The Brewery at Four Star Farms’ taproom fell so silent on Oct. 3, visitors could hear a puzzle piece drop. Instead of the typical chatter of customers sipping beer, about 35 puzzlers faced off for the Northfield brewery’s biweekly “Team Puzzle Night.”
On the first and third Friday of each month at 6:00 p.m., 10 teams of up to four people race to finish a 500-piece puzzle first and win drink tickets. If no team fits every piece in the two-hour time frame, the team with the fewest pieces left wins.
“Hello puzzlers!” said barback Devon van der Maat on Oct. 3, the first puzzle night of the month. “I see some familiar faces,” he added with a smile.
With co-owner Chris Sellers, van der Maat runs the competition. After he explained the rules and started the clock, the taproom buzz quieted. Competitors hunched their shoulders, stared down the pieces, furrowed their eyebrows and puzzled.
“It gets pretty focused and intense, people bury their heads and get tunnel vision,” van der Maat said, looking out at the silent puzzlers.
According to van der Maat, Sellers found inspiration for the competition online before starting “Team Puzzle Night” in December of 2023. Originally, the puzzlers only competed once a month, but as word of the brain-teasing battle spread, Sellers decided to clear a second night for the competition with the stipulation that teams can only compete once a month.
“We’ve come a long way,” van der Maat said.
The competition’s popularity continues to grow in its second year, drawing teams from across the county and beyond. Now, van der Maat and Sellers track the times from each game. According to van der Maat, the fastest puzzlers yet fit all 500 pieces in only 31 minutes and 31 seconds. These record-breakers were amateurs.
“They just get together, they show up and they wipe the floor,” van der Maat said, adding that the team holds four out of the five fastest times.
The Oct. 3 winners, the “Newt Kids on the Block” team of Maddie Chartier, Riley Mummah, Isabella Ragonese and Elise Edwards came close to the record, finishing in 37 minutes.
While teams of friends and family often compete, van der Maat said any four people can puzzle as long as they sign up ahead of time by emailing events@fourstarbeer.com. Occasionally, even strangers tackle a puzzle together.
For van der Maat, who puzzles himself, the game pulls so many people because of “that challenge and initial frustration of trying one piece after another and none of them working, and then finally finding the piece that fits.” Then, with every piece in place, “looking back at all the effort you put in.”
The Oct. 3 winners beat friends and two-time winning team Amy Tirroski of Vernon, Vermont, and Samantha Roberts of Colrain, who started competing seven months ago.
Tirroski said puzzling gives her “a sense of accomplishment,” adding that the phrase, “the last piece of the puzzle,” arose for a reason.
The strategy behind their two wins? “We can’t give away our secrets,” Roberts said.
Tirroski giggled with her friend and added, “AKA, we don’t have one.”
