Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz continued his late-season push with a forceful 4-0 +476 record. He picked up some early momentum with a convincing win against Andy Bohnsack, 505-357; Andy fought bravely with UMPIRING and LAZARET, but Bryan struck back with CENTNERS, LINGERIE, and CLASSED. Round two saw Bryan matched up against Charles Reinke, his closest foe in the yearly standings (he trailed Charles by a few tenths of a percentage point before the week's games, and is now slightly ahead), so a 388-373 win felt especially sweet. Bryan vaulted right back up into the 500s when he defeated Richard Lauder 531-310, bingoing with ANEURIN, FLENSER, and UGLIEST. Bingoin' Bryan continued his bingoey ways in the final game, hitting three more of them (GATHERS, ENAMINE, BISTORT) to beat Helen Flores 412-320.

2nd Richard Lauder went 3-1 +131 as he makes his own late-season push to get to a .500 win-loss percentage (a tough ask in such a tough club). He handled Dennis Lloyd in round one, prevailing by a score of 404-392 thanks to bingos of HANDLED and the phony INLISTEE* (just ENLISTEE). Round two saw the first-ever Richard Lauder/Ed Nawrocki matchup (which for some reason wasn't televised or even generally reported on, except for here), a matchup which Richard won handily, 451-264. RETILES and UNBARRED were Richard's bonus plays in that one. The aforementioned 310-531 loss to Bryan Benwitz was the only stain on Richard's otherwise immaculate scorecard, but Richard bounced back with a 440-287 win over Dave Kinzer, playing INITIATE and OUTSIDES.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +86 to further strengthen his top spot in the club standings with just two sessions left to go. In round one, Thomas escaped with a close 406-382 win over Helen Flores, playing PREGNANT and AIKIDOS to Helen's SPLINTER. Thomas then lost a close one to Mark Kenas, 395-393, despite his bingo of BRANSLES# (which was creepily played by Charles just last week). A 412-349 win against Dave Kinzer was heavily aided by a 94-point LABRETS (besting Dave's STONIER). Not content with a margin of two points in their previous bout, Thomas shaved down the margin to just a single point as he snatched a win from Mark in the last game, 449-448. Thomas flaunted his knowledge of the international lexicon with HENNERS# and BAPTISER#, while Mark flaunted his deep knowledge of bingos in general with VACUOLAR and word-of-the-week FLAXSEED.

1st Bryan Benwitz answered the unanswerable question of "does 3-1 place ahead of 4-2" with a resounding "dunno", going 3-1 +98 and maybe coming in first place in the weekly results. He dispatched Reinke #1 (Thomas) in the opening bout, 409-388, finding OENOMEL to Thomas' VIRUSOID. Reinke #2 (Charles) proved to be a tougher opponent, and Bryan lost by a considerable margin, 404-524, despite bingos of HEADPIN and WINTRIER (Charles shamefully played the CSW-only UNSTAGED#, as well as OBSTACLE and REASONS). Round three saw Bryan defeat Helen Flores by an even 100 points, 448-338 (hurray for easy math), turning back her ROUTING with his own CURIOSA, ASSIGNEE, and THIRSTED. Bryan ended his evening with a lower-scoring 357-260 win against Sara McLaughlin, bingoing with SERRANO.

2nd Charles Reinke took advantage of a small, odd-numbered group of players to play two separate two-on-one matches, the end result being a 4-2 +592 record and an eye-watering per-game average of 491. He picked up two big wins in round one, vanquishing Richard Lauder 484-325 and Mark Kenas 529-308. In the Mark game, Charles' prophetic find of BLIZZARD was word of the week, while his other, non-prophetic bingos of SOLUNAR, FATIGUES, and BRANSLES# were not word of the week. Charles broke through the 500-point barrier again by taking down Bryan Benwitz 524-404. Another two-on-one match followed, with Charles splitting the games. Oddly, his losing score (484-567 vs. Mark) was one point higher than his winning score (483-306 vs. Sara McLaughlin). Mark notably got his revenge with four bingos (UNEASIER, SURMISAL#, RAREBIT, ETERNAL), while Charles had just one (AEGIRITE#), although a non-bingo triple-triple of OPTICIST for 108 was basically a bingo. Charles ended the night with a whimper (albeit a loud whimper), losing 442-444 to Thomas Reinke; Charles' three bingos of BLINKERS, EGESTION, and FOREHAND were outdone by Thomas' OUREBIS, EXOTICA, VINOSITY, and SAUNTER.

1st Bryan Benwitz prevailed over an evenly-matched field where nobody went undefeated (but six players went 2-2), finishing at 3-1 +277. He used up a significant chunk of his good fortune in round one (if we all agree to buy into the concept that good fortune is a finite resource that can be expended over one's lifetime), roundly defeating Richard Lauder 527-282. A significant percentage of Richard's final score came from his bingo of ORGASTIC, while Bryan threw down MORTARED, GOLDENLY, and ENSNARL. Bryan got another sizable win in round two, this time against Dennis Lloyd, 427-342, playing PERSONA to Dennis' STANCES. The "1" of Bryan's 3-1 record reared its head in the next game, as Bryan lost to Andy Bohnsack 317-429 (it seems like I have to describe a match of theirs every single week so I'm refusing to write any more on the subject). Bryan bounced back with a 414-355 win against Steve Hartsman, bingoing with MUSTANG and PATCHER.

2nd Andy Bohnsack went 3-1 +196, with an Andy-esque statline of 400 points and 2.25 bingos per game. He started things off with his sixth straight win over familiar foe Lynda Finn, 406-336, bingoing with BEGALLS and SPINATE while holding Lynda to a grand total of zero bingos. Andy repeated that feat in round two, locking down Steve Hartsman for a 370-292 victory. Of note in that one was Andy's TRASHMEN, which, if changed slightly to TRASHMAN, becomes the anagram of Steve's last name. Andy continued the name-calling with an additional find of DETRITUS. In round three, Andy got a win against Bryan Benwitz 429-317 (enough said), but was stopped short of an undefeated record by a 395-459 loss to Thomas Reinke in the final game. Andy can point to his acceptance of Thomas' phony INOSITIC* (INOSITE has no adjective form) as a potential game-loser.

3rd Thomas Reinke used his extra game to prevail over the teeming horde of 2-2 finishers, ending up at 3-1 +110. It was a rough start for Thomas as he elected himself the lucky recipient of a 2-on-1 game, only to lose both of them, 392-396 vs. Charles Reinke and 395-489 vs. Mark Kenas. Thomas hit on bingos of YAUTIAS, OILSEED, and ASTEISMS# (sadly, never extended to the more familiar CASTEISMS) in those games. Taking the first step on the long road towards recovery, Thomas won his next game, beating Lynda Finn 392-375, finding SPONGER to Lynda's AREOLES and REMAILED. He then got major revenge on Mark, triumphing in their rematch by a score of 486 to 359. Thomas' bingo mojo (bojo?) returned with INHOLDER, CASITAS, RELEARNT, and ARROZES. Round four saw Thomas complete his comeback (or whatever you would call it) with a 459-395 victory over Andy Bohnsack, getting down REFERENT and the previously-noted INOSITIC*.

Sara's BIGWIGS was word of the week, beating out Charles' SHOPGIRL (SHOPBOY and SHOPMAN are also good, but SHOPWOMAN# is only good in Collins).