Blog

Peter Schmiedicke Unveils Title of New Memoir: "I am a Scrabble Deity: Pay Me Tribute or Face Punishment Such as You Can Never Fathom"

1st Peter "The Defeater" Schmiedicke enjoyed a rare 5-0 night en route to first place in the expert division.  A first-round victory over longtime nemesis Charles Reinke, 482-443, bestowed upon Peter the momentum to topple an additional four adversaries.  That game featured bingos of REESTING, VENENATE (v. to poison), and LEERIEST by Peter; MOTIONER and the phony OCTOADS (just OCTADS) were played by Charles.  The Defeater also achieved one of his highest club games ever when he bested Bryan Benwitz 535-326.  He got off to a great start in that game by opening with XEROSIS (n. abnormal dryness of the skin), a word so odd-looking that it drew a challenge from the normally unflappable Bryan.  XEROSIS was only the second bingo played in the past two years that started with an X; the other was also XEROSIS played in 2011 by Charles.

2nd Charles Reinke ended up at 4-1 +276, good enough to snag second in the weekly standings and the top spot in the newly-reset yearly standings.  In the most recent installment of the epic "Reinke vs. Reinke" showdown, Charles came out on top 412-382, but alas, the victory was tained by a phony BRAILERS (a BRAILLER is a machine that writes braille, but needs two L's).  Charles' valid bingo in that game was SEROSAE, and Thomas managed UNWARNED on his end.

The word of the week, the nine-letter VACCINEES (n. one who is vaccinated) was played by Charles in his 427-362 defeat of Barb Besadny.

3rd Andy Bohnsack averaged a staggering 466 points per game, but a loss to Peter Schmiedicke relegated Andy to third place with a 3-1 +443 record.  500-point, four-bingo games are a relatively uncommon occurance, but Andy somehow strung together two such games in a row, against Lynda Finn (500-379) and Thomas Reinke (516-375).  Now that such a feat has been attained, we are all waiting for Andy to put together four games in a row of that magnitude.

Harwinder Dowd Unleashes Wrath, Bingos on Way to Undefeated Night

1st Harwinder Dowd started her year with a bang, not needing to utilize her scorecard's "loss" column with a 3-0 +207 performance.  Aki Miura was the only opponent of hers to get somewhat close; he lost 328-360 in the face of Harwinder's LISTING.

2nd Matt Rust averaged a robust 374 in his three wins, but a loss to Harwinder left him with a 3-1 +243 record.  Matt conquered expert Helen Flores 359-293 despite being held bingoless (Helen played SALINES).

3rd Sue Goldstein went 2-2 +42 for third place in the intermediate division.  Her best win was a 359-306 affair with Sharlie Miura where Sue's bingo of RELENTS was likely the difference-maker.  Sue, despite being besotted by cookies courtesy of the Reinkes, almost managed to beat expert player Gail Salm, losing by a mere eight points (358-366) and playing the phony UNSHAVE (which was not even the most egregious phony of the evening).

Due to competition from the start of football season, East Side Club was small today, with only three players. Bryan and Lynda split their two matches, while Lynda defeated Ruth Ann in two matches she played concurrently while competing with Bryan.

In her final match, Lynda played CRANNOG which is a partially or entirely artificial island usually built in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters of Scottland and Ireland. 

"I Am the Law" - Andy Bohnsack

1st Andy Bohnsack brought down his gavel of justice, going 4-1 with a +65 spread.  If the earth were to be unexpectedly sucked into a black hole sometime between now and next Wednesday, Andy would be club champion for the year, as his present winning percentage of 80% is higher than any other player.  He also started off the year right by defeating last year's champion, Charles Reinke, 439-386.  Charles played NICOISE and TEGUMEN, but Andy played the triple-triple NEARSIDE for 140 as well as the nice find of FLATWARE.  The sole impediment to Andy's winning ways was Lynda Finn, who bested him 461-352.  If only Andy had challenged off her phony FLOTAKI (FLOKATI is good).

2nd Charles Reinke finished 3-1 +372, with a club-leading 452 average.  His largest win was a 215-point shellacking of Mary Becker, 485-269, wherein he played the bingos DIAMINE and word of the week GYNAECIA (N. GYNAECIUM, the pistils of a flower).  The only 500+ game of the night was played by Charles, who scored 515 to Lynda Finn's 361: Charles played RADWASTE, RELUMING, and THORPES while Lynda played INDULINE.  This caused Lynda to observe that it might be easier to win if one draws an S - certainly a Scrabble truism.

3rd Thomas Reinke beat out Helen Flores by a mere 29 spread points to attain third place with his 3-1 +231 record.  When those two matched up over the board, Thomas pulled out a 442-391 victory despite Helen's triple-triple of OUTLEAPS.  Helen also played CORNIEST against Thomas' DETRAIN and IGNORANT.  Thomas' big game came against Barb Besadny, 468-312.

June Scott 2-1 For Fourth Straight Week

1st June Scott continued her streak of good performances, defeating both Miuras before facing off with expert Mary Becker.  She got the bingo WILTING while taking down Aki Miura 356-303.