Puzzle Rainbow League

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Out of the 576 solvers for Grand Prix Round 1, there were 32 new names. The highest placed of these was William Hu in #11, for Australia.

The division winners for this round are as follows:



You can see that there were two division wins for UK - well done Freddie (he's temporarily out of Diamond due to inactivity towards the end of 2024) and Todd Davies (who is now one top performance away from a promotion out of Small Green). This was also Todd's highest ever GP score.

The other notable high scores in this round were AJ Moore's #166, 39% up on his recent average, Howard Wilkinson's #279, 73% up on his recent average and Julia Hayward's #339, 44% up on her recent average.

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Out of the 592 solvers in Round 2, there were an unbelievable number of finishers, and 24 newcomers.

The division winners for this round are as follows:



No division wins for UK this round, but Matthew White was 3rd in Big Green, Ben Woodley was 3rd in Small Green and Calum Mailer was 3rd in Big Blue, so lots to celebrate! Matthew's was his third strong performance in his last four, so he is promoted to Big Yellow for next time out as well.

Matthew and Ben both recorded their highest ever scores, with Ben's coming up for double his recent average. The other standout performances were Howard Wilkinson, who also got his highest score, 72% up on his recent average, and Alex Wallace got their highest score, 85% on their highest average.

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Round 3 was tough for many, with many puzzlers scoring below their usual averages, but there were some good performances to shout about.



Aleksei Daniliuk and Todd Davies were up on their recent averages, just outside the top 100, and Ben Woodley was in #133, his highest ever position. There was an impressive GP debut from Alex Robinson, in #210, and Alex Wallace got their top score in #311.

Eva Myers was second in Small Red, and Art Ed got 4th in Small Indigo.

Well done to these solvers.

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Round 4 was fun! An unusual spread of puzzles meant that there was success for a different group of people. There's a lovely trick to the wordsearch on Discord if you go and see it.



Well done to Calum for winning Big Blue, and also for his first time over 500 points and his highest overall position to date. Neil had a great round too, in #11 and third in Gold division, with his highest score to date, and Todd also got his highest score in #94. There were also highs cores for Liane in #167 (third in Small Red, just ahead of Emma McCaughan) and Sarah Knowles in #275. I finished second in Big Orange, Desiree finished fourth in Big Indigo, all in all a great round for the UK!

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An incredible contest between Ken and Freddie, but lots of other success to celebrate.



Freddie's result was massive, over 300 points better than his previous best, and 72% up on his recent average, but just short of Ken. Beyond that, I also got my highest score to date, finishing 2nd place in Big Orange, but earning promotion to Big Red. Art Ed also scored well above his recent average and earned promotion to Small Blue. The other strong performance of note was Robert Gelosen, 59% up on his recent average. Ben Woodley also earned a creditable second place in Small Red.

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A set which lots of puzzlers got their teeth into, where getting a clean round was not that common.



The obvious result here to celebrate is Ben's win in Small Red, but beyond that there were a handful of other good showings, up on recent average for many. I broke my highest score record from last week, Desirée WIlson and Todd Davies beat their recent averages by a similar amount too, and Pat Stanford had a great weekend too, nearly 50% up on their recent average.

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That set didn't look finishable at all, but Ken, Freddie and Walker proved me wrong.



It turned out that points were very much available this round, with many solvers scoring more than usual. In addition to Freddie's great round, Neil scored his highest every points tally, Todd cleared 500 for the first time, Anthea McMillan got nearly 50% more than her recent average, Deane Spandley made a great showing in his third contest, getting #161, and Jack Smith got 68% up on his recent average in #277. In addition, this meant Todd getting 4th place in Big Green division, and Ben Woodley getting 4th in Small Red.

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A beautiful set by the UK authors, and the table topped by a solver who just scraped into the top 400 on his fourth outing in Round 7, having scored near the bottom of the table in his first three outings.



Desirée Wilson returned to the top 100 with a score 25% higher than her recent average (#3 in Big Indigo), while Alex Robinson (#6 in Small Blue) and Zoe Ashford both entered the top 200 for the first time, and Ross Atkins got his highest score to date as he led home a field of seven New Zealanders.