ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ THE WILD PARTY]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ THE WILD PARTY]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I don’t know how anybody can say they don’t like sports. And after being a part of what was easily the best American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, it’s hard to believe anyone who says they don’t like watching the very best compete at a high level. And if you saw the Sunday competition. it’s almost impossible to say that solving crosswords isn’t exciting.
It was another Herculean effort from Tyler Hinman, who fivepeated. That’s a never before accomplished five championships in a row. He has not made a mistake in a meaningful crossword since 2005. That feat is nearly a K-Rod-esque performance. It’s easy to call Tyler something like the Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan of puzzledom, but I think those words don’t do him any justice. (ESPN, WTF? Get this dude on “Pardon the Interruption” tomorrow! Tyler with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon on Five Good Minutes section. I’m telling you, instant classic.)
Tyler had to overcome equally-heroic performances by Dan Feyer and the eventual A-Finalists Trip Payne and Francis Heaney. Dan threw a tour-de-force coming out party like no other. Since he won the C Division last year, he’s trained by doing a minimum twenty-five (25!?) puzzles a day(!?) to gain the blinding speeds he showed off to everybody this year. I will be the first to admit I had completely misunderestimated his talents. I should have known better: Dan does the puzzles on my blog in thrifty sub-three minute stretches according to his blog.
Which is to say nothing of the creepy near-Vulcan mind meld Trip and Francis had wire to wire. Their performances were stunning. Sure, Francis finished before Trip more often than not according to my refereeing. But according to ACPT rules, the only number that counts for speed is full minutes left. So as long as the two finished with perfect puzzles with the same amount of full minutes left, it was a tie. This tie all the way through the Tournament feat was a first.
(Oh, since we’re on the topic of puzzles: Tyler, any time you want to thank me for making puzzle number two, be my guest. Katherine Bryant would have been ranked number 2 had she not tripped up on one measly square in my puzzle. She cursed me out (gently) in the lobby Saturday night. The competition was so tight, that one flub knocked her down to tenth overall.)
Trip, the guy I thought was closest to upsetting Tyler this year, blasted through the brutal, brutal masterpiece championship puzzle by Patrick Berry first. (I had the opportunity to test solve the unedited original clues for this one. I’m not an incredible solver like these guys, but I can generally get a Saturday Times puzzle in 30 minutes or less. After twenty minutes, I had a grand total of one entry, three squares I was confident with, nothing else and a blistering headache.) Trip was too fast and unable to check his work therefore missing on ALL ALONE clued “Basic” versus the actual answer ALKALINE. Heck, he shoulda got the K crossing for SKATE seeing as I used the same clue already in the Times recently (“Worked on one’s figure, say”). Trip’s a class act, by the way. Not only did he insist on complete fairness for the competition and wouldn’t start until his very own faulty noise-canceling headphones worked properly, but also he accepted his second-consecutive second place finish with grace and humor.
All of which left the door open for Tyler. Emmitt Smith was right when he said, “don’t quit, don’t even quit.” Tyler might very well have stared at the two blank squares he needed to get COLEADERS (clued as “They’re tied at the top”) for an eternity. But when he did finish the grid correctly some Chinese Water Torture-esque three minutes later, the audience erupted. The fivepeat, and come from behind victory, accomplished!
Trip, Francis and Dan, take a bow. You guys are worthy opponents. And if you were any closer to Tyler with this this thing, you’d be on the other side of him. Cheers to all of you. I was getting worried that Will Shortz was going to have to pull a David Stern and have Tyler “retire” next year and make a puzzle for the Tournament. Instead, Tyler’s unparalleled excellence has created some of the greatest competition we’ve seen ever. Please, Trip, Francis and Dan, take another bow as the theater you opponents are providing is bar none. The ACPT this year was like a combination Rafael Nadal/Roger Federer match meets any Super Bowl with Tom Brady in it (check the records, Tom’s a perfect 4-for-4 on wire-to-wire excitement). Yeah, that good.
While I’m here, cheers to all of you who came over and introduced yourself this weekend. I’m glad you’ve loved the puzzles and the blog, and it was a blast to meet all of you.
Post-postscript: I am completely burnt out, so forgive me for rerunning an oldie but goodie that originally appeared in Time Out New York. I am burnt out after all the preparatory work for the Tournament and need some time to catch up on some sleep. Another puzzle posted again on Wednesday.
How do you upload crosswords so that they are solvable in an online applet?
I am looking to do the same and I don’t know how.
Thanks for the exciting write-up about the competition! Is any of it televised anywhere? The contest sounds like it would make a great segment for NPR or 60 minutes or a NBC special report. Maybe they could have you narrate it for them, spice it up a tad, you know.
Now that’s a puzzle I can get behind! I think my first-day jitters at the conference were a result of too much clean living the night before. I was much calmer on Saturday, after I followed routine and went out for some drinks with friends.
Anyway, it was great meeting you and the missus at the ACPT; I still owe you that drink, however. And I completely agree with your analysis. What a gut-wrencher. There have been few sporting events that topped that one for me, and none that I’ve actually attended live.
I had a gas overall. My final score was better than it could have been, not as high as I hoped. My most embarrassing screw-up was actually on your puzzle. I got down to the last long answer, where I promptly ignored the full details of the theme, and entered:
CHOCKFULLOFNUITS
which I convinced myself was a French-ified reference to the 24-hour nights in Alaska or something. Then I just flat out guessed at the name of the caves as LURAL. Of course, this gave me, for the “Stiff” answer:
PFEELED
I looked at that for a long time, erased, filled in again, then shrugged and said, “I guess it must be Yiddish or something,” and handed it in. If they used Chess Notation to mark up our puzzles, that would have been labeled “??” for “VERY BAD MOVE”. Boy that was dumb.
As I left the room, it all suddenly became clear. Too late.
I fully expected the garbageman to be WASTED not STINKO…
The only thing I might dispute here is Tyler “handily” beating the room by a minute on puzzle 7. He finished it two seconds before the minute (6:58); I finished it two seconds after the minute (7:02).
But yes, it is of course a very impressive achievement by the damned young punk.
@Trip: Fair enough. Though, like I said in the post, the only number that counts for speed solving is the whole number of minutes left.
2:49.
To clarify, I was averaging about 25 a day. When busy, I’d just do the daily puzzles, and a dozen or so on my subway commute. But when I had time to spare, I’d take an hour and solve two weeks of old NYTs. This pace will not continue, even as I remain unemployed…
I did know that what happened on Puzzle 7 was exactly what needed to happen to knock me out of the finals… I was definitely too conservative, but also too tired. I’m more disappointed that we didn’t get to see the Overtime Shootout Showdown Round between Trip and Francis!
Oh, also – Howard Barkin would have been TWO minutes ahead of the pack if not for an error, and Anne Erdmann would have been one minute ahead (I’m sure she would have been faster on #7 had she been gunning for the finals). Let’s go for a seven-way tie next year.
@DanF: Amazing. That accuracy bit’s the hardest part of this thing. Speed, sure, but accuracy trumps everything. But, yeah, the gap between the top ten was so thin only a piece of typing paper separated them.
Thanks for the props, man. And apologies to everyone I snapped at when they were trying to congratulate me. It was…a rough ending to the weekend, to be sure.
CRM — I have a script on my web site that will allow you to put crosswords in an applet.
http://www.alexboisvert.com/software.html
Brendan —
Should you really be putting up spoilers to the last puzzle? Some people are going to do the puzzles by mail and may not want to see some of the answers …
Tyler’s finish is on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUO43szwjoI
Well Dan…. yes and no. I was trying hard to win the 1st-place-Midwest trophy (one of my two wishes for this year, the other one being a top-10 placement), and I was behind Amy heading into #7, so I knew some speed was necessary. On the other hand, I was still somewhat traumatized from the horrendously stupid mistake I made in #5, and I knew I couldn’t afford to do anything like that in #7. I’m not sure how much speed I traded for accuracy in 7 — I was solving steadily, and I felt like I was moving fairly quickly, but I was trying to be VERY careful.
But if I hadn’t made the mistake on #5, I might well have been so stressed about the possibility of making the A finals that I would have choked on #7. What if, what if! I’m sure everyone has their own what-if story, and we don’t get to live out our alternate universes.
Nice #2, Brendan — sorry I missed meeting you this year, hope to remedy that next year!
Anne E.
PS. Thanks for excellent fantasy position, almost exactly where I finished. 🙂
In 2010, ANNE ERDMANN IS GOING DOWN. I tell you, 1ST IN THE MIDWEST MUST BE MINE AGAIN.
I thought garbage man was going to be “trashed” but no matter how hard I tried I could cram 7 letters into six squares.
My favorite answers in order were:
BLITZED – The only way Peyton Manning should ever be.
DYER (MAKER)- Thos song is still stuck in my head now. Thanks Quigley…
ATARI – I have probably dispensed well over 1,000 quaters in my life into many a Gauntlet machine. “Valkyrie, needs food…”
Great puzzle man, a fun one to breeze through.
JJ
Aack, Tonya! Besides, you have WAY more trophies than I do. I’m just trying to catch up. 🙂
The race for top woman in the tournament is pretty tight now too, eh Amy and Anne? (And Stella and Ellen…)
Thanks for the recap, Brendan. I didn’t think I was cursing you out, exactly… As it turns out, the mistake had nothing to do with your diabolical cleverness and everything to do with me writing too fast. Alas.
And my final standing might well have been lower than 2. I was being particularly careful on #7 to avoid mistakes, but even had I been rushing, I don’t think I’d’ve held the #2 slot.
k-rod? he blew a couple saves. brad lidge was perfect.
Katherine, I say the next tie for first should be a 5-way all-female event! Congrats on an excellent performance once again — your consistency in making top 10 year after year boggles my mind. Hope to meet you in person next year!
Anne E.
(ps, your rex parker link is broken)