Blog

1st Mary Becker came out on top of the closely-bunched field, going 3-1 +136. She earned a good chunk of her spread in the opening round, where she had a 399-268 win against Sue, playing SANDIER. As many have found out, the problem with winning big in the first round is that you often find yourself playing a twin in the second round, and so Mary fulfilled the prophecy by facing Charles. He got off to a slow start, but eventually won 410-339. Mary, for her part, did successfully play the correct spelling of WIENIES (WEINIES* is no good, but both WIENERS and WEINERS are). If you ever get confused about that particular word, remember that you can play EISWEIN (n. a wine made from frozen grapes, also ICEWINE) from that rack instead, which is maybe less confusing? In the next game, she defeated Dave 364-285, playing TESTIER and preventing her opponent from bingoing with his blank. Her closest game came in the final round, as she narrowly escaped the other David and his out-bingo of SUICIDE, winning 353-347. Her own bingo of KEELING likely made the difference in that game, and also meant that she bingoed at a tidy 1:1 rate over the night.

2nd Bryan Benwitz came in second at 3-1 +110, despite being held bingo-less in two games. The bingos in his first game came early, RADIATE for him and SYNTONE for his opponent, Thomas. Bryan used the free turns from Thomas' early exchanges to get a big lead, which he then watched dwindle into almost nothing before finally winning 398-390. He then had an incredibly low scoring (no offense) game with Dave, which he won 319-278. Defense can be fun, guys, but don't overdo it. Surprisingly, given the score, Dave did manage a bingo, STERNAL. Bryan unleashed his full fury against David, winning big with a score of 542. He played HEADWAYS for 104, as well as SANTERIA and EQUITES (n. a class of ancient Romans, singular EQUES, so don't play EQUITE*). As big of a hurting as he put on his opponent in that game, he received in kind against Charles, as he lost 303-512.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +262, a mark below his usual winning percentage, but still came in third because we don't believe in awarding paragraphs based on "best above expectations". He started off playing two, Gail and Dave. Against Gail he bingoed four times with VULPINE, FAVORERS, GLOSSIER, and SELADANG (n. a wild ox, also SALADANG) and won 505-399. He wasn't so lucky against Dave, as he lost 348-400 due to Dave's fancy out-bingo of PREMOLT (adj. preceding a molt). His rack of EMLOPT plus a blank only had that one bingo; talk about a clutch find! Charles recovered to beat Mary 419-339 in round two, with his bingo of PARRIDGE (an alternate spelling of PORRIDGE) making the difference. He took his second loss of the evening in the next game, losing to Thomas 377-458. He managed to get down OPEROSE, but Thomas' 9-letter LAMPOONED left him too stunned to do much else. His spread at this point of the night wasn't up to his standards, so he beat Bryan by 200 to make things look a little more respectable. Both his bingos were high-scoring, BETRAYS for 93 and SAINTDOM for (somehow) 104.

Dave got word-of-the-week with JAWBONED. JAWBONE is a noun which means, oddly, "a bone of the jaw", but is also a verb which means "to attempt to convince".

1st Thomas Reinke returned from a third-place finish at Lynda's weekend tournament to come in first place, with a 3-1 +511 record. He began his night with a big win against a sleep-deprived Helen, who could sit and blink blearily as he dropped a trio of bingos onto the board: ABETTOR, ILLITES (n. ILLITE, a group of minerals, not to be confused with TILLITE, which is just straight up a mineral), and METRIST. He faced longtime foe Charles in the second round and came out on top 432-343. He got three bingos in quick succession, then closed down the board and laughed as Charles failed to draw any blanks and only got one measly bingo. If attendees were wondering what the jeering laughter coming from the grocery store PA system was, well, now you know. Those systems are surprisingly easy to hack into! No jeering laughter was present in the next game as he lost to Bryan 358-371 (Bryan is not really the jeering type). Bryan's late bingo of EMERSION was the difference maker in that one. He then faced Charles again and won again, his 2-0 record against him offsetting somewhat his 0-2 record against him at the tournament. This one was even more of a blowout with Thomas scoring 523 and getting down NONDAIRY (as in creamer), EXCRETES for 118, GOOPIEST, and ANTIQUER (n. one that antiques (v. ANTIQUE to give an appearance of age to)).

2nd Bryan Benwitz returned from not playing in Lynda's weekend tournament to come in second place, with a 3-1 +269 record. His first game was against Charles, now known by his nickname "Punching Bag". Bryan dominated early, bingoing three times before Punching Bag could even get one down and ended up winning 478-365. After that, he scored 480 against Gail, helped greatly by his blank-containing non-bingo of BEZIQUE for 88 points. There are 27 other bingo-length words with both a Q and a Z, but none of them have been played at club (as a bingo) since we started keeping track. Get to work, people! No more playing QI for 11! Instead play QUINZHEE for way more! Bryan's closest game of the night was against Thomas, which was somewhat low-scoring, 371-358. Only two total bingos were played, which means two things: for one, that only two bingos were played, and for two, that that's not enough bingos. Bryan's hopes for an undefeated night were dashed by Dave, who came in and ruined everything by winning 415-343. Dave got down an early ARENOUS and latter added UNDOINGS, which Bryan's challenge of proving to be his undoing (note the noun form of the word I just used). Bryan did get down STERNLY, but as it used both blanks, his chances to come back were diminished.

Dave almost one word-of-the-week with MALAMIUT*, but erroneously combined the acceptable forms, MALAMUTE and MALEMIUT (n. an Alaskan sled dog). He gets the less prestigious phony-of-the-week prize instead.

Lynda Finn Derives Nourishment from the Tears of her Vanquished Foes

1st Lynda Finn was tantalizingly close to her first undefeated session of the calendar year, but fell just short, going 4-1 +250. However, how short did she really fall if she still came in first place? Her round-one game was easily her best as she utterly buried Thomas Reinke under piles of points, winning 532-284. Among her three bingos in that one was a 122-point triple-triple of REALTERS. Not content with just beating one Reinke, Lynda went on to beat the other Reinke by a much closer score of 409-403, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything is possible if you just believe (and play plenty of bingos). Lynda had DODGERS, MARINES, and RIGHTIES in that one; Charles had IRATEST and BROOCHES. Having built up a large amount of momentum by knocking out the pair of Reinkes, a minor obstacle such as a two-on-one match did little to stop Lynda's rampage, as she took out both Gail Salm (397-351, playing FLAVIDS and TONSURED) and Mary Becker (383-366, playing CREATINE and UNTIDIER) in a set of low-scoring games. Sitting at 4-0 after three rounds, Lynda (unwisely?) elected to press her luck in the final game, and that was where her luck ran out, as she was defeated by Bryan Benwitz, 348-415.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged a session-best 445 per game as he finished with a 3-1 +142 record. Like Lynda, Bryan started his night strong by scoring 474, but unlike Lynda, his efforts did not earn him a victory, as his opponent Charles Reinke had scored 520 in the meantime. That losing score is tied for the highest this club season. He had a 110-point double-double of HEADWIND (also word of the week in case you were craving additional descriptors) to go along with the more staid PATINAS, but Charles' four-bingo barrage (JUNIPERS, GELATION, URODELE, and OUTSOLES) was too much to overcome. In round three, Bryan was given the chance at revenge and seized the opportunity, defeating Thomas Reinke 459-373. This time, Bryan was the one playing four bingos, finding LODGERS, MISTUNE, BORSTAL, and MARLINES. Thomas opened the game with RIPOSTE but saw his fortunes dip precipitously after that point. Bryan wrapped up his courageous comeback from an 0-1 start by defeating the theretofore-undefeated Lynda Finn.

3rd Gail Salm snuck into third place with a 3-2 +147 final record, her second appearance in the top three in three weeks. Her first game was actually two games at once (aren't you glad we aren't the type of club that makes people take byes?), against Mary Becker and Sue Goldstein. Gail did not shrink from the challenge and won both of them, a relatively close game against Sue Goldstein (356-312, with a bingo of AIRDATE) and a relatively un-close game against Mary Becker (471-311, getting DEFILES and HURTLING). She kept up the bingoing (NECKERS and FEATEST) in a 397-432 loss against Bryan Benwitz, indicating that Bryan needs a reminder in proper Scrabble etiquette: when you get out-bingoed, you're supposed to lose. Proper etiquette was followed when Gail then lost to Lynda Finn, as she had just one bingo of INERTIA to Lynda's two of FLAVIDS and TONSURED (let's just rub FLAVIDS in a bit more, shall we? FLAVIDS FLAVIDS FLAVIDS). Gail wrapped up her strong session with a tensely-fought 399-376 win over Helen Flores, who didn't bingo but got to observe as Gail laid down TENSEST and LORRIES.