Blog

1st Andy Bohnsack went undefeated for the second straight week, if you're only including weeks where we played at our east side location, with a 5-0 +434 record. He also dominated all other bingoers with thirteen bonus plays, nearly doubling the total of the next-most-prolific bingoer. Honored with the chance to play two games at once in the first round, Andy was relatively restrained in one game (winning 359-298 vs. Dennis Lloyd) while showing very little restraint in the other (beating Dave Kinzer 530-330). The game against Dave was tainted by Andy's phony UTRICATE* (he was thinking URTICATE), but he had plenty of valid bingos in that one as well: STURDIES, ALTERANT, and UNCHAIRS. He again utilized the battle-tested strategy of "overwhelm your opponent with bingos" against Charles Reinke, playing LIGHTERS, RAPTURES, and NAEVOID in a 434-385. After a non-Reinke interlude against James Rollins (Andy's win, 434-314), Andy squared off against the other Reinke and won a close one, 394-390. He needed every last point from his three bingos of ENROBED, RETUNES, and CHARIOT to win the game and secure the perfect record.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +484, holding his opponents to an uncommonly low per-game average of 331. In round one, Charles held the unfailingly bingo-prone Bryan Benwitz to zero bingos in a 525-289 win. Charles got down AEROLITE, PREFADES, and KAISERIN, selfishly hogging all the bingo action for himself. The good start was immediately tempered by a 385-434 loss to Andy Bohnsack where Charles only managed to get down MARLIER. But Andy's 434 would be by far the highest score of any of Charles' opponents; in the next round, Charles fought his brother Thomas to a low-scoring 388-341 win. Again, Charles held his opponent bingoless while getting two of his own: GOANNAS and the odd-but-valid NARRATER. Charles wrapped things up with a 509-259 win over Dennis Lloyd, an oddly large margin considering the combatants had the same amount of bingos (Charles' SURFINGS against Dennis' SCANTER).

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +118. He started nicely with a 468-392 win against Lynda Finn, finding high-probability sevens NEONATE and SELENIC to Lynda's high-probability eight of DERISION. Thomas got down two more bingos, PLEOPODS and VENTURIS, in a 410-359 round-two victory over Ron Malzer. Limping along below his season average of 2.25 bingos per game, Thomas hit a major snag as he was held bingoless in a 341-388 loss to Charles Reinke (I though Collins games were supposed to score more than that). Thomas partially regained his mojo in the final round as he faced an uncommonly tough two-on-one against Andy Bohnsack and Bryan Benwitz. A nifty WINESAPS against Andy was not enough for the win, as Thomas lost 390-394, but his HIRPLED and REORDAIN helped to propel him to a 403-362 win against Bryan, who played SAVORERS and ANISEED.

Bryan's 102-point BUCKRAMS was word of the week, edging out Thomas' PLEOPODS.

1st Thomas Reinke notched his second undefeated performance of the year with a 4-0 +444 record. He had an easy go of things in round one when he felled Richard Lauder 451-303, although that dreaded Collins confusion crept in when Thomas phonied with TUFOLIS* (good in CSW, but TUFOLI does not pluralize in NWL). Thomas also played the valid SIRENIAN in that game, while Richard added DETAILS for 90. More Collins confusion took place against Bryan Benwitz, as Thomas got away with TABOURIN* in a 453-398 win (his other bingos were ANSERINE and GONIDIA, the latter of which turned the phony TABOURIN* into the valid TABOURING). Thomas breathed a sigh of relief as he switched to the Collins dictionary in round three against Charles Reinke, a game which he won handily, 489-372, getting NAILSET, CEDULAS, and OPTIMUM vs. Charles' LUSTRINE and AGRIZED#. It was the battle of the undefeateds in round four as Thomas took on Lynda Finn, and, as you could have guessed by Thomas' position as first paragraph of this writeup, it was Thomas' win, 412-288.

2nd Lynda Finn went 4-1 +177, her second-straight 4-1 week. She started by holding the high-scoring Andy Bohnsack well under his yearly averaging, a stratagem which resulted in a 421-309 win despite Andy playing two bingos (HORNITO, CANDIES) to Lynda's one (ALIGNED). Lynda built on her nascent winning streak with a successful two-on-one outing against Dennis Lloyd (365-311) and Sara McLaughlin (417-346). Rewarded for her success with a crack at the titanic bingo-finding power of Bryan Benwitz, Lynda bravely went toe-to-toe (or bingo-to-bingo) with him, and emerged victorious in a close contest, 418-414. Lynda found PURLOINS and TANGIER against Bryan's DEFAMING and ENLISTEE. Sadly, Lynda's mojo ran out in the final game, and she was stifled by Thomas Reinke, 288-412.

3rd Andy Bohnsack went 3-2 +107, considerably improving on his recent 1-3 showing, but falling quite short of his 4-0 performance from two sessions ago. He also bingoed exactly twice in all five of his games, showcasing his remarkable consistency as an enthusiast of rack-clearing plays. A two-on-one set in the first round provided mixed results, as he suffered a hefty loss to Lynda Finn, 309-421, but also claimed a well-fought win against Sara McLaughlin, 409-390. Andy achieved anything but a mixed result in the second round against Charles Reinke, as he won comfortably, 501-395, despite being outclassed in the bingo column two to three (TIRELESS, TORNADIC vs. UNCREATE, BUTENES, TRENAIL). The up-and-down nature of Andy's night continued with a 399-486 loss to Richard Lauder, giving Richard five wins in their last six encounters. Beating Dennis Lloyd 402-295, with bingos of URBANEST and SARKIER, allowed Andy to end the night with a victory.

1st Bryan Benwitz went undefeated for the second straight week, finishing at 4-0 +532. He flattened Charles Reinke in the first round, 546-299, finding MATURERS, PASTINA, ISOLATE, and SPREADER. A subsequent match against another player suspiciously named Reinke also ended in victory for Bryan, 424-400, and again, Bryan came out ahead in the all-important "number if bingos" stat, playing three (RELEVES, ECOTOURS, YESSIREE), to Thomas one (PRALINES). The winning continued with a 432-340 victory over Lynda Finn, although Bryan's bingo output in that game (ASTERIA, MARLINS) was slightly less demoralizing for his opponent than his other games were. Bryan secured his perfect record by defeating Dennis Lloyd 486-317, finding BRAIZES, STRIVED, and PINNULE along the way.

2nd Lynda Finn went 4-1 +323 and made progress towards building up her yearly average with a 407 average game score. Despite letting a phony OUCHIES* get by her (OWIE and BOOBOO but no OUCHIE*), Lynda prevailed in her round-one match against Dennis Lloyd, 398-291. Round two saw Lynda awarded the privilege (punishment?) of playing two games at once, and it worked out quite well for her, as she defeated Sara McLaughlin 404-309 and Dora Kilburn 469-271. Lynda played TRAINED and the odd-looking HETMANS against Sara; DIRTIEST, SANDIER, and WONDERED were her bingos against Dora. A 340-432 loss to Bryan Benwitz put Lynda's plans of world domination on temporary pause, but those plans were fully revived with a 422-407 win over Charles Reinke in the final round. Lynda got down SCANDIAS and BRAILLED, while Charles had COUNTIES and ATTACKED.