Is Winter Over Yet?

1st Thomas Reinke overcame the coldness of the night to go undeafeated, 4-0 +251. Against Andy in the first round, the game hinged on the validity of Andy's BARGERS*. If it was good, it would be a 50-point win for Andy, if not, a 100-point win for Thomas. Given Thomas' final record and the little asterisk next to the word, you can figure out how that one turned out. Defense was the name of the game against Gail in round two, with Thomas getting down a pair of bingos but doing little else, while Gail managed to get DEVOICES as an outplay to cut the spread a bit, the final result being 366-330. Thomas then tried out both ends of the bingo-score continuum against Aaron, playing TERATOMA for 57 and the triple-triple CASEATES for 140 in his 433-350 win. While facing eternal foe Charles in the battle for first place, they started out the game with three straight bingos, then failed to bingo again for the rest of the game. Talk about disappointment! I'm pretty sure they were thinking they were going to bingo every turn until the tiles ran out. Thomas won that game, 389-359.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +246, averaging a session-high 445 points. His AGONIZES and WANDERED again Charles in the first match were met with ORDINAL, CANITIES (n. the greying of the hair, singular and plural, so no CANITY*), and an un-overcome-able QUAERES, and Bryan came up short 407-446. His fortunes changed somewhat against Andy, as he won 473-369. Sadly, his fancy play of BEKNIGHT through an E was blocked, but, to his credit, he showed admirable restraint by not immediately punching Andy in the face, instead waiting until after the game to dole out the required physical punishment. Physical punishment was not needed in his game against Dennis, where he won 415-357 using only Scrabble-based punishment. He saved his best for last against Lynda, winning 483-360, playing ENEMIES and PEONIES.

3rd Charles Reinke avoided second place by a mere 6 spread points, going 3-1 +240. Remember to recount your plays! Every point counts! After beating Bryan in the opener, he turned his attention towards Helen, winning 414-310. Helen erred by challenging the odd-looking DUGS (n. DUG, a teat or udder), but who can blame her? Charles pushed his winning-streak to 3 against Lynda, where he won 467-340, playing LABIATES and WACKIEST, before falling to his brother. The club will, sadly, have to wait another three weeks before paying out his next 10-game streak.

Andy played the word-of-the-week, DRUNKARD, a common term that is very uncommon on a Scrabble board.