Sunday, February 21, 2010

Happy Sunday Morning From Brooklyn

Within a few hours, we will know if Tyler Hinman has won his sixth American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, or if there will be a new champ. What's in his way? Specifically, three people: Dan Feyer, Howard Barkin, and Anne Erdmann. He's somehow got to find a way to overcome the one-minute lead of Barkin and the three minute lead of Feyer, all the while hoping that Anne Erdmann somehow slips. The fourth puzzle will tell the tale.

Early indications are that if there is a tiebreaker between Hinman and Erdmann and everyone was still solving to form, it would go to Erdmann. Cold truth: Tyler may not even make the podium this year.

We'll try to get interviews with some of the contestants and we will be interspersing them throughout our live coverage. Come back here around 12:00 noon and the Live Blogging Window will suddenly spring to life with Robert and myself providing live play by play of all three final divisions.

As expected Puzzle #7 was by Merl Reagle. This leaves Mike Shenk to handle the final puzzle.

Last evening's games were "Clueless Crossword" with John Chaneski. You had to literally remember all of the Across clues from Puzzle #1. This game is a constructor's dream and you really had to think like Stan Newman.

This was followed by "Who Are You" and "Listmania" - in the latter game, teams of four had to complete a series of lists, such as (these are examples) continents, chemical elements beginning with C, or National League baseball teams. The game had written qualifying round and an on-stage playoff round, which resulted in one of the funniest tournament moments ever. The category was "Books of the Bible that end with the letter 'S'". One team member said, "Romans," immediately followed by a loud "SON OF A...!" from another stage player. The room exploded with laughter.

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