Dave Evans is being forced to pick up the pieces.

The British puzzle maker recently went for a Guinness World Record by constructing a 40,000-piece jigsaw puzzle – only to have the whole thing fall apart.

Evans, 60, had put the finishing touches on the 19-and-a-half-by-eight-foot puzzle before it fell to the ground and broke.

Fortunately, he had already sent in his claim to Guinness in the hopes it would be recognized as the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle.

Evans can still see the scene unfolding in his mind:

I must have pushed it too hard, because it suddenly came down as I took my eye off the ball. It seemed to happen in slow motion. It’s a fully interlocking jigsaw so when it fell it rolled down like a carpet and came down in a huge pile on the floor.”

The clock is now ticking, since Evans hopes to put it all back together in time for the queen’s Diamond Jubilee, noting, “I had no choice but to sit down on the floor and start picking up the pieces one by one. I have got a week to put it back together so if anybody wants to help me they are more than welcome.”

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