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Charles Reinke Snatches "Mr. 500" Title Away From Undeserving Brother

1st Charles Reinke averaged a board-melting 507 points per game, using his aggressive scoring ability to finish 4-0 +836.  A troubling trend began to emerge from the very first game, where Charles beat Helen Flores 461-297 in his lowest game of the night.  Each subsequent game that Charles played featured a progressively higher score.  Mark Kenas was defeated 477-354, while Peter Schmiedicke was crushed 478-262 thanks to Charles' bingos of KIRTLES, LANNERS, and ORECTIVE (adj. pertaining to appetites or desires).  Then, Charles decided to stop goofing off and start actually playing Scrabble, resulting in a devastating 612-279 victory over the previously-undefeated Lynda Finn.  Lynda did play OOLITHS, but otherwise dealt with unplayable drek as Charles got down COREMIA, MISPARSE, ENTIRETY, and an out-bingo of DEFILING, which, combined with the Q still on Lynda's rack, got him over the 600-point threshhold.  Charles has now won 14 of his last 15 and his club champion status seems almost assured. 

2nd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-1 +233, scoring well in all of his games barring, of course, his encounter with Charles.  He scored a healthy 481 (to Susan Vergeront's 263) despite getting just one bingo, BAILOUT (Susan got CREASING).  He also applied a regular beatdown to Thomas Reinke, 459-361, overcoming Thomas' FLORETS with ACEROSE, STALKERS, and SOONERS (which was challenged; it means a person who settles on government land before it is officially open for settlement).  It was perhaps this merciless victory which prompted Charles to destroy Peter with vengeful wrath.  With another good night, Peter is strengthening his third-place position on the yearly standings.

3rd Lynda Finn, like Peter above, had a fantastic night if one simply ignores her game against Charles, going 3-1 -120.  Her closest victory came against Andy Bohnsack, 396-371.  As they say, two bingos is better than one, an adage that certainly proved true as Lynda's two bingos of FELDSPAR and INDORSER were too much for Andy's lone DETRAINS.  Lynda also showed no remorse in defeating director Richard Lauder 476-381, unblinkingly laying down the phony COESINE (COESITE is good; SENECIO is the word in those letters) and playing the non-phony FREEZING to a triple for a million-kajillion points.  Richard came back with the word-of-the-week QUANTICS (n. QUANTIC, a type of mathematical function) as well as REFRACTS. 

Jordan Parker Makes Splash In Debut Performance

1st Jordan Parker impressed with his first visit to our club, finishing 3-0 +315.  Things started off slow with a bingoless 340-242 victory against the long-absent Aki Miura, but Jordan quickly got into his groove and finished the night by defeating the also-long-absent Harwinder Dowd 425-324.  Both players managed a bingo in that one, with Harwinder playing BEATERS (anagrams BERATES and REBATES) and Jordan playing TRAINED (anagrams DETRAIN and ANTIRED).

2nd Sharlie Miura came back from a long Scrabbatical to go 1-1 -97.  She defeated Sue Goldstein 335-316, using her timely bingo of READYING to take the win.

In website news, there is a new feature on the bingos page which keeps track of the Club's unofficial quest to play every possible seven- or eight-letter bingo.  There are 53,795 possible bingos; as of this writing, the club has played 6,977, or 12.97% of them.  This is up from 12.83% a week ago.  Way to go team!

Thomas "Mr. 500" Reinke Brings Down the Hammer

1st Thomas Reinke averaged 501 points per contest as he strolled to a 4-0 +610 record.  Three of his games were above the 500-point threshhold, with the highest being a 571-290 match vs. Barb Besadny.  His four bingos (DETAILER, ROQUETS, EPINAOS, and DENUDATE) seem like a lot, but apparently this sort of output is normal for Thomas, as he again played four bingos while beating Mark Kenas 500-389.  The bingos in that game were NATIVELY, RIGADOON (n. a lively dance), FOLIATE, and AMPERAGE for Thomas; Mark got UNSOCIAL and REINFUSE.  The third of his 500-point scores came against Lynda Finn, who fell 391-548 despite her three bingos of LINEATE, BASTION, and ENFRAME.  The culprit?  Thomas' 167-point triple-triple ANEMONES. 

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +477.  After bearing witness to his brother easily playing four bingos in a game, Charles figured he would do the same, unloading four bonus plays against Dave Gilligan to cruise to a 513-289 win.  Those four bingos were ROGATION, PLUNDERS, FATTENS, and AIRTIME; however, they were all overshadowed by Dave's creative extension of ROGATION to PROROGATION.  Sadly, Dave's creativity only netted him 28 points, once again highlighting the need to institute a "style points" system in Scrabble.  Charles followed up that win with another spread-boosting victory over Chris Vergeront, 569-337.  Sadly, nothing lasts forever, and Charles lost to his brother by a lower-than-usual score of 322-383.  Both bingos in that game where Thomas': NUANCES and LATERAD (adj. toward the side).

3rd Mark Kenas came back from an extended trip to Mexico without having lost a step, going 3-1 +428.  Like Thomas, Mark had three games over 500; how appropriate, then, that Thomas was the one to beat him!  Bryan Benwitz was a mere spectator in a game that featured four bingos for Mark, with the final score being a lopsided 509-328.  Bryan played OUTDATES, a valiant but inadequate stand against Mark's BREWAGE, TRAILERS, SEDILIA, and OUTRACED.  Peter Schmiedicke put up a marginally better score, playing the words NONRATED and AMORTISE, but also succumbed to the terror of the overalled giant, 383-516. Even Susan Vergeront, who played the triple-triple RESTARTS, could only score 297 against Mark's might.

No Score Too High For Charles Reinke

1st Charles Reinke ended with a 4-0 +592 record for his first undefeated night in two months.  Almost half of that spread came in a single game, when he heartlessly defeated newcomer Jonathan Lindh 568-293.  Four bingos served as Jon's welcoming party: REINSMEN, SIMONIAC (N. one who practices simony, the definition of which is too complicated to describe here), FLIRTERS, and LOMENTA.  That's what we in Madison call good ol' midwestern hospitality. Bryan Benwitz was the only of Charles' opponents who gave him a scare; the final ended up 431-398 in Charles' favor despite Bryan's two bingos (WIRETAP, GELATED (v. GELATE, to become gel) to Charles' one (SOVRANS).

2nd Thomas Reinke enjoyed a 3-1 +596 final record to place second.  He got things off to a good start by crushing Helen Flores 540-297 and playing four bingos: READDING, EVERTING, STEERER, and OUTLETS.  Thomas then followed that up with another 540-point game, beating Susan Vergeront 541-294, this time with only three bingos (word of the week BIRDBATH, REFUSAL, and SAILORS).  Alas, no good thing lasts forever, and Thomas' streak of 500-point games was ended at two.  His loss came against archfoe Charles Reinke (no relation), who applied copious amounts of hurt on his non-relative, 436-295.  Maybe the pain of this sub-300 game will allow Thomas to have more compassion for his opponents in the future.

3rd Lynda Finn finn-ished at 3-1 +206 (that joke never gets old!) and averaged an impressive 432 per game, well above her year's average of 394.  Chris Vergeront was just one of her three victims; he was found in an alleyway behind the church mumbling something about "bingos" and "tiles".  A 352-478 loss will do that to a guy.  Lynda also reached deep into the tile bag to unleash three bingos (EARINGS, LOVAGES, and REDLINED) against an unsuspecting Dave Gilligan, who fell 327-489.

As noted earlier, the club welcomed newbie Jonathan Lindh from the Milwaukee Club.  He went 2-2 and averaged 377 points per game; pretty good for a Milwaukeean!  He showed that he meant business when he pummelled Betty Hasselkus 531-288, using four bingos to effortlessly overcome Betty's scoring efforts: OXIDISE, GENERATE, SATIRES, and the phony PIGHEAD (PIGBOAT and PIGWEED are good, among others).