Will, Erik win Canada, US Crossword rounds

While Will Nediger of London, Ontario, has topped the 1st round of the three-round Canada Cryptic Crossword Contest 2006, the top position has gone to Erik Agard of Kansas City, Missouri, in 1st round of the US Cryptic Crossword Contest 2026.

Known as Canada Triple-C and US Triple-C, both are inaugural online events aimed at creating crossword awareness across the globe. They are being organized by Extra-C, a Patna-based civil society initiative, and the World Crossword Federation (WCF) with support from Bihar Tourism, Bihar Foundation, and the Bihar-Jharkhand Association of North America (BJANA).

The 2nd and the 3rd ranks in Canada Triple-C have gone to Rupert Marten Morrish of Markham, Ontario, and Daniel Currie Hall of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The same ranks, respectively, in US Triple-C have been achieved by Paolo Pasco of Brooklyn, New York, and Dan Schwartz of New York. Earlier, on July 5, the Practice Round of the events kicked off with an overwhelming response. While the top ranking in this round was exactly similar to the Round 1 ranking for Canada Triple-C, the US Triple-C rankings had shown only a little shake-up, with Erik snapping at the heels of the top ranker Paolo and just a shade ahead of Mathew Theodore Marcus of Oregon, who was in 3rd place. While the Practice Round scores will not be added to the cumulative scores at the end of the 3rd and final round, it showed the enthusiasm and popular appeal of contests in the two countries. The next scoring rounds are scheduled on July 19 and 26 and will begin at 10 am Pacific time/1 pm Eastern Time, after which championship winners will be announced. The contests are being hosted on www.crypticsingh.com, according to a press release.