Charles Reinke Takes Gold In Men's 400M Freestyle Scrabble

1st Charles Reinke finished 4-1 +411, snagging first place from the outstretched hands of his brother.  Charles was easily bingo king with twelve such plays through his five games.  Four of them came in his 513-296 win against Barb Besadny: ABROGATE, CAVIARES, AYURVEDA (n. a Hindu system of medicine), and ROUNDLET.  Simultaneously, he played the word of the week YATAGAN (n. a Turkish sword, also YATAGHAN and ATAGHAN) while defeating a good-natured Sue Goldstein 473-303.  Only 23-year-nemesis Thomas Reinke was able to interrupt Charles' winning ways, doing so in dramatic and emphatic fashion: 335-529 was the score after the fists stopped flying.  Thomas played RINGWORM, RELOADS, and ROUTINES; Charles got CORODIES to regain a small amount of the pride which had been forcefully taken from him.

2nd Thomas Reinke, surprise, ALSO finished 4-1, but his inferior spread of +326 relegated him to a disappointing second-place finish.  He had his brother met twice on the evening; details of the first match are above, but the second match had a much less favorable result for Thomas: a 354-376 loss.  Thomas did have the nice find of JARLDOMS, but Charles' baby-bingos of REMATES and DASHEEN proved to be too much.  Other than his 500-point game, Thomas' only score over 400 was also the only game in which he didn't get a bingo; Betty Hasselkus played ILLNESS but still lost 340-405. 

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +209, overcoming a tough Reinke-given loss in the first round to win his next three by an average margin of 135.  Helen Flores bore the brunt of Bryan's fury, getting trounced 324-471.  Worse, she had to endure unplayable bingos on her own rack while Bryan was fortunate enough to play three of his own: REINCITE, STIFLERS, and TIPSIER.  Birthday girl Mary Becker didn't fare much better; Bryan clobbered her 410-325 with the assistance of his dual bingos CLOBBERS and PERSONA.