When George Hyde put pencil to paper Saturday morning, he and about 80 people followed more than 300 clues to fill out more than 500 little white squares with various words and phrases.
After four crossword puzzles and more than three hours of solving, Hyde, 62, of Tampa, was announced the winner of the 4th Annual North Florida Crossword Puzzle Tournament held at the Paramount Plaza hotel.
Hyde won a trip to Brooklyn, N.Y., for this weekend's 33rd American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
"I'm astounded," he said. "This is something I didn't expect."
UF linguistics freshman Emily Moline, winner of the Best Student award, didn't mind spending her morning among people up to three times her age.
She said she usually completes three puzzles a day: The New York Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times.
"My friends regard it as a quirk, but a lovable one," she said.
To compete in the tournament, participants paid a registration fee of $40 for individual competitors and $100 for teams.
The proceeds from the fee benefited Generation Connection, a local organization that brings together senior citizens and children for a summer day camp.
Joel Daunic, tournament organizer and founder of Generation Connection, said this year's tournament raised about $2,000, the most money the tournament has ever raised.
Hyde, this year's champion, said he has been to the national tournament twice before, and he's already thinking about the next competition.
"Give me the dates for next year," Hyde said, smiling as he walked back to his hotel room.
"I guess I'll be back."
