GEOGRAPHICAL remoteness proved no obstacle for child competitors at the first Times National Su Doku Championships on Sunday.

One contestant cut short a school trip to Venice to travel to Cheltenham, while another undertook an eight-hour journey from his home in Aberdeen.

Many of the 85 children, aged 6 to 16, who took part in the competition at Cheltenham Ladies’ College also accused the judges of setting puzzles that were too easy.

The 12-16 age group sat a difficult grid, while the younger children were given a moderate one. Most were disappointed at not being faced with the challenge of a fiendish grid.

Francesca Nichol, 15, from Glastonbury, Somerset, who came second in the 12-16 age group, spoke for them all when she said: “It was too easy, far too easy. You must make it harder next time.”

She had completed a difficult grid in 6 minutes 40 seconds, just behind first-placed Matthew Funnell, 14, from Rickmansworth,Hertfordshire, who managed 5 minutes 35 seconds, and ahead of third-placed Christian Gowers, 15, from Malpas, Cheshire, whose times was 9 minutes 2 seconds.

In the under-12s age group, Hannah Cooper, 11, of Bracknell, Berkshire, completed a moderate grid in 5 minutes 11 seconds.

Second was Alastair Gall, 11, from Aberdeen, in 7 minutes 16 seconds, followed by Oliver Garner, 10, of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, in 8 minutes 21 seconds.

All six said that they had been delighted to take part in the junior finals.

Christian Gowers had cut short a school trip to Venice to be in Cheltenham, and Alastair Gall, who spent eight hours travelling to the contest from Aberdeen, revealed: “My Mum comes to me for help when she gets stuck on her Su Doku.”

Nina Pell, 18, a Sheffield University maths student from Monmouth, South Wales, won the adult competition. She completed the first grid in 9 minutes, 47 seconds.

www.timesonline.co.uk/sudoku
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