Blog

1st Thomas Reinke laid waste to all those who were unfortunate enough to be paired against him; his 5-0 +838 record tells some of the story, while his sixteen bingos and 529 per-game-average tells the rest of it. His 5-0 record also mathematically guarantees him the club championship (unless we manage to fit ten games in our next session and he loses them all), but he'll get his fawning writeup next week. As per usual, Thomas played two Collins games against Mark Kenas, and cruised in both of them, winning with scores of 525-307 (OMITTING, UNISEXES, ONSTEAD#) and 574-288 (AEQUORIN, ANCONOID, MANHOLES, FIERCEST). His only sub-500 game was in round two where he beat Andy Bohnsack 464-408. In the final round, Thomas scored 500+ in both games of a two-on-one. Helen Flores didn't put up too much of a fight, as that game ended 554-303 (thanks in part to Thomas' 137-point TOPAZINE), but Richard Lauder put up enough of a fight for the both of them, as he got his highest-ever losing score (by far) in a 527-500 slobberknocker. That 500-point loss is the third-highest losing score this year, and the two higher ones were both Collins games, so do they even count? Richard's 185-point triple-triple outbingo of DITHERER also clocks in as this year's fourth-highest-scoring bingo (behind a 212, 203, and 186).

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +226, continuing to battle Bryan for second place in the yearly standings. His first game was a 558-265 drubbing of Lynda Finn, with bingos of RETURNEE, CHIVAREE, ATABALS, and ATONERS. He also scored two Collins-lexicon wins against Mark Kenas, 444-378 and 442-441 (for those doing the math at home, that latter game was indeed a one-point margin). Charles stacked up bingos with INPOURS, LEARIER, TORSADES, ROYALET#, METALIST, and SARSNET in those games. A crucial match against Bryan Benwitz ended in a 404-384 for Charles, thanks to OOLITES and AUREOLA. But perfection was denied by Andy Bohnsack and his bingoish ways; in a 363-517 loss, Charles got down FLEABAGS while Andy romped with OUTLIES, SOVRANS, CREATIVE, and SIENITE

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished with a somewhat standard (for him) 3-1 +367 record. Facing relative newcomer Ed Nawrocki for the first time, Bryan managed the win, 412-297, playing SIDEBURN to Ed's tasty RIGATONI (truly a top five pasta shape, if not top three). Bryan didn't manage to make much use of his bingo knowledge in game two as he was bingoless in a 384-404 loss to Charles Reinke, but he got back on track with three bingos (CREATOR, PACIFIST, PENNIES) to defeat Richard Lauder 505-300. Bryan finished another successful night of tile-based combat with a 459-392 win against Andy Bohnsack, demonstrating the potency of the -ING combo with BARRING and SUITING; meanwhile, Andy demonstrated the potency of learning high-probability sevens with AITCHES and TRAILER.

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.