UK Puzzle Association

There were 16 UK solvers in the Puzzle Ramayan round 1 if you include James, so I've drawn them against each other for a similar cup to last year:

Peter Roder vs Calum Mailer
Todd (Davies) vs Zoe Ashford
Aleksei Daniliuk vs Chris (statman90)
James McGowan vs Paul Slater
Eva Myers vs Freddie Hand
Adam Bissett vs Dylan Gibbs
Maurice B vs Anthony Ford
Pat Stanford vs AJ Moore

While Freddie is on imperious form as ever, James was beaten by Calum, Aleksei and myself, so we'll see who makes the final to be thrashed by Freddie!

No big shocks in Round 1, though there were some big scorers eliminated - Peter Roder's 86 points would have been enough to win half the matches available. I personally wasted 15 minutes trying to solve the Slovak Sums 1-3 as a 1-4 (it didn't).

Peter Roder 86-98.83 Calum Mailer
Todd (Davies) 84-0 Zoe Ashford
Aleksei Daniliuk 93-72.4 Chris (statman90)
James McGowan 106.98-0 Paul Slater
Eva Myers 34-132.8 Freddie Hand
Adam Bissett 53.3-82.1 Dylan Gibbs
Maurice B 63.5-51.5 Anthony Ford
Pat Stanford 33.8-32 AJ Moore

Round 2 keeps apart the biggest names, so likely to be some stellar semi finals coming up!

Dylan Gibbs vs Calum Mailer
Freddie Hand vs Aleksei Daniliuk
Todd (Davies) vs Maurice B
Pat Stanford vs James McGowan

pinkagape wrote: ↑Sat 21 Feb, 2026 10:16 am Round 2 keeps apart the biggest names

pinkagape wrote: ↑Sat 21 Feb, 2026 10:16 am Freddie Hand vs Aleksei Daniliuk

Unfair to Freddie not to count him as a big name.

apologies Aleksei. Not sure what I was thinking. I had a sentence about that quarter final but removed it without replacing a sentence suggesting this was the clash of the round. Good luck Aleksei!

Indeed, the point I intended to make was that there were no weak quarter finals, so all four semi finalists were going to be great. Somehow I said the opposite…

Apologies for the delay on this!

In the end, the top four scorers all made it through to the semi finals (except Peter Roder, who was knocked out by Calum in Round 1), so we have two top-notch matches ahead!

Quarter Finals:

Dylan Gibbs 15-81.1 Calum Mailer
Freddie Hand 116.57-62 Aleksei Daniliuk
Todd 68.7-54 Maurice B
Pat Stanford 25-73.1 James McGowan

Semi Finals:

Freddie Hand vs James McGowan
Todd vs Calum Mailer

James failed to get into this round as Freddie breezed past him. Calum and Todd were much closer matched, with Calum just edging it, so the two European semi-finalists will meet in the final of the Puzzle Ramayan Cup.

Freddie Hand 131.77-39 James McGowan
Todd 55.4-60 Calum Mailer

Final:

Freddie Hand vs Calum Mailer

Freddie 98.5-60.4 Calum

No surprises here, as Freddie completed the hat-trick, of UK PR Cup, UK SM Cup and European combined cup.