The Opening Bat made by Brian Young (Mr. Puzzle)

This is my auction for The Opening Bat made by Brian Young (Mr. Puzzle). This sequential discovery puzzle is number 40 of 40. Brian always kept number 1 and i have been able to collect the last number in most of his limited edition puzzles. I never completed this puzzle so Brian has checked over the puzzle for me to ensure there are no issues with the puzzle as seen in the photos. There is a small nick in one of the bails but this does not affect the working of the puzzle. the second photo show the nick but if you turn the bail as in photo 9 you cannot see it.This is a reserve auction. Payment can be made by direct deposit, Paypal F/F or if paying G/S please add 3%. Postage will be at buyers expense and will be calculated once auction is finished. This puzzle will be sent from Queensland, Australia.

Description from Mr Puzzle:

Designer: Brian Young. Three major locks and much much more. No gravity pins; no “bashing” or “tapping”. Tools to discover for all steps in the puzzle.

The name is The Opening Bat and that’s exactly what you have to do; open the cricket bat to find all you will need to play test cricket and win that holy grail.

By buying this single Limited Edition puzzle you’re getting a number of puzzles in one. It’s not just a single puzzle. This puzzle will seem to go on and on. You will be continually finding more tools and more puzzles to solve. This mammoth puzzle combines many ideas into one sequential discovery puzzle that tells a story as you solve each step of the puzzle. And there are a lot of steps including three major locks and more different puzzles, locking mechanisms and tools than Brian has ever incorporated into a single puzzle before.

Yes, there are lots of locks, but no gravity pins. And yes, there are lots of magnets but no “tapping” or “banging”; there’s tools supplied to solve each of the locks.

We have supplied you with all you need to play Test Match cricket and win back the Ashes for Australia. The cricket bat, the wickets & bails, and the oval are plain to see. But you’ll also need another set of wickets, a ball, a baggy green cap. When you find them all you’ll have everything you need to win back the holy grail of cricket – the urn that holds the ashes.

Brian has been working on ideas to incorporate in this puzzle for almost a decade; the first ideas for a cricket bat puzzle were conceived when the Sir Donald Bradman 20c coin was released in Australia in 2001 and Brian thought it would make a nice cap for the handle and the space inside the bat would give him the flexibility and room required to include so many steps in the puzzle. In that time he’s had many wild ideas and it seems he put them all in to this one puzzle with many, many other tools to discover to solve the three major locks and other puzzles included. When it came to actually making the puzzle they all seemed to flow from one section to another so Brian decided to leave them all in; even adding more along the way to make that happen. As far as sequential discovery puzzles go this one’s on steroids!

Brian has machined over 20 individual metal components which make up the locks and the tools required to operate them. There’s a lot of woodturning too, right down to the wooden urn which is an essential key to one of the locks. Since returning from IPP30 in Japan he seems to have done nothing else!

Materials: The blade of the cricket bat is made from Queensland Silver Ash. The traditional wood is willow but this wood is not stable enough to make a puzzle from. The handle is turned out of Tasmanian Blackwood and has an original Sir Donald Bradman 20c coin imbedded in the top of the handle. The Oval, and the Wickets & Bails, are made from Papua New Guinean Ebony.

Thanks for looking

Grant Smith