#2             100. MATCH MAKING           


Jim, Doug and Tim are married to Colleen, Anne and Betsy, not necessarily respectively. Each couple has a pet, and the pets are a dog, a pony and a guinea pig.

While making a routine investigation, Police Constable N. Quiry has established the following facts:

1. Tim’s and Betsy’ pets once had a fight.

2. Anne’s husbands name has three letters.

3. Colleen went around to feed Jim’s pet while he was away.

4. Jim never goes to town.

5. Doug’s pet is either the dog or the pony.

6. Colleen’s pet is not the dog.


7. The dog’s male owner took him to the vet in town.

8. The guinea pig hides when Betsy visits its house.

9. Anne’s pet sleeps in a shoebox.

“I wonder if I have enough facts to convict – er, convince – the readers?” mused Constable Quiry.

You be the judge. Can you match the husbands, wives and pets?
HINT 1

Each statement or in some cases, combination of statements, gives some information. What is it?
HINT 2

USe the given information to collect together the right man, wife and pet.
SOLUTION

Let us use * to mean ‘not together’. Then (1) gives T*B, (2) gives A*D, (3) gives C*J, (4) and (7) give J*d, (5) gives D*gp, (6) gives C*d, (8) gives B*gp, and (9) gives A*p.

This gives Jim, Anne and the guinea pig; Doug, Betsy and the dog; Tim, Colleen and the pony.
EXTENSIONS

You can have fun constructing puzzles of this nature. Be careful not to give too much information, and ensure that there is enough for a unique solution. A good puzzle will have interesting and ‘clever’ clues.