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As Thomas Stared Into the Scrabble Board, the Scrabble Board Stared Back At Him

1st A furibund Thomas Reinke rebounded from an opening defeat with furious fury, ending up at 3-1 +618. After losing 392-398 to Bryan, he retreated into the darkest corner of his mind. What demented things he saw there, no one will ever know; all we know is that he returned, stony faced, to unleash bingo fury on his next two opponents, winning those games by a combined 500 points. First, against Darcy, he played SURFERS, ANTIROCK (adj. opposed to rock music), DIORITE, BURIALS, and SEAPLANE (anagram SPELAEAN) while scoring 611. Then, against Dennis, he played four more rack-clearers: DOZIEST, SONSIEST, ACCENTED, and PRONATED. This torrent of bingos must have had a calming affect on him; he only bingoed once against Charles, but still managed to win comfortably, 441-349.

2nd Charles Reinke came in second at 3-1 +174, failing to narrow the already narrow gap between him and his brother in the yearly standings. He started off with a 453-372 win against Gail, playing GAYNESS and the word-of-the-week, MOVIEOLA (n. a device for viewing and editing film, more commonly MOVIOLA). Gail, for her part, played two nice bingos added in the last dictionary update, DEMENTI and LORNEST. In the second round against Dennis, Charles got out-bingoed 3-1, NAUSEATE, SPLURGER, and INDICTER thrown down on the board in front of him while all he could manage was NACELLE, but still earned a close win, 398-391. Against Bryan, in the process of winning 524-346, he played the "why-the-hecking-heck-is-that-a-word" of-the-week, GOADLIKE (adj. resembling a goad, seriously, what the heck?).

3rd Bryan Benwitz, in typical Bryan fashion, went 3-1, but in non-typical Bryan fashion, only played 4 bingos while doing so, far beneath his average. His feat of toppling two formidable opponents with only a bingo per was impressive: He beat Thomas with only BORNITES for 60, and then beat Andy with only LODESTAR for 59. After losing to Charles, he beat Helen 473-332, playing OAKIEST and GREENER. In the end, he proved a known Scrabble truism: the only thing that matters is scoring more points than your opponent, and there is more than one path to doing so.

Good luck to Helen and Lynda as they venture to Phoenix (great time of year for it, am I right?) for the Word Cup, which starts on Saturday. Live coverage will be available here: http://director.victoriascrabble.org

Scrabble Tiles Desire Nothing More Than To Be Arranged Into Words; Charles Obliges

1st Charles Reinke followed up a successful weekend performance with a successful-er performance on Wednesday night, going 4-0 +460. He scored 476 in both of his opening two games, the first against Joe, the second against Lynda. Against Lynda, he got down two nice bingos, CABOTAGE and NITINOL (n. a nickel-titanium alloy). His third game versus Thomas was the usual bingo-fest: Charles got GUSHIER, MALARIAN, and JETBEADS (n. an ornamental shrub), while Thomas got LINNIES and ACARIDAN. Fun fact: MALARIAN and ACARIDAN have exactly the same probability of being drawn out of the bag! Fine, maybe that wasn't a very fun fact. Whatever. I thought it was cool. Anyway. In the final game, for the second week in a row, Charles faced Gail to determine who would earn first place. Last week it was Gail who came out on top; this week, Charles won decisively, 451-328.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-and-Charles +296, managing to maintain a slim lead on his brother in the yearly club standings. Pulling double duty in the first round, he beat Helen and Mary, despite getting out-bingoed 3-2 against Mary. Thomas played ERMINES (bonus multimedia section: if you search "Ermine in a tree" on YouTube, you will find a very cute video) and VEDALIAS (not to be confused with VIDALIAS), while Mary played PAROLING, TWISTERS, and FRUITIER. In the second game, Andy's early EQUATES used up all of his luck, while Thomas drew a bunch of bingos for a 472-329 win. After losing to Charles, he beat Richard in a low-scoring 361-302 contest. Only two bingos were played in that sad, horrible excuse for a Scrabble game: Richard played the ever-useful ANISOLE and Thomas got down PARKIEST (adj. chilly).

3rd Joe Horowitz went out (nearly) on top, going 3-1 +160 in his final night as a regular attendee at our club. He bingoed twice against Charles in the first game, with TURDINE (adj. of, relating to, or characteristic of thrushes) and WINTLES, and lost 377-476. Then, going against all preconceived notions about Scrabble, he bingoed only once in each of his next three games, but won them all! I can feel the paradigms shifting as I type. We all wish the best of luck to Joe at med school, but urge him to remember that Scrabble is to be made the first priority, always and forever, no matter what.

Mark played the word of the week, DUNGHEAP (n. self-explanatory). In other news, congratulations to Charles for winning division one at this weekend's tournament, Lynda for coming in second, and double congratulations to Darcy for dominating division three in undefeated fashion.

Gail Salm Sweeps, Others Weep

1st Gail Salm unleashed a torrent of tiles upon her four unsuspecting opponents, resulting in a 4-0 +196 performance that gave her undisputed first-place bragging rights. The path to undefeated-dom was not without its obstacles, however. Gail narrowly escaped with the win in the first game of the night, 339-327 against Susan Vergeront, when a loss would have irrevocably altered her destiny. Her bingos in that one were MEANEST and INVERTER. She must have thought that a 12-point victory was too much of a cushion, because her game against Mary Becker ended up being only a six-point win, 343-337. The crown jewel of her victories was a strong 446-379 triumph over the almost-club-leading Charles Reinke. Charles was stymied by Gail's bingoing prowess, and her three bonus plays (OVERWIND, MUSTIER, and BLEARING) easily overcame his sole effort of DIANTHUS.

2nd Charles Reinke put together a solid 3-1 +464 effort that was disrupted only by Gail's victory over him in the final round. He set a personal record in club play by scoring a monstrous 648 against Helen Flores, dropping down bingos of LURCHES, TWINGES, LIFECARE, and ADDICTER (READDICT is good) as well as a multitude of other high-scoring plays. That score of 648 is the sixth-highest all time since 2011, somewhat breaking up the Thomas Reinke hegemony on that list. Charles' other two losses were slightly more prosaic, but still showcased his scoring skills: 477-460 against Aaron Bader (sixth-highest losing score this year) and 520-391 against Thomas Reinke. In the latter game, seven total bingos were played: BIGEMINY, PELAGES, and NORTENAS on the losing side, DEFIANT, CTENIDIA, DEARTHS, and TAILBONE on the winning side.

3rd Lynda Finn was the second-best of four 3-1 finishers with her +305 cume. Her single loss was by just two points to Mary Becker, 376-378. Lynda's bingo (MENIALS for 77) outscored Mary's 70-point IODINES but couldn't find that extra scoring bump to get the win (perhaps too distracted by collecting pokeballs?). She made up for the close loss, however, with wins against the third- and fourth-place players on the yearly standings, Aaron Bader and Bryan Benwitz. The game against Aaron was also quite closely-contested, ending with a final total of 408-398. Aaron found MEUNIERE, but Lynda one-upped him with INERTIA and DISTORT, thereby securing the victory. Bryan was not able to make it as close; he lost to Lynda 347-409 despite an even two bingos apiece (ARRIVES and OUTRATED on Bryan's end; ADORNED and CANALISE for Lynda).

Thomas' LOWBUSH was chosen as word of the week. HIGHBUSH has been a word for a while, but LOWBUSH was just added in last year's dictionary update. In other bingo news, the club just recently crossed the 20% threshold in its neverending goal to play every seven- and eight-letter word in the dictionary. Only 45,348 words to go!