Each year Peter Hajek hosts a puzzle party with a
difference: puzzlers are invited to submit their three best puzzle finds of the
year and he collates them into a small book that is published soon afterwards. Those
that can attend in person present their finds to the assembled puzzlers who can
then have a bash at them… and then there’s entertainment afterwards… it’s
usually a cracking day out.
This year lived up to all expectations, and then some…
I arrived a little late (but well before Laurie arrived!) and
duly divested myself of a small gift for the host and a large batch of
chocolate brownies from Gill for the assembled puzzlers. Katja fixed me up with
a great cup of coffee and I wandered among the puzzlers for a while, catching
up with Steve and Ali and Oli and Shane and Duncan and Gerard and David and Wil
… you get the picture … and of course our host, Peter. 
Wil had brought over stocks of his latest creations and a
not-quite-orderly queue (more like a gaggle to be honest) formed around the
good man while he explained puzzles, listed prices and then started swapping
cash for merchandise… I took one of each of the two new puzzles, picked up a prize
for my competition and then spent a while embarrassing myself at being unable
to get into a simple little Kamei Cube Box (#1 if you’re interested) – it was
only when Oli came along and gave it a bit more welly that I finally found the
solution for it… great little box – yes please – duly added to collection. 
We snacked and chatted a bit before Peter herded us into the
lounge for the presentations. Tim started us off with a talk he’d done at the
latest Celebration of Mind on extreme puzzles (biggest, smallest, simplest,
most complex …you get the idea…) – all very entertaining with Tim’s usual brand
of wit coming to the fore. One of his extreme puzzles was a copy of the Elusive
E puzzle that came with a 5p coin – everyone was given a copy of what would
have to be the cheapest puzzle in their collection – since it cost each one of
us -5p!
Next up was Fran with a presentation on star maps hidden in
objects – with examples of a giant carved rock, a mirror and an ancient coin…
one of which was explained – the others left as a puzzle for us.
From there on we ran through the individual puzzle finds of
the year, each taking our turn at presenting our nominations and the reasoning
behind them… this year mine were:
Stickman #29 –
Matchbox Puzzle: Robert Yarger always seems to feature somewhere in my top three
puzzle finds of the year. This year it’s because the Matchbox Puzzle is
beautifully themed - all of the components combine to play a part in the
solution. The detailing is terrific: from the redheart box with the yellow
Stickman-branded inlay, right down to the purpleheart and maple matchheads… and
it’s a great puzzle box! 
I was fortunate to be given a copy of Shane Hales’ Pentagon
puzzle this year. Shane makes only a handful of each of his puzzles and gifts
them to people in the puzzle community. It’s a wonderful sequential discovery
journey where The Pentagon is only discovered after unlocking the secrets of
the beautifully detailed case it travels in… then there are many layers to
unlock before finding the disarm code deep inside.
Lee Krasnow’s Barcode Burr is a superbly crafted
six-piece dissection of a cube. Each piece has a combination of pins and mazes
that interacts with its neighbours, producing a binary sequence that requires
64 moves to remove the first piece. Easily the most beautiful implementation of
a Gray code sequence available anywhere… very chuffed to have found one of
these. 
It was brilliant to see several people nominating Louis’
Lock 2015 in their finds of the year – well done Louis!!
When we’d all finished our presentations, Peter told us that
Wil’s Butterfly Lock Box was the stand-out winner this year and that he’s had
almost 75 entries for this year’s book – that’s awesome.
There was a bit more chatter before we traipsed through the kitchen
to load up on dinner – as usual Katja had laid on a fantastic spread for all of
us – filled with all my favourite sorts of things… and I even managed to grab
one of Gill’s chocolate brownies afterwards…
I had a lovely chat with Martin over dinner and he rather
astounded me by insisting on giving me one of his 72 Pencil constructions (one
of his three best finds of the year)! I’ve seen these on the web in various
forms and have been meaning to try and make one for myself at some point – now I
don’t have to anymore – but I’ll probably want to have a bash at doing one
anyway – and perhaps I’ll give one to someone else then… :-) Thanks Martin!
Another of Martin’s finds was a puzzle from Donald Bell
(that Donald was dishing out to everyone who was there as well) that requires 5
copies of a 3-4-5 triangle and your challenge is to create a line-symmetric
shape using all 5 pieces flat on a table, without any overlapping… it’s a
cracking puzzle!!
After dinner we settled down to a somewhat mind-blowing close-up
magic show by Joe Barry… now I used to do a little magic in my dim and distant
past and I don’t find myself impressed by magicians very often – this chap thoroughly
impressed my socks off, smacked my gob and blew my mind… then he did his second
trick… and it got worse from there – Joe Barry, serious tip o’ the hat to you,
sir!
A little more banter after the magic – including a lot of
comments about just how good Joe had been – before we all headed our separate
ways after another great EPP.
Thanks Peter!
