Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz ran roughshod over a hapless assemblage of Scrabblers with his immaculate 4-00 +341 record. The normally unbroken brick wall of his word knowledge showed a small crack in it as he played, and got away with, the phony EMEUTIC* in a 442-374 win over Lynda Finn, seemingly combining the words EMEUTE and EMETIC. His other bingo that game, FURCATED, was perfectly valid, as were Lynda's LEANERS and ANNOYER. Bryan ramped up the scoring with a 456-336 victory against Richard Lauder, playing NETIZENS, GAMELIKE, and NOVATES. The scoring and bingoing was kicked up one more notch (how many notches are there? hopefully not too many) when Bryan won big against Dennis Lloyd, 508-362. Dennis found FOLIATED, but was buried by Bryan's MIAOWED, LEATHERN, NORITES, and NESTLED. The most valiant challenge to Bryan's indomitable mightiness came in the last round, but Bryan pulled it out, 418-411. In a clash of phonies, Bryan had BEASTIES and UNWEAVED* (INWEAVED, REWEAVED, and UNWOVE are good), matched by Charles' SPINALLY and GOADABLE* (the similar-ish GOADLIKE is a word for some reason).

2nd Richard Lauder bounced back from an unlucky string of 1-3 sessions to go 3-1 +111. He found himself in the winners' bracket early with a 364-326 victory against Sara McLaughlin, finding OUTSHINE to counteract Sara's SPENDER. Sadly, Richard was quickly dispatched in round two by none other than club leader Bryan Benwitz, 336-456, although Richard's bingo of PASTIER prevented things from being even worse. A third-round matchup against another one of the club's top players turned out better for Richard as he felled Thomas Reinke, 437-379. A hard-hitting YESTERN for 96 points, plus another bingo of ELONGATE, were enough to take down the club's third-winningest player. Richard finished strong with a lopsided 436-303 win against Dennis Lloyd, getting OUTREAD and TIMBERS to pad out his bingo list a bit.

3rd Thomas Reinke averaged 462 points per game, best among all attendees, and crawled into third place with a 3-2 +478 record. A five-point loss to Dennis Lloyd in round one, 390-395, was a setback from a wins perspective even if it wasn't so bad from a spread perspective. The loss was made up for, and then some, in the second round, where Thomas clobbered Mark Kenas 549-332. Thomas bingoed with MESTESO, TISSUAL, and FAIREST, while Mark had the Collins-lexicon-only AEROTONE# and ENCAGED. A 379-437 loss to Richard Lauder was another setback, but again, Thomas made up for it by soundly defeating Lynda Finn 496-275 in the simultaneously-occurring two-on-one game. Thomas closed out the evening with a repeat win over Mark Kenas, 494-391, getting a triple-triple COMPENDS for 167 points to coast to victory (Mark's JANTIEST# for 95 looked positively puny in comparison).

We welcomed new player Mathias to our club. While he did not win a game (most new players don't), he did find two bingos in his three games: NOODLES and STORIES. We hope to see him back soon!

1st Charles Reinke extended his run of strong play, with a final record of 4-1 +279 and thirteen wins out of his last fifteen games. It was a bit of a slow start for him as he took a low-scoring 336-325 win over Lynda Finn in round one, with his two bingos of NORTENOS and PISSOIRS providing almost half of his point total. Round two saw Charles take his only L of the evening, falling to Mark Kenas 427-489 despite 106 points for MESTIZO (Mark found DECENTRE, NUANCES, and DIURESES). At the same time that game was slipping away from him, Charles took on his brother Thomas and whomped him severely, playing five bingos (CANALLER, UNRESTED, COPYCAT, SONDELI#, ABREAST) en route to a 588-370 win. The bingos continued flowing freely when Charles defeated Bryan Benwitz 472-382, adding EUSTACY, REPAIRED, OOMPAHED, and STORMING to his growing list of bonus plays. The cherry on top was a 498-476 shootout against Mark, where Charles' not-valid-in-any-lexicon GRUNGED* evaded detection and helped get him the win.

2nd Thomas Reinke also went 4-1, but lagged slightly behind in spread at +196. A 434-396 Collins-lexicon victory over Mark Kenas got Thomas going in the right trajectory, but that trajectory was momentarily diverted by a 370-588 defeat in the very next round. A repeat clash against Mark Kenas ended again in Thomas' favor, 466-412; Mark got down PLACOIDS, DINGIER, and TOUSIER#, while Thomas had LONGTIME and a nine-letter SAPIENTLY. Thomas finished his evening with a 2-on-1 set of games; since neither of his opponents scored over 300 points, the result was two comfortable wins for Thomas. The first of those two wins was a 538-288 victory over Dennis Lloyd, where Thomas unleashed a flood of high-probability bingos: BANTERED, GALORES, SOOTIER, and SINUATE. The other match in the 2-on-1, against Bryan Benwitz, featured far less in the way of bingoage (Thomas' TINTERS was the only bingo on the board at the end), but was still a clear win for Thomas, 372-294.

3rd Lynda Finn played just five bingos in five games, but was able to convert her games to wins despite that obstacle, finishing 3-2 +287. An inauspicious 325-336 loss to Charles Reinke at the start of the night put Lynda in the "loser's bracket" early, but she quickly equalized with a 448-321 win against Ron Malzer, thanks in part to a find of ERADIATE (no word on whether it was hooked to make RERADIATE). Her two-on-one match in the third round saw Lynda split the games, 338-363 vs. Dave Kinzer and 426-322 vs. Sara McLaughlin. In the latter game, bingos of TRAINED and TAMEINS helped considerably. Lynda finished her bronze medal performance by conquering Richard Lauder, 420-328, getting FALSIES and SEQUOIA to Richard's RAINIEST.

1st Charles Reinke once again took first place, this time with a 4-0 +344 final record. Two of wins were against Mark Kenas, 498-403 and 452-391. Charles' expansive bingo list contained words like DISTEND, BILANDER, ANTERIOR, FAINTERS, COURSES, and the Collins-only RINGMAN#. Charles' big game came against Richard Lauder, where Richard's bingo of NEPETAS fell short of Charles' DISCOLOR and FIERILY, resulting in a lopsided 518-345 tally when all was said and done. Bingo-prone tiles continued to find their way onto Charles' racks as he deployed three more bonus plays (SWOTTER, GELATINE, and PURIFIES) in a clinching fourth-round victory over Bryan Benwitz, 436-421.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +215, which seems good until you realize that this 75% winning percentage for the night actually lowered his yearly winning percentage, which had stood at 75.6%. He started things off in explosive fashion when he played a personal-best five bingos in a 465-383 win over Thomas Reinke. Those bingos were ROOTLIKE, TOASTIER, RAVENEST, AVIATORS, and PIROGUES. The bingo output dropped severely in his next game, but the result was the same as Bryan beat Dennis Lloyd 373-312. His single bingo of CLINCHES did score 98 points, so he got a lot of mileage out of not many bingos. The pattern repeated itself in round three as Bryan's sole DOWELLED scored a cool 92 points and delivered him a 419-332 win against Lynda Finn, who found TSARDOM (not a typo of STARDOM, although it could be). Bryan's night ended with a 421-436 loss to Charles Reinke, despite plays of ANAEMIAS and ODONATE.

3rd Mark Kenas went 2-2 +212. His typical Reinkes-only bloodbath was just as bloody as it always is, with Mark dropping two games to Charles but taking both games againast Thomas. The first of those wins was a gargantuan 607-377 beatdown, fueled by Mark's OARAGES#, SERIATE, PILEWORT, and DIACONAL. That 607 score became the 10th 600 game of the year. Mark almost had 600 a second time against Thomas, but fell a few points short, 589-451. In that one, Mark had ONEYERS#, AMBITION, DEVOTING, and RELIQUE (for 114!), while Thomas had DOORMATS, AIDANTS#, and FRAISING#.

Thomas, for his part, did add and 11th 600 game in round three by defeating Helen Flores 604-294, playing five bingos: SPIKIER, NICOTINE, UNHEROIC, STEARATE, and SAUTEING. Richard's PRECAVAE was word of the week.