Blog

1st Thomas Reinke edged out his brother by 6 spread points to take first place at 2-1 +156. His night started off slow, but he still won a relatively low scoring match against Helen, 363-302. His CONSULS was the only bingo found on the board at the end. His scoring picked up dramatically in the second round (what, you though you could hold him under 400 forever?), as he beat Dave 501-306. His bingoes in that game were MONKEYS (which blocked Dave's SLIPPAGE) and ERRHINE (n. a substance that promotes nasal discharge). In the final round, he played a rare double-W bingo, WALLOWED, as well as bingoed out with AGNATES, but still lost big to Charles, 397-497. That out-bingo turned a second place performance into a first place one, though, so it wasn't all bad.

2nd Charles Reinke failed to win his final game by enough points to surpass Thomas, and ended up in second at 2-1 +150. In the first round, he went up against Gail, and they tied the bingo battle 1-1, with Gail playing ENTRIES and Charles playing CAVEOLAE. Somehow, despite the bingo count being even, he won 447-353. In the next game, he doubled his bingo count to 2, but lost 437-393. Bryan bingoed thrice, with POLICIES, DEFUNCT, and RELOANDER, while Charles had HOODIES and RETINAS. There are 8 other words in that set of letters, but RETINAS is the least played one since the club started keeping track, despite it being a more common word than something like STEARIN or ANESTRI. Charles doubled his bingo count again in the third round, playing 4 of them: BOTULINS, SPOONIER, ROASTERS, and INCOMER, and won 497-397. Too bad there wasn't a fourth game, or we could have seen a club-record 8-bingo game!

1st Bryan Benwitz put together a perfect 4-0 +327 record and has now won seven of his last eight games. He kicked things off with a decisive 442-343 victory over Thomas Reinke despite losing the bingo battle 2 to 3. The victor played MIAOWED and INTRUDER while the loser played MESOGLEA, TABERING, and GORINESS. Bryan followed that up with a low-scoring 335-315 win against Dave Gilligan in what might very well be Bryan's lowest winning score this year. Dave did get to play the word-of-the-week QUIXOTE (after phonying with OUTMIXES* the turn before) in his losing effort, so that served as some consolation for the defeat. Bryan, meanwhile, played TEMPTED. In round three, Bryan went up against Charles Reinke and improved his record against Reinkes to an unblemished 2-0 with a 430-401 win. His bingos of NERVATE and PASSADES (played after BADASSES was blocked) outshone Charles' BURNERS. An undefeated night was locked up when Bryan soundly beat Helen in the final game by a score of 475-296. Helen got down BETAINES, while Bryan played URINALS and TRAMLINE.

2nd Mark Kenas finally started getting revenge on his Collins-playing foes who have been getting the better of him as of late, going 4-0 +161 and averaging a mind-numbing 483 points per game. He took his first game against Aaron Bader 468-421, playing PANFRIED and WATERAGE. In round two, another high-scoring game ensued, with Mark again the victor, 461-447. He upped his bingo count as well, playing DIARIZE#, RAVINGS, and SEICENTO. A very high-scoring game (even by Collins stanards) followed, a 527-510 win for Mark. Mark once again upped his bingo total, playing four of them (OUTSHONE, FORERANK, PLICATE, and INFLATER). Aaron didn't slouch in that regard, getting down AEGROTAT, SQUADDIE, and STAMPEDO#. For the fourth game, Mark changed opponents, but it didn't matter, as he defeated Thomas Reinke with relative ease, 476-393. His bingos per game for the night ended at a solid 3 per game thanks to three additional bonus plays in the final round: TOLEWARE, MISDONE, and MINIATE#.

1st Thomas Reinke manipulated his tiles in a way superior to all other attendees, coming in first place at 4-1 +495. His tile-manipulation took a while to really get going, as he lost 474-525 against Charles in the first round, despite playing UNDERSEA, PEDOLOGY (n. the study of children) and INSHORE for 103 points making 7 overlaps. That game fell one point short of the magical 1000-point threshold; we demand a recount! In the next round, he faced Dennis on one board and Dave on another. Against Dennis, he bingoed late with REBAITS, stymying Dennis' bingo aspirations, and eventually won 475-363. Against Dave, he simply bingoed late, early, pretty much all the time, and won 513-253. His bingoes that game were OCTROIS, TRANSECT, BORDELLO (n. a brothel) , OVERDYED. His lowest scoring game of the night came against Michael in the third round. Luckily, he held Michael to a fairly low score, and still won 380-327. In the last game, he played Bryan and came out on top, 458-337. He had the fancy bingo of UTRICULI (n. UTRICULUS, a saclike cavity in the inner ear), which is one of two 8-letters words that starts with a U and ends with an I. The other is UMBILICI.

2nd Charles Reinke finished with a 4-1 +372 record and came in second place. He had a big win ("big" in terms of points scored, if not margin of victory) in the first round, beating Thomas 525-474. He double-double early with INSOITE, and later added MANICURE. He bingoed four times against Michael in the next game, and when that happens, a win is likely soon to follow. It did in this case, as he won 548-298. His bingoes were STARRIER, ENGINES, STUIVER (n. a formerly used Dutch coin, also STIVER), and TOLUIDS. In the third round, he lost big against Bryan, scoring 413 but letting his opponent score 549. Remember: the point of the game is to score MORE points than your opponent. Not fewer. Even experts sometimes don't know all the intricacies of this wonderful game. In the last game, he faced Helen and Gail. He only bingoed once against each of them, GOONIEST against Helen and TEMPERS against Gail, but still won by a combined 200 points.

3rd Bryan Benwitz was rudely denied the chance to play five games and thus came in third with his 3-1 +312 record. He began his night with three straight big wins, the first against Dennis, 455-288. Dennis bingoed with SCALING, while Bryan got down STEADIER and DERATION (v. to free from rationing). Following that, he beat Helen 441-311, playing FRONTED and UNMITER (v. to depose from the rank of bishop). Props go out to him for using the correct American spelling, instead of playing UNMITRE. Against Charles, he opend with QUOIT for 48, then immediately used that Q to play EQUATION for 89. That quick start led him to a 549-413 win. He was not so lucky in the final round against the other Reinke, as he suffered his only loss of the night, 337-458.