Ridgewood Wrap-Up

OH NO HE DIDN'T!

Bob Mackey Repeats As CBS Tournament Champ

The partially-filled in grid was all that the Puzzle Brothers' own Bob Mackey needed to successfully defend the championship of the annual tournament benefitting the Community Blood Services Foundation in Bergen County, New Jersey.

After the first brace of puzzles, Howard Barkin was in first place, Bob just behind by a minute of solving time, and Elaine Lippman (last year's runner-up) was third. All three puzzlers struggled with the Stanley Newman-constructed puzzle. No one finished, so it came down to correct words, and Bob was declared the winner.

The other Puzzle Brother, Dave Mackey, finished tenth in his best tournament showing to date.

Barry Weprin Triumphant In CBSF B Finals

In the B division final, it was Barry Weprin's day as he cruised to a 10:05 completion time using an easier set of clues on the same grid. Rick Thompson, who had placed first going into the B finals, finished in 13:05, and Pat Whitehead, seeded second, came through with a 13:20 finishing time. Weprin is seen here accepting his trophy from New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz.

The official results will be posted Tuesday on the Community Blood Services Foundation website and will be linked to at that time. More photos will be forthcoming within the next few days.

Greetings from Ridgewood...

The second annual Community Blood Services Foundation crossword tournament is underway at the Bookends book shop in Ridgewood, about a couple of miles from last year's location, Care One at the Cupola.

We've had three pretty good puzzles so far from Adam Cohen, Patrick Merrell and Michael Shteyman. Two puzzles yet to go from Elizabeth C. Gorski and Paula Gamache, and the final puzzle will be by Stanley Newman.

We will have a much fuller report as well as unofficial results later on plus pictures sometime tonight.

Your Puzzle Brothers are doing quite well so far in the tournament.

Still Time To Join The Fun In Jersey!

Just a reminder this Friday and Saturday is the 2nd Annual Puzzle Tournament benefitting Community Blood Services Foundation. Still time to register online, but be aware that online credit card transactions aren't working so be sure to bring your cash or credit card and you can pay there.

The tournament will be held this year at Bookends, on 232 E. Ridgewood Avenue in Ridgewood, NJ. The Friday night Sudoku festivities get underway at 7:00 p.m., and registration for the Crossword tournament begins at 8:30 a.m. the next morning.

Your donation will help Community Blood Services save lives by enabling collection of blood products, processing of bone marrow donors, and collection of umbilical cord blood that can help save the lives of people with leukemia and lymphoma.

Look for both Puzzle Brothers to be on hand, and hopefully we will have our trademarked "almost live" reportage in words and pictures you all so enjoyed at Stamford.

Saturday Morning Confusion served up by Robert

Here, then, is the September 16 offering from the Los Angeles Times, authored by Robert.

LA Times Puzzle for today

Of course, if you click on the link after September 16, it won't be there. However, members of the Cruciverb website are entitled to a copy of the .PUZ file. Either way, enjoy it.

I test solved this puppy when Robert submitted it, and even with Rich Norris' enhanced clueset it still took me a tick over eight minutes.

Double Dave

Now out on the newsstands are the November 2006 issues of Games and Games World of Puzzles. Dave Mackey contributes a puzzle in each magazine: Games features "Child of Mine" and GWOP contains "The AP Wire".

In addition, GWOP features its annual Puzzle Book Roundup, as it compiles a sampler of puzzles from the season's new puzzle books. Featured are puzzles from Trip Payne's new effort for Sterling, "Pop Culture Crosswords", which I picked up a week ago and have found hugely entertaining, as well as entries from Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon (a cryptic) and Frank Longo (a themeless).