Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 38
Puzzle Enthusiasts Race to Finish First • Coming Soon: Sequel for Dormant Multiplex • Coppell Voters Love to Have Their Say • Kestrel Proposed as City’s Official Bird
I’ve got a sweet scoop mixed into this week’s edition of the Chronicle Crumbs, but let’s start with my favorite type of story: one you can’t find anywhere else.
Puzzle Enthusiasts Race to Finish First
Thousands of people converged at Buddy Echols Field to watch a playoff football game on Friday night, but I had the honor of being the lone spectator for a much different contest held 48 hours earlier.
On Wednesday evening, the Cozby Library and Community Commons hosted its first jigsaw puzzle competition for adults. The staff of Coppell’s public library purchased 12 copies of a 500-piece puzzle, and a dozen two-person teams raced to see who could assemble it the quickest.
The chosen puzzle was “Days to Remember - Country Road” from Buffalo Games & Puzzles. Molly Wright, a library technician who excels at jigsaw puzzles, gave it a test run to gauge its difficulty, and she completed it on her own in 100 minutes. The contest’s duos had a two-hour window. If nobody finished in 120 minutes, the winners would be the team with the fewest loose pieces when time ran out.
This contest was overseen by another library technician, Usha D’Silva, who was surprised by the level of interest. She originally envisioned a six-team competition, but she doubled the size of the field once the clamor for slots led to the creation of a waitlist.
Jenny and Craig Smith were among the eager competitors, as were their next-door neighbors Rachel and Grant Bibby. Keeping with the sportsy tradition of uniforms, the Bibbys showed up in matching tie-dyed T-shirts.
“We were all unexpectedly excited to do this puzzle competition,” Jenny Smith said with a laugh. “[The Bibbys] hired a babysitter. They had to pay money to do this!”
I noticed Rachel Bibby keeping an eye on the other tables’ progress as I strolled among them. Other competitors periodically glanced at the running clock projected onto a pair of giant screens. The room was eerily quiet, as you might expect of a contest in a library.
Not all of the contenders took things so seriously, though. After 46 minutes had elapsed, Laura Penton got up from her table and told D’Silva she had to leave to run an errand. Her husband, William Penton, continued working on the puzzle without her.
This amused your correspondent to no end. I was a sportswriter for the first few years of my career, and I can’t recall ever seeing a player leave a game I covered due to an errand. Imagine if Coppell quarterback Edward Griffin, who threw five touchdowns during Friday’s playoff game, had approached Antonio Wiley on the sideline and said, “Coach, I’ll be back in a few minutes. My mom asked me to go to the grocery store for eggs and milk.”
The Smiths connected puzzle pieces on Wednesday as easily as Griffin connected with his wide receivers on Friday, but Anne-Laure Guedes and Lauran Riad were right on their heels. The best friends who work together had about three dozen pieces left to go when the Smiths ended the contest after just 68 minutes. The couple’s “Done!” announcement led to a round of polite applause, but one rival who was only halfway through the puzzle uttered “What?” in a frustrated tone.
As champions, the Smiths earned a pair of Amazon gift cards. Guedes and Riad, who were the runners-up with a time of 70 minutes, won swag bags filled with Cozby-branded merchandise. But none of the competitors walked away empty-handed, as they all got to keep the puzzles they’d worked on.
If you’re sorry you missed out on the library’s first jigsaw contest, don’t worry — D’Silva assured me it won’t be the last.
Coming Soon: Sequel for Dormant Multiplex
Valley Ranch’s only movie theater has been shuttered for a couple of years, but the stars of Hollywood and Bollywood may soon return to its screens.