So happy jigsaw racing is at Games

No jigsaw has proved too big for Dunedin puzzler Donnalouise Gragg and she will share her passion at the Masters Games next week.

Gragg, whose largest masterpiece contains 54,000 pieces, will compete in the individual, and team, 1000-piece jigsaw racing, which is making its debut at the Dunedin Games after joining the Whanganui edition last year.

"I’m so happy that it’s in the Masters Games and that it’s becoming more popular," Gragg said.

"I’d like to try and see more and more people getting into puzzling again."

Puzzling as part of the Dunedin Dissectologists — a term to describe puzzle lovers — Gragg said she was looking forward to joining team-mates Alison Jacobs, Wendy Ross and Valmai Bilsborough-York, who had trained for all scenarios that may be thrown their way.

While she admits a 1000-piece puzzle can be "daunting", Gragg has fine-tuned her technique through the years.

Her passion grew in 2016, when she was looking for art to hang on the wall of her new home, and decided to frame one of her jigsaws.

"It kind of regenerated my love of puzzles."

From "Alice in Wonderland" to "The Lord of the Rings", Gragg’s collection gradually grew — "it’s my way of being an artist" — and about 40 puzzles hang in her home now.

She started her YouTube channel, For the Love of Puzzles, in 2022, teaching her 21,400 followers how to puzzle and providing information on the various puzzles as she finished them.

It was online where she first stumbled across the world jigsaw puzzle championships, in Spain, and was fascinated watching people puzzle at pace.

Desperate to head to Spain herself, Gragg practised at the Masters Games in Whanganui, before competing at the championships last year.

A self-confessed "mid-range" speed puzzler — taking 52min 34sec for a 500-piece and 2hr 34min 31sec for a 1000-piece — Gragg said she loved the international puzzling community.

"You can sit down with five people — none of you speak the same language, but can all just gravitate to a jigsaw puzzle and assemble it together. It’s wonderful."

She placed 172nd of 579 competitors in the individual, 96th of 340 in the pairs alongside Janette Perme, of Slovenia, and 39th of 159 teams, alongside Perme, Justine Dunn (Australia) and Victoria Clifford (United Kingdom).

Gragg is never one to back down from a challenge.

Her largest single-bag puzzle contained 6000 pieces, but her 54,000-piece prized puzzle came in 27 bags of 2000 pieces, featuring different international artworks, and is on display at Wood Solutions.

After the Masters Games, Gragg plans to head to Spain again for the world championships later this year.

kayla.hodge@odt.co.nz

 

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