THEMELESS MONDAY: [ ACROSS LITE][ PDF]
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The first Boswords is in the books, and the answer to the trivia question of who won said tournament is Jeff Davidson of Mountain View. Yeah, .... wait. What? Jeff Davidson? Who's he? Looks like his highest placement at the ACPT was 63 back in 2016. Well, damn. I guess he's making strides considering he leapt over some solving juggernauts like Al Sanders (who did make the finals, but took third.) So, there it is. Jeff takes the gold and will presumably be taking his talents to Stamford next year. I suspect that 63rd place will be mighty low for him in '18.
So how'd he do that? Simple. Jeff completely clicked with The BEQ and laid waste to the supposed room-separating puzzle that I'd constructed. No spoilers, because I know there's some at-home solvers out there (get your copy here). Let me just say that Boswords directors John Lieb, Andrew Kingsley and yours truly worked overtime on this one to get the balance just right. Between a first pass that was too hard to even be considered remotely fun, to drafts upon drafts removing all the damnfool dupes that somehow kept appearing whilst getting the appropriate difficulty. This one was a bear to make, edit, and presumably to solve.
Anyway, long story short: if you can own the hardest puzzle(s) in the tournament, you're in a good position to win it all. And that's just what Jeff did. For the finals, the top three solvers (Jeff, Al, and second-place winner GP Ryan), were on computers whose screens were projected overhead split-screen-style. And to mortals, a David Quarfoot themeless is gonna make you sweat. Not these guys. One particularly amazing moment was that Jeff threw down 1-Across, a 10-letter answer with a nice misdirect clue {Take part in a marathon} with just a single letter: a G in the 4th slot. But then again, I have a weird mind-meld with Quarfoot's puzzles, so I get it. Whenever I solve David's stuff, it feels like I'm taking dictation. So Jeff was on the wavelength of the two hardest puzzles and voila. Victory was his.
Good to see all y'all there. And especially great to have the BEQ fans introduce yourselves. Until next year. Or, maybe Lollapuzzoola if you're doing that thing this year.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Brendan Emmett Quigley creates custom-made puzzles for all occasions: birthdays and bar mitzvahs, anniversaries and retirements. You name it. Need a puzzle for your website or your publication? He can do that, too.
Brendan's custom work clients have included The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, BeerAdvocate, Boston Magazine, De Beers, The Decemberists, ESPN, The Improper Bostonian, Lollapuzzoola, McSweeney's, Phish, Reflexive, The Smithsonian Magazine, St. Martin's Press, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, and Andrew Weil.
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