h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After carefully checking the guide and the instructions given, it simply won`t work out! There is an error here, but I have sorted it out.(eventually!)
Thus:
line 7: e2 over c1 and remove c1, cannot be done as the previous line (line 6: e2 over e1 and remove e1) has removed e2 from the board!
Ignore line 7 and continue to end and it works out. But remember the
center hole has no designation! c4, c, c5..so c6 is under c4 c7 is under the center hole and c8 is under c5. This is confusing, the center hole should have been c5 and then count up to c9.
This is different to my solution, which is much more symetrical, but still interesting to find more than one solution.

Interesting - I was looking up marbles (I don't know why) and found the marble solitaire entry.

I remember working this out some years ago and am pleased to say that I can still do it - I didn't check your solution to see if it's the same as mine, but from your description of the shapes my guess is that it's not.

Sadly, like the other skill I taught myself, juggling (from a book, but without help) this one has failed to bring me fame or fortune. Nor can I recall ever winning a bet with it.

As a money earner, it might be an idea to have an accomplice propose a competition, where everyone tries to solve it, but has to put in a specific amount for every marble left when they are stuck, with the person to leave the least marbles sharing the pot. The smart ones would realise that watching the others fail might provide them with some clue to a solution, so you may have some difficulty going last. Although you could probably go first and still be the only winner, but that might be a bit of a give-away.