Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz finished in first place for the third week in a row with a pristine 4-0 +503 record, ensuring a repeat performance of last year's club championship. He started off with a big 461-331 win over Helen Flores, finding MATELOTE, SIGNIORY, and the phony-but-believable DISHERS* for his bingos. Three more bingos, this time all legit, led Bryan to a no-doubt-about-it 505-300 win against Richard Lauder; Richard got down PURITIES, but Bryan's MANTUAS, SATURATE, and SORICINE were just too mucuh. Bryan played another phony in round three, leading one to speculate whether his nickname should change from Bingowitz to Phonywitz, but the result was still a win as he easily took down Thomas Reinke, 539-391, playing SIERRAN, LEMONISH, and MATTIEST* (MATIEST is good). In round four, Bryan finally ran out of gas, but he still managed to clinch the perfect record by beating Andy Bohnsack 375-356.

2nd Thomas Reinke grabbed second place by going 3-1 with a smaller than usual point spread of +97. Game one saw Thomas get brotherly vengeance against Charles Reinke, 422-388, an act which is basically equivalent to punching a mirror. Thomas had ASSUMED and WINNERS (appropriate word) vs. Charles' BOEHMITE and OVERWET. Thomas then picked up a low-scoring 348-311 win versus Lynda Finn, finding RENOWNS to Lynda's DECANTED. Facing off against Bryan Benwitz turned out to be a significant impediment to winning Scrabble games (as it so often is), as Thomas suffered his only loss, 391-539, but redemption was soon achieved when Thomas finished his night with a 450-276 win against Richard Lauder.

3rd Andy Bohnsack crept into third place, going 3-2 +375. A two-on-one game in round one was a mixed bag, with a 466-315 win against Sara McLaughlin being offset by a 334-375 loss to Lynda Finn. Lynda managed to get that win despite not getting down a bingo; Andy had one bingo of CRIMPLED for all the good that did him. A strong 458-411 win over Charles Reinke followed, with Andy finding SNORTER and MILTIER to Charles' INDIGENE, ROUSTED, and LATICES (three cheers for high-probability bingos). The highlight of Andy's evening was a 524-287 win against Helen Flores, but that triumph was short lived as Andy's lofty dreams of a first-place finished were flattened by a 356-375 loss to Bryan Benwitz in the final round.  Bingo finds of ELECTRIC and NEONATAL reportedly did little to ease the pain.

We welcomed new player Melody Brown into our ranks, and while she didn't win a game (a tragically common fate for first-time clubgoers), she did well and we hope she returns!

1st Bryan Benwitz reprised his first-place effort from last week, although this time he was slowed down a little bit with a 3-1 +225 record. A commanding win against Helen Flores in round one, 482-309, set him up nicely for future success. Helen's bingo of PLATTERS was bested by Bryan's BLOUSED, SATINIER, and EARSHOTS. Bryan continued to pile on bingos to his already sizeable pile of them with a 459-375 victory over Charles Reinke, getting down LEALTIES, DISTRAIN, and LOUNGIER to Charles' sole STEERAGE. A match against the other Reinke did not go as smoothly; Bryan's single bingo of PALATES represented a considerable reduction of his potent powers of bingoage, while Thomas had AUTISTIC and STRIDDEN to take the 444-367 win. The final game of the night saw Bryan fight Richard Lauder to a high-scoring 466-421 final total. This time, the bingos were evenly split, with Bryan getting CENTARES and BITTERS to Richard's NEAREST and BLOOMER.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +162 to complete a top-two identical to last week's top two. Always eager to get some Collins games in, Thomas played a set of games against familiar opponent Charles Reinke (no relation), and split them, 440-500 in round one and 516-445 in round four. That round-one game saw Charles severely outbingo his brother (ORGEATS, PROTEANS, ODORISE#, SHETLAND vs. a lonely RESITING), but fortunes were swapped in the rematch and Thomas found it was his turn to bingo four times (NUGGETS, NAILSET, DEWATER, FINALIZE vs. KERATIN and TREATING). In between those games, Thomas picked up two additional wins with spookily similar scores, 441-367 against Sara McLaughlin and 444-367 against Bryan Benwitz.

Helen Flores received "Thanksgiving Word of the Week" with PLATTERS, which might be a stretch, but not as much of a stretch as the other candidates: Sara's HEARTILY and Bryan's PALATES. A $500 gift card for Yankee Candle, to be spent exclusively on pumpkin-spice-scented candles, is currently en route to Helen via carrier pigeon.

1st Bryan Benwitz conquered all with a flawless 4-0 +319 record, strengthening his hold on first place in the club standings with just four more sessions left in the year. His first game was also his best as he steamrolled Dennis Lloyd 503-309, finding bingos of VACATES, SIEVERT, and BARNIEST in the process. Success continued in round two with a convincing win over Thomas Reinke, 493-416. Thomas fought valiantly with three bingos: OUTGNAWS, HARLOTS, and ANTIPORN (those last two seem at odds with each other), but Bryan had three of his own: HERMETIC, BARRAGES, and BIRDERS. The bingo barrages came to an end when Bryan faced off against Sara McLaughlin; the final score was 382-344 in Bryan's favor, and only one bingo found its way onto the board: Bryan's 95-point EQUATOR. Andy Bohnsack was the final opponent standing between Bryan and a perfect evening, and it was a good fight, but Bryan eventually prevailed 434-424 despite being outbingoed two to three (NONARIES and AEDILES vs. ROASTER, OBVERTS, and ANTILOG).

2nd Thomas Reinke fared the snowy trip to the fabled Misty Mountain and found reward at the end of his trials, finishing 3-1 +230. A 452-407 win over Mark Kenas started things off nicely, as Thomas matched Mark's EBIONISE# and SATINIER with his own PANDERER and ENDOSOME (don't forget the anagram, MOONSEED). That success was short-lived as Thomas immediately ran into the not-quite-unstoppable-but-sometimes-it-sure-seems-like-it force of Bryan Benwitz, losing 416-493. Getting back to the Collins lexicon, Thomas matched up against a familiar face in Charles Reinke, and won that encounter, 447-417. Thomas had EPHEBOI (plural of EPHEBOS) and STADIUM, while Charles had FOLIOLES#, ROSEATE, and TOASTER. Thomas closed out the session with a 487-255 victory against Sara McLaughlin, marred by the phony GLITTED*, which was played in addition to the correctly-spelled WEASELS.

Dennis Lloyd's BOGGISH for 101 points was Word of the Week.