Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

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PuzzleScot
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by PuzzleScot »

driv4r wrote:Just gotta say that today's U-Bahn / Subway is a complete freak!
Over 2/3 solved it in under 10 minutes. That implies that the problem is with you, not the puzzle, and that you just need practice, and/or get tips on solving these.
It was the Pillen that was the tricky one yesterday, but still very doable, with some subtle logic early on.
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driv4r
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

Well, yea, it was just my personal opinion on it ;) I have solved one of them before (a month ago or so) and it also took ages, so maybe this puzzle is even not for me.
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

detuned 6 PuzzleScot 4
Dataman 2 drsteve 4 (or, happily, 3-5 if we don't count Thursday as a bye day)
rodders 7 puzzlemad 5 after extra time
dickoon 0 erika 9 and one no-score draw

Congratulations to our winners! Three tight matches this week. Next week's fixtures are as follows:

detuned - drsteve
PuzzleScot - rodders
Dataman - erika
puzzlemad - driv4r

Waiting list: afcwarren, dickoon

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or all your future matches. New players are welcome (though after this week there will only be six further weeks played in the ladder) and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
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driv4r
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

It's nice to be back in the contest and once again against someone -- puzzlemad -- who I haven't fought before! :)
Only thing that worries me is that Olympic Games are also on next week of course and as an avid olympics (and sports in general) fan I will probably struggle to find time for it but I give my best to get the matches played at night when the olympic events are over ;) But my apologies to my opponent in advance if I fail at it on some days.

EDIT: Update after Tuesday's puzzles. Good day for me as I have beaten most of the guys from here and most importantly puzzlemad in Fillomino with my 2nd highest position in the highscores so far, 2nd highest daily rating (both only 2nd to the sudoku result I had last week -- 85. with a rating of 2009), a time 40 sec faster than the median and good enough for 4th Kyu! :) I am actually slightly surprised that I did that well, though this puzzle did go well for me. Firstly, because it was in Fillomino, which I have solved only 5 times and secondly, because I had to clear few squares as well, so could have been somewhat faster...
Also, I am quite sure that the good result came because we had 2 Fillominos in 2 days, which meant I remembered the last one very well and knew exactly how to solve it; didn't have to check the rules and think how to fill in the squares during solving. Another reason is probably that Fillomino is actually a puzzle that makes sense (to me) as you need to fill in the numbers (I like numbers!) and not lines like in Slalom for example.
This result means my Fillomino rating is now somewhat higher than Sudoku's! :D But to be fair it's obviously due to the fact that I have solved 5 Fillominos and only 2 Sudokus.
Pity that I couldn't have a go at ABCD-Puzzle, might just have had a chance of beating my opponent in it too as my opponent had a Fehlversuch...but we never know now :?
"Stupid is as stupid does." -- Forrest Gump
drsteve
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by drsteve »

Sorry, Tom, but not enough hours in the day today. Going to have to concede the match - a shame, as it's been v close so far.
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

detuned 6 drsteve 4
PuzzleScot 2 rodders 8
Dataman 3 erika 5 with one score-draw and one no-score draw
puzzlemad 9 driv4r 1

Congratulations to our winners! Next week's fixtures are as follows:

detuned - rodders
drsteve - erika
PuzzleScot - puzzlemad
Dataman - afcwarren

Waiting list: dickoon, driv4r

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or all your future matches. New players are welcome (though after this week there will only be five further weeks played in the ladder, so you're too late to have a chance of reaching the top of the ladder) and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by detuned »

drsteve wrote:Sorry, Tom, but not enough hours in the day today. Going to have to concede the match - a shame, as it's been v close so far.
Too bad - I didn't have a great week this week, and I think in all likelihood you'd have got me on Friday's puzzles. I've had quite a streak at top of the ladder, but it hasn't been without a few slices of luck!
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drsteve
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by drsteve »

detuned wrote:
drsteve wrote:Sorry, Tom, but not enough hours in the day today. Going to have to concede the match - a shame, as it's been v close so far.
Too bad - I didn't have a great week this week, and I think in all likelihood you'd have got me on Friday's puzzles. I've had quite a streak at top of the ladder, but it hasn't been without a few slices of luck!
Don't think I would have - I tried to squeeze in the Sternhimmel but after ten minutes of not finding the issue with my almost-solution, had to go and pick up my sister-in-law from the station. So you beat me on that one at least.
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driv4r
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

What can I say?
As I expected (see my last post) I struggled to get both of the puzzles solved this week due to the Olympics, which was always the 1st priority for me. That meant I could only solve 4 from Monday to Friday, which obviously wasn't enough especially against someone mad about puzzles, and it wouldn't have been even if I would have beaten her in all 4 but I won just 1 :mrgreen: It's a pity as she had a mistake in 2 of those that I didn't solve, so maybe I could have stolen it if I could have solved all and applied more pressure, who knows...

Anyway, I'm glad that I'm not competing against anyone this week as I would face the same problem again :)
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

detuned 7 rodders 3
drsteve 7 erika 1 and two no-score draws
puzzlemad w/o PuzzleScot
Dataman 3 afcwarren 7

Congratulations to our winners! Next week's fixtures are as follows:

detuned - drsteve
rodders - puzzlemad
erika - afcwarren
PuzzleScot - dickoon

Waiting list: driv4r, Dataman

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or all your future matches. New players are welcome (though after this week there will only be four further weeks played in the ladder, so you're too late to have a chance of reaching the top of the ladder) and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
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driv4r
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

Huge result for me in yesterday's Sudoku: second time ever in top 100 in Croco-Puzzle Surprise Puzzles and first time in top 50; beat everyone from here except detuned who was 18 seconds faster than me; rating currently given as 2298 good enough for 2nd Dan!!! 8-) I'm obviously over the moon with it if you know what I mean but was it a fluke? ;)

Got a rather poor result in Comparison Sudoku though but I guess I'm not quite mastering it yet, just didn't get the flowing solution and had to think for a while few times...
"Stupid is as stupid does." -- Forrest Gump
detuned
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by detuned »

3 sudoku in the week so far is certainly giving me a comfortable ride!
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by drsteve »

detuned wrote:3 sudoku in the week so far is certainly giving me a comfortable ride!
And a heyawake, which arguably is better for you than sudoku.

Only Skyscrapers so far this week was my "kind of thing" and I ballsed that up. So at 6-0 (can't be bothered with a long vergleichssudoku), I think you've got this one
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

We're all done nice and early, so here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

detuned 7 drsteve 3
rodders 8 puzzlemad 2
erika 4 afcwarren 6
PuzzleScot 6 dickoon 4

Congratulations to our winners! (I had a cold. If I'd been feeling better then I'd... probably have lost by even more.) Next week's fixtures are as follows:

detuned - rodders
drsteve - afcwarren
puzzlemad - PuzzleScot
erika - driv4r

Waiting list: Dataman, dickoon

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or all your future matches. New players are welcome (though after this week there will only be three further weeks played in the ladder, so you would probably only get a single match in the final week, unless we get drop-outs) and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by detuned »

Whoops - had no idea I'd managed to skip the puzzles on Wednesday - I definitely had no intention of doing that! The latter half of the week has treated me quite well...
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

The afcwarren - drsteve match has gone into Extra Time today.
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driv4r
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

Well, what can I say? Sorry about pretty much giving it to you on plate Erika, I was working every day from Monday to Friday this week and was tired afterwards. Tried to solve the Pills as well on Wednesday but failed. At least managed to win one of the 4 puzzles I solved, so sth positive to take from it too! ;)
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

detuned 6 rodders 4
drsteve 7 afcwarren 5 after extra time
puzzlemad 3 PuzzleScot 7
erika 7 driv4r 1 and two no-score draws

Congratulations to our winners! You evidently really can skip puzzles and still win matches, which is what I had hoped. Next week's fixtures are as follows:

detuned - drsteve
rodders - PuzzleScot
erika - afcwarren
puzzlemad - Dataman

Waiting list: dickoon, driv4r

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or all your future matches. New players are welcome (though after this week there will only be two further weeks played in the ladder, so I would drop out in order to permit you one match in the final week) and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
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driv4r
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

dickoon wrote:Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

[---]

Waiting list: dickoon, driv4r

[---]

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or all your future matches. New players are welcome (though after this week there will only be two further weeks played in the ladder, so I would drop out in order to permit you one match in the final week) and I shall change the length of the ladder if the waiting list reaches four or zero.
Does that mean I will get back into it for the last week?
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

driv4r wrote:Does that mean I will get back into it for the last week?
You'll certainly get one more match. If nobody else wants to join, I'll be in next week and you'll be in for the last week; if someone does want to join (unlikely at this point) then I'll drop out and you'll be in again next week.
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

OK, that's great!
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by rodders »

Can I request a bye day for Friday this week please?
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

rodders wrote:Can I request a bye day for Friday this week please?
*thumbs up*
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by driv4r »

Today's Skyscrapers was absolutely MAD!!! :o Started to solve it late last night but didn't get very before I fell asleep solving it (it was so boring), so went to bed instead. Carried on in the afternoon and used all of different colours, which failed, then bifurcated usingd the +/- like crazy but still got the wrong solution numerous times until few minutes ago but better not look at the time, it's ridiculous! :x

EDIT: Update after Monday. Solved my first ever Alphabet Soup yesterday! Though solving wasn't exactly straight-forward and I had 2 50-50 options to try out (otherwise it was easy) the result was OK, especially considering how inexperienced I was, so I can't complain at all :)
That means I have only 2 types of puzzles yet to be solved on Croco-Puzzle!
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Re: Any interest in a UK croco-puzzle ladder?

Post by dickoon »

Here are the results of last week's fixtures on the croco-puzzle ladder, courtesy as ever of Alan's page.

detuned 8 drsteve 2
rodders 6 PuzzleScot 4
erika 4 afcwarren 5 and one no-score draw
puzzlemad 7 Dataman 3

Congratulations to our winners! Next week's fixtures - the second last before we call it a day for now - are as follows:

detuned - rodders
drsteve - afcwarren
PuzzleScot - puzzlemad
erika - dickoon

Waiting list: driv4r, Dataman

Errors and exceptions excepted. Byes are available; please give as much notice as possible. If anyone on the waiting list wants to drop out, that's fine. Feel free to concede a match, or potentially both your future matches. New players... yeah, basically you're too late.
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