By The Skin Of His Teeth, Bob Mackey Wins His Sixth Westchester Trophy

What a final round of the 18th annual Westchester Crossword Tournament. Two puzzlers finished. Bob Mackey looked over his whiteboard for mistakes. Ken Stern looked over his whiteboard for mistakes. Neither knew the game of Chicken that was being played. Bob was looking for something that would complete a specified number of thematic elements in a future New York Times puzzle. Ken's puzzle was clean.

Finally, Bob found the final missing piece and broke the tense silence.

"DONE".

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Misissisppi. Ken echoed...

"DONE."

It could have gone the other way if Ken had signaled "Done" just seconds earlier, or if Bob had done the same without checking his work, but the final outcome of the 18th annual Westchester Tournament was the same as five of the previous installments, with Bob Mackey taking home the championship trophy.

(SPOILER ALERT: You may not want to look at the picture if you have not yet solved the puzzle to be published on October 2, 2014.)

Although Glenn Ryan was the third man in the scenario working the left board, all the focus was on the two solvers at center and right, with Bob taking an early lead and Ken steadily catching up, when finally the two solvers had no more blank squares. To some it looked like Bob was being super cautious, but the puzzle's notes had indicated that there were six thematic quirks. Bob kept counting, and counting, and counting, but could only find five. He finally found the final crossing that completed the theme requirements, a mere four seconds before Ken Stern threw up his hands in surrender. All three solvers completed the puzzle with no errors.

In the first of a year of homecomings for tournament emcee/host Will Shortz, the Westchester Tournament returned to its prior home, the St. John's Episcopal Church in Pleasantville, after a three year residency at the Westchester Table Tennis Club. Next spring, the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be once again in its birthplace of Stamford, Connecticut. One wag noted that perhaps Will will bring Games Magazine back from the dead next.

Bob's qualifying puzzle was the Tuesday, September 30 puzzle by Andy Kravis, who was the only constructor present at Friday's tournament. Judges for the tournament included perennial head judge Stan Kurzban, Ellen Ripstein, Mimi Raphael, Frank Longo, Hayley Gold and Pat Merrell.

As always, proceeds from the tournament benefitted the Pleasantville Fund For Learning.

WESTCHESTER TOURNAMENT RETURNS TO ST. JOHN'S CHURCH SEPTEMBER 19

The 18th edition of the Westchester Crossword Puzzle Tournament will be on Friday, September 19, and the tournament is moving back to the St. John Episcopal Church in Pleasantville, once again to benefit the Pleasantville Fund for Learning. As always, the tournament will feature the four New York Times puzzles from the following Monday through Wednesday, with the Thursday puzzle serving as the playoff puzzle for the top finisher on each of the three puzzles. $30 to compete singly, $45 as a team, or $5 just to watch.

Last year's tournament finals involved the same three solvers from the 2013 ACPT "B" finals, Glenn Ryan, Jeffrey Schwartz, and Robert Mackey, which culminated in Mackey winning his sixth Westchester trophy - five singles and one doubles title with Dave Mackey.

The tournament was held the last three years at the Westchester Table Tennis Club, which is owned by New York Times crossword guru Will Shortz. No reason was given for the change, although a Facebook post by perennial Westchester finalist Elaine Renner noted "the acoustics are better" in the church.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN - ACPT B Finals Replay Gives Bob Mackey His Fifth Westchester Championship

Bob Mackey realized early on that the finals of the 17th Westchester Crossword Tournament would most likely be a replay of the ACPT "B" division finals from this past March in Brooklyn and let everyone know it (the word "jinx" not being in his vocabulary). Scanning the room, he found Jeff Schwartz and Glenn Ryan, who harbored much the same desire. Nowhere to be found was defending champion Thomas Weisswange.

Glenn Ryan was the first clean finisher on the Monday NY Times puzzle from the forthcoming week, a construction by Ian Livengood. If not for one wrong letter, Bob Mackey would have qualified on the Tuesday puzzle of Joel Fagliano. Jeff Schwartz was the first eligible correct solver. And for the third puzzle, the Wednesday, October 2 by Paula Gamache, it was Bob as the last announced finalist, finishing just behind the already-qualified Jeff. The finals were set.

In spite of an early pen problem, Bob steadily worked through the Thursday puzzle - a nice rebus from first time NYT contributor Evan Birnholz - while the other two lagged behind, with Glenn out in front first, and Jeff eventually overtaking him in what little drama the finals had. Bob finished clean in a little over eight minutes, even with the pen mishap, to capture his fifth Westchester Crossword Tournament title (sixth if you count the doubles title in 2006).

Kudos to Will Shortz for keeping this tournament lively and interesting with the addition of a table tennis playoff for the top finishers on the Gamache puzzle. Afterwards, Westchester Table Tennis Club co-owner and resident pro Robert Roberts treated us to a demonstration.