Lovely autumn weather for it but with a “How does the cut of a jigsaw affect the difficulty of making it?” theme, the Cheltenham meeting provided the 30 or so members who attended with a nice variety of interesting challenges. David had brought along some British Library puzzles specifically identified as high ranking in difficulty and so they proved to be. Furthermore, for the first time, those who did manage to complete a puzzle were asked to attempt to describe to the group the difficult aspects of its composition.
Among the puzzles presented in the Show and Tell session, were a nice Holtzapffel Figure=It=Out, “The Chocolate Soldier”, a tricky Eric Bond push fit, “Henny Penny”, a complicatedly cut “Muddy Farm Lane” (probably by Chandos), a modern Dutch puzzle made by Hauseman and Holte, ” The English Cottage Garden” with many false straight edges and “La Parisienne Japonaise”, shown by Terry (aka Grandpa T.J.), a beautiful and tricky to assemble 3D puzzle he had cut himself.
Thanks to Pearl and Sally for a meeting that created a real buzz and was enjoyed by all.