Blog du Wren

ACPT 2022

After a two year hiatus, I was pleased to return to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament this past weekend in Stamford Connecticut. I was surprised to learn that this year is my 7th ACPT. Time flies.

First, a review of my : although I scored a higher place than ever before (I am the 166th best crossworder in the world!), I wasn't overly pleased with my puzzling. I had a silly error in Puzzle 2 and Puzzle 5 got me, as per usual (though I guess maybe I did better than lots of folks?).

Note: An uncaught error in Puzzle 7 on what I consider a Natick of SIMONY (Buying of church indulgences) and LINA (Actress Esco) would have dropped me to 192nd place. I've had similar scoring errors on Puzzle 7 in the past which makes me think grading of Puzzle 7 is quite a bit more lax for those people who are far out of contention for any prize. So because I imagine similar errors were overlooked equally across the board, I'm logging 166th place as the official outcome.

Now, a review of the event: while it felt good to be back among people and to see the few friends I've made over the years there, something about this year's event felt flat. The program for Saturday night was less than entertaining (notably lacking Matt Ginsberg's always enjoyable presentation on Dr. Fill's take on the puzzles). There were many notable absences of editors and "celebrities", one of the main reasons I attend. I wasn't able to gladhand any new editors in my pursuit of extending my crossword resume. A bright spot was the preview of a student musical about crosswords, though the poor teching left half of it unintelligible.

Am I glad I went? Yeah, I suppose so. Doing something almost always equates to a win for me these days. Plus I got some good NYC time in with buddies and to see a or . I always want the weekend to be better for me—meeting more people, exposure to more crossword stuff, perhaps winning trophy(!?). But in the end, I'm doing quality puzzles in a room of interesting people and getting a decent story out of it, so all in all, I shouldn't complain.

Thursday April 7 2022

File under: crossword

Toggle Comments (1)

comment?

on Wed 13th Apr, 2022 10:17 am CDT Andrew said:
Let me know when you can solve the crossword in the Clamdigger. Then I will be impressed.
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