Blog

1st Andy Bohnsack took the top spot for the second week in a row, going 4-1 +552 and averaging 461 points per game. Against Richard Lauder in round one, both players limped to the finish line with a lower-than-usual final score of 355-283, advantage Andy. As a counterpoint to that game, Andy faced off against Helen Flores at the same time (shout out to odd numbers) and won 500-320, bingoing with BUOYAGE, RADIANCE, and REASSIGN. In round two, Andy got down a triple-triple of ROMAINES (140 points) against Charles Reinke, but came up just short, losing 480-488. Taking on Bryan Benwitz in the next game, Andy lengthened his winning streak against Bryan to four straight in a 503-359 win. VAINEST, UNISSUED, and ALODIUM were Andy's bingos. Andy ended the night with a big win over John Bialek, 466-302, thanks to INERTIAL, CUPRITE, and LATEXES (LATEX also pluralizes to LATICES).

2nd Charles Reinke averaged 483 points per game (take that Andy) to also finish 4-1 with a spread of +341. Charles wasted no time placing himself firmly in the winners' bracket with a first-round drubbing of Steve Hartsman, 554-377. Steve found SCROOGES and WERGELTS (also spelled WERGELD, WERGILD, and WEREGILD), while Charles laid the bingos on thick with UNSEEMLY, COGNATES, INVENTED, and ARMADAS. For round two, Charles faced a tough two-on-one against Andy Bohnsack and Mark Kenas, but prevailed in both, 488-480 against Andy and 473-413 against Mark. Charles did sneak by a phony against Mark, the plausible OCHREOID* (OCHEROID and CHOREOID are good), in addition to MONKEYED and SCENEMAN#. Charles racked up more spread with a 487-318 win against John Bialek (countering John's nice find of DETENTE with TORUSES, DULCINEA, and LOONIER), but couldn't close the deal on a perfect 5-0 record as his rematch against Mark resulted in a loss, 414-487. (Note for bingo nerds: of the eight playable words in EORSSTU, we are still waiting for people to play OESTRUS, SOUTERS, and STOURES. ESTROUS, OUSTERS, SOUREST, and TUSSORE have all been played. Charles picked correctly when choosing TORUSES, which was the first time that word has been played.)

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +77, incrementally forcing his yearly winning percentage upward as he (and everybody else) attempts to catch Thomas in the standings. A 417-336 win against Dave Kinzer was a good start as Bryan bingoed with INDUCTEE, DELOUSER, and ANSERINE. He also picked up an important win against Thomas Reinke, 382-369, getting down TABOULEH and INTERRED to Thomas' SEITANS (all six available bingos in AEINSST have been played multiple times, so Thomas didn't need to worry about picking the right one). For the second week in a row, Bryan's sole loss was to Andy Bohnsack, this time 359-503. But Bryan stormed back to defeat Steve Hartsman in the final game, 494-367, hitting on STORMED, DIETARY, and BURLEYS.

Richard's ISOBATHS was word of the week.

1st Andy Bohnsack demonstrated considerable levels of Scrabbacular might with a 4-0 +334 record. He opened with a crushing win over Bryan Benwitz, 473-307; when the smoke cleared, Andy's three bingos of ABLATED, INSNARES, and CODIRECT were the only bingos on the board. Andy followed that up with another three-bingo outing, although his finds of CARTONS, GRADUAL, and POETISES weren't quite enough to get him across the 400-point barrier in a 392-315 win over Dennis Lloyd. In round three, Andy finally had an opponent put down a bingo against him, but he was able to counter Dave Kinzer's UNCLOSE with his own SULFURIC, winning 428-343, but more importantly, teaching us the valuable lesson that you should always look for bingos even when you have two U's. Andy wrapped up his unblemished performance by beating Richard Lauder 440-370, connecting on RAINWEAR and PILLOWED to Richard's CREATES and LEVERETS.

2nd Bryan Benwitz, juggling the duties of interim club organizer with the overwhelming amount of bingos sloshing around in his brain, went 3-1 +157. None of the aforementioned bingos materialized for him in game one as he was banished to the nether realm, 307-473. Things improved for the next game as Bryan deployed STOREYS, THONGIER, and NICTATES for a 461-402 victory against Richard Lauder. The upward trend continued with a 486-363 win vs. Dennis Lloyd (DESCANT, DEBOARDS), then culminated in the final round with a conclusive win over Dave Kinzer, 516-375. Dave got down HINDERED, but failed to challenge off Bryan's phony DONNERS* (DONNERT and DONNERD are good, but that's probably not what Bryan was thinking). Bryan also added ATONIAS and KEGGERS for more punishment.

Dora Kilburn got down the year's 12th triple-triple with NEEDLESS for 140 big points, leading to her highest losing score ever, 372-409 against John Bialek. Andy's SULFURIC was word of the week.

1st Thomas Reinke dominated once again with a 5-0 +564 record. Domination was total and complete in round one as he summarily dismissed both Dave Kinzer (552-367) and Helen Flores (519-327). Across those two games, Thomas hoarded literally every bingo for himself, getting ARISTAS, ZINGARE, ALTERITY, HERBARIA, LUMPENS, CARESSED, VALERIAN, and IRONERS. Thomas slowed down on the bingos in round two, but made his singular bingo count, getting a 3x3 ROUTEING for 122 to turn away Mark Kenas, 428-371. Resuming his bothersome practice of just plain bingoing too much, he hit three bingos (CORNEAS, BIRDSHOT, WORKDAY) in a 457-386 victory over Bryan Benwitz, who got down REINVENT and HERNIAE. Thomas encountered Mark again in round four and won for a second time, 421-362, landing LEACHING, ROOPIER#, and SPRENTED# to secure a flawless record and further widen the gap in the yearly standings between him and everyone else.

2nd Richard Lauder dialed up the scoring, averaging 419 per game to finish 3-1 +226. A round-one matchup against Bryan Benwitz saw Richard win the bingo battle (playing ENTIRES while Bryan was limited to a grand total of zero bingos) but lose the war, 280-356. That proved to be the end of Richard's losses for the evening, and each of his subsequent three games saw him score above 460. He took down Dave Kinzer 467-362, bingoing with CHEMISTS and BANTIES. That was followed by a good old-fashioned display of Wisconsin hospitality, beating the visiting Floridian Howard Pistol 460-356 with bingos of CRUSADE and SPICIER (Howard got ENDOSTEA and a plausible EPIGONAL* - only EPIGONIC). Richard's night ended strong with a 468-375 win against Helen Flores where he found CHROMATE, DEVIATED, and RELOADS.

3rd Steve Hartsman notched his second-straight third-place showing with a 3-1 +98 record. Like Richard above, his first game was a loss, 359-438 to Howard Pistol. Steve got down NONMETAL and STERLING, but Howard made some great finds of his own with OVEREATS, CORNROWS, and TROPISMS. Steve's fortunes reversed against Helen Flores, with Steve winning 425-270. Encountering Lynda Finn in round three, Steve just barely held on to win a barnburner, 469-457. Both players had three bingos: BAGUETTE, GRINDERY, and MORGANS for Steve; REVISITS, BRAILLE, and ROOSTED for Lynda. Another tightly-contested win followed, this time against Charles Reinke, 418-408. Steve was able to banish Charles directly to the fiery underworld with an 80-point DAMNING.

Notable was Mark Kenas' 632-point game against Charles Reinke, which was the second-highest-scoring game this year. A large fraction of that lofty point total was from Mark's triple-triple find of QUEENLIER for 221 points, played through EE already on the board (thanks Collins!). That 221-point bingo is the fourth-highest since 2011, behind MOBILIZE (248), ZIPPIEST (248), and QUEASILY (239).