East Side, West Side, Doesn't Matter, Charles Wins No Matter Where He Goes

1st Charles Reinke ran roughshod over his "competition" (notice the quotation marks), going 5-0 +920 and averaging 503 per contest. He opened with a 482-433 win against Bryan, outbingoing his opponent 4-1. Bryan did well to keep it close-ish in the face of the onslaught; a high-scoring GRIZES (probably the worst-looking word on the whole dictionary, GRIZ is a grizzly bear) kept that game from being a blowout. Charles upped his scoring in the second round, dropping 547 on Dave while playing HETAIRAI (n. HETAIRA, a concubine, also HETAERA with the plural HETAERAE), BRISTOL, TWENTIES, and WEEPILY. Simultaneously, as he was playing two at once, he scored 570 against Mary, somehow scoring that large amount while only bingoing twice. Let's just assume he got all the high-point tiles in that one. In the third round, the Biblical story of Cain and Abel replayed itself over the Scrabble board, as Charles murdered his brother in cold blood, 505-267. IODATION, PRIORIES, ALIENEE, and OMERTAS where his bingos; Thomas bingoed not at all, and didn't do anything else either. Except get murdered. Lynda put up the best fight of all, losing to Charles by only 48 points, 365-413. Charles' hopes for a 20-bingo night were foiled as he only played a single rack-clearer instead of the 6 he needed to reach his goal.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +124 falling a full win and 800 spread points short of first place. His night got off to a fast start in a two-on-one, beating Lynda 499-318 and Dennis 507-351. His win against Dennis was marked by the nice find of BAUHINIA (n. a tropical tree, the flower of which is the national emblem of Hong Kong) for 101 points. Remember to look for bingos in every rack, even if it doesn't seem very likely! In the next round, he played three bingos against Gail, NEOTERIC, STENTOR, and SPICIER and barely won, 427-411. As he was going for his fourth, Gail went out with RETAKING, leaving him with an orphaned bingo and almost stealing the game. After getting stomped in the third round, Thomas won a close one against Bryan, 441-432. He opened with DELIRIA and later added JOGGLERS, while Bryan played TROUNCER, ENTERAL, and the word-of-the-week nine-letter ORGIASTIC (adj. of or resembling an orgy, or if you want a slightly nicer definition, characterized by unrestrained emotion).

3rd Dennis Lloyd came in third with a 2-2 +38 record; looks like everyone's records were skewed downward by Charles' rampage. He started off with a 351-507 loss against Thomas, getting down YOUNGERS for 80. If that word looks a little funny to you, just think about what the word for the opposite of ELDERS should be. In the second round, he faced Sue, who he beast 364-275 with the aid of CAVITIES. He played a close match with Bryan in the next round, eventually falling 401-425. Bryan played ADVISED and TERRINE, while Dennis' DETOXER* (n. one that detoxes, come on, I even came up with a perfectly good definition for it) was challenged off. He then found a 95-point DEXTROSE to salvage the rack, and then added GAMIEST for 90, but it wasn't enough, or maybe it was for a bit and then wasn't by the end. His trend of bingoing once per game continued against Gail, as he won 471-342 while playing DESERTS. 471 seems like a lot of points for only one bingo; it is likely that he simply didn't write down his multitude of other ones so as to not make the rest of us feel bad.

In other news, Gail played a triple-triple for the second week in a row, this time OVERCOAT for 167 points against Mary. Can she make it three in a row? Find out next week!