Worlds Part Three: Individuals

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It's jigsaw-ing time!

                 Part Three: Individuals 

First, it was time for the Dome to be-rebranded: 

Goodbye Fiestas de la Virgen de San Lorenzo.  Hello, World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships!

It was slightly amusing to watch Charlie and the others put up the banner.  But they were successful in the end!

Couldn't have got the creases out first, huh?

We had arrived at the dome early because there was going to be a Puzzle Party that morning with limited ticket availability.  I think they overestimated the amount of interest though and we had no problem at all getting tickets!

When we got in we were assigned random tables based on our ticket numbers and each table contained a box base with pieces in...

Like so.

Each box held mixed together pieces of one 1000 piece and one 500 piece jigsaw and we had to put the two together with no pictures or any indication what the final images would be. 

And then, to make things even more exciting, we had to swap tables every five minutes or so!  There was a bit of confusion with some people thinking we always moved in the same group, but the idea was that we'd all be mixed up every time.  

It meant I got to work on quite a few different puzzles.  My favourite one was The Shell Collector.  I did quite a lot of that one and it was fun.  My least favourite was one with loads of tiny buildings that I made almost zero progress on!  

One thing that did seem a bit unfair though was that the first team to complete both puzzles on their table got a prize.  But, of course, since we were constantly swapping places, most of the work had already been done by other people.  I may be slightly bitter about this because the team that won finished off the table that included The Shell Collector where I had done a lot of the puzzle just moments before!

But it was all in good fun.  At the end Charlie drew a raffle to give away all the puzzles that had been used in the event.  I had my eye on The Shell Collector but my number wasn't drawn so I didn't win anything.  Alas.  

I did ask Lynn to take my picture at the welcome sign though:

I'm trying to look happy and excited and not as awkward as I always do in photos.  I still look pretty awkward though!

We went across the road to the cafe and did a pairs practice puzzle:

Not a bad time, especially for a puzzle like that.  

And then... it was time... for my first proper round at the World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships:

So exciting!  So nerve-wracking!

To make it even more nerve-wracking, this wasn't just my first round.  It was the first round of the whole contest!  I was in Group A and we were all rather nervous cos this was the first time contestants in the individual and pairs round would get a choice of which puzzle they wanted to do.  Also, it had been revealed not long before the round started that we were going to have to cut the seals ourselves, which no one expected cos it had been explicitly stated that the boxes would come pre-cut.  

There had been a lot of worry about wasting time choosing the puzzle cos every second counts in speed puzzling, and now having to open the box ourselves was extra time on top of that.  So we were all relieved when we sat down and Charlie announced that we'd have a minute to look at the puzzles, make our choice and cut the seals before the clock started.  

Ooh, what could it be?  We could tell from the shapes that there was one rectangular puzzle and one circle.  I'd said before that I didn't want to do a circle puzzle cos they always take longer.  

Oops.  

See, the thing is, the options were this Circle of Colours or Lake Como.  And Lake Como had soooo much green!  I thought this would be better cos at least it had good colour separation and distinct sections.  

But it was probably the wrong choice.  I did it in 1:21:19, coming 105th and nowhere close to qualifying for the semi-finals.  I got a big cheer from the UK people watching me, and I got to wave to the camera on the livestream, so that was lovely. 

I can't lie and say I wasn't disappointed with my time.  But I was also happy that I actually completed the puzzle within the time limit.  I'd said that was my goal going into this and I'd have been really upset if I hadn't done that.  

At some point I'll have to do Lake Como and see what my time is and whether I would have qualified if I'd chosen that one.  And then remind myself that puzzling at home and puzzling in the dome are very different things.  Especially since Valladolid was going through a heatwave and it was about a million degrees in there!

What's also slightly annoying is that I'd seen Lake Como a few times and considered buying it but never did.  I thought there was no way it would come up in the competition as it had been used before and they obviously wouldn't repeat puzzles.  Hah!  (They repeated so many puzzles.  It's something a lot of people were annoyed about and I agree.  It's not like Ravensburger don't have enough to choose from.  Why repeat ones that have been used before?)  

There were two other rounds after mine.  I hung around to watch the start of Round B and joined in the massive groan that went around the dome as New York Postcard and Circle of Colours: Candy were revealed.  I felt a bit aggrieved cos I've done both those puzzles before and done them in under an hour!  Whereas I hadn't done either of the puzzles in my round.  

But the bright side is that I got two new puzzles to take home, rather than two duplicates that I'd be trying to swap with other people.  Also, since the Postcard puzzles are such speed puzzling staples, the qualifying time for that round was sure to be much, much lower.  And sure enough the fastest time in my round was 35:01 and in Round B it was 22:02.  And the 85th place (the last to qualify purely on time) was 1:09:53 in my round and 55:26 in this one!  

My Canadian teammates were both in this round and Allison qualified for the semi-final.

The dome turns a spooky red in the evenings!  Very atmospheric!  

After the puzzling was over, some of us went across the road and had sangrias.  I tried to be sociable but wasn't very good at it!  I felt so awkward and like everyone was annoyed by my presence.  

On the way back to my hotel I took this picture of the dome:

I love the red glow and how you can see all the tables inside ready to go for the next day's puzzling!

And that concludes Day Three.  Next up, Let's Discover Valladolid!