Piece of the action: entering the British Puzzle Championship

‘I mean it’s only a 1,000-piece puzzle – how hard could it really be?’: Elizabeth McCafferty. Photograph: Dan Burn-Forti/The Observer

Are you here for the puzzle championship?” asks a smiling fellow competitor as I join the queue of puzzle enthusiasts. I most definitely am. But my smile drops as she continues: “That’s all the niceness you’ll be getting from me today, then.” She is, of course, joking but, as with most jokes, there is a glimmer of truth behind it.

I am in Newmarket, Suffolk, for the Gibsons British Jigsaw Championship, which has been held here for the past 11 years. Competitors battle it out to be in with a chance of the £100 first-place prize money. There are three categories: Fun, Pairs and Elites, who would expect to complete a 1,000-piece puzzle in under three hours. In 2023, Elite nine-time British champion Sarah Mills finished her puzzle in 1 hour 52 minutes, meaning she was doing a jaw-dropping eight pieces per minute.