The Saturday Conker Count — Daily puzzle for 2026-10-16
Medium — logic-grid deduction puzzle
After a stormy October night, five children gathered conkers under the horse chestnuts and counted what each had found.
A gale blew all Friday night, and on Saturday morning the avenue of horse chestnuts was covered in spiky green shells. Many had burst open on the path, and shiny conkers peeped out from under the golden leaves. Five children got there before breakfast: Harriet, Owen, Molly, Toby and Ruby. Mist still hung over the fields, so everyone had pulled on a woolly jumper, and everyone had grabbed whatever was handy to carry their haul home. They hunted through the grass, kicked through the piles of leaves and stamped on the shells that were still shut. When the church clock struck nine, they sat on the wall and counted their conkers out loud, one at a time, so nobody could cheat.
Clues
Ruby, the child who carried the cap and the child in the maroon jumper were three different children.
There were 25 conkers in the lunchbox.
If Molly gathered 26 conkers, then whoever carried the bucket wore the mustard jumper.
Harriet carried the bucket.
Lined up from fewest conkers to most, Ruby and the child in the red jumper stood side by side, in either order.
Whoever gathered 34 conkers carried them in the pillowcase.
No two of these were the same child: Ruby, the child in the red jumper and the child who gathered 26 conkers.
Only one of these was true: the child with the lunchbox gathered 23 conkers, Harriet wore the mustard jumper, or Molly carried the cap.
No other child gathered a number of conkers between those of the child in the brown jumper and the child in the maroon jumper.
Molly, the child with the satchel and the child in the red jumper were all different children.
Either Toby gathered 34 conkers or the child with the lunchbox did, but not both.
Only one of these two was true: the lunchbox was carried by Toby, or it was carried by the child in the maroon jumper.
Read the clues, rule out what cannot be, and prove what must be. Every GRIDIGMA puzzle is verified by a solver that shows the reasoning behind each step, so a solution is never a guess.