two states... then he brought out a special version by the same creator (Namick Salakhov) which had a ternary implementation, with just 6 sliders! He passed it around and everyone had a fiddle around with it and we all went a little way into the sequence and then allowed discretion to take over and reversed back to the start position... the binary one was opened a few times but nobody really tried to go all the way through the ternary example. Goetz spent a while talking us through the design which is rather ingenious as it will generalise to any higher order implementation desired – clever design that! [There’s a much better pic of the two next to each other on Goetz’ web page.] 

One of the other things Goetz had brought along was a Lego (genius!) implementation of a Bob Hearn design that had never been made before – even though it theoretically only has three rings, the number of moves involved was simply astronomical! In fact Goetz hadn’t even determined the number of moves required to fully solve it – jolly creative that Goetz bloke! :-) 

The Dutch Cube Day really is a tremendous opportunity to meet some amazing puzzlers, manufacturers, sellers and designers... 

Where else could you get one of Oskar’s designs autographed by the man himself (yip, I did!), or where could you tell Robrecht Louage how much you enjoyed 4 Steps Visible Lock, or chat to Vinco, or talk to Marcel Gillen about his old puzzles and his more recent designs, play with some really exotic twisty puzzles and rake through crate after crate after crate of wonderful goodies from Wil Strijbos. It’s a wonderful opportunity for all of the above, and you get to make some excellent new friends ... all for the princely sum of ten Euros for the day! You cannot beat that for puzzling value for money! If you haven’t already joined NKC, drop Rik a line and sign up and then join us in Holland next year ... if you love puzzles you won’t regret it!

Obligatory loot shot.