1st Charles Reinke achieved the semi-rare "come in first place without going undefeated" feat by going 4-1 +506. To get a jumpstart on his winning ways, he played two games in the first round and won both of them, 408-265 versus Helen Flores and 502-256 versus Mary Becker. In the latter game, Charles had bingos of AERATION, UNWARILY, and FRESHEN. Charles then took on his clone Thomas Reinke and came out on top, 433-406. Living up to their twinness, both players had two bingos: SIESTAS and REFUNDER for Charles, VORLAGE and AERADIO for Thomas (if you remember any word from this writeup, make in AERADIO, since it is high-probability but hard to find). In round three, Charles was felled by Bryan Benwitz for his only loss of the evening, 396-430. Bryan's timely double-double of EQUISETA for 118 points was supplemented by a 70-point find of CRIOLLOS; Charles got EPITASES (plural OF EPITASIS) and DELEGATE. That setback didn't have too much effect on Charles' momentum, however, as he smacked around Richard Lauder in the final game, winning 458-334. Richard got one bingo, WITCHES, but Charles had RAWBONED and OZONISER, the latter of which being worth a whopping 104 points.
2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a club-best 442 per game (still under his yearly average) and went 3-1 +367 for a second-place finish. He used up most of his reserves of scoring power in the first game, when he played three bingos (TROTTED, HOPLITE, SCIATICA) and clobbered James Frankki by a score of 495-274. So excessive was that scoring outburst that Thomas dropped his next game, against Charles Reinke, 406-433. Thomas got back on track against Dave Gilligan, winning 411-360 in a game where both combatants had two bingos (Thomas' MOIETIES and SEABOOT vs. Dave's ACCENTS and ANSWERS). Game four saw Thomas take a decisive win over the theretofore-undefeated Bryan Benwitz, 457-335. Bryan played SELFING as well as a late STRINGED to get his score into respectable territory, while Thomas had REFLATED, CORANTO, and CROCUSES (likely a more common plural of CROCUS than CROCI is).
3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +148, but suffered the most devastating heartbreak of all by winning his first three games before his dreams of an undefeated session were demolished in the final game. He started out with a comfortable 441-324 win against Betty Hasselkus, getting BLURTING and PARTIED. A similarly comfortable 439-320 win over Richard Lauder followed, with Bryan playing SPANDREL (also SPANDRIL, "a space between two arches") in his winning effort (Richard had OLIVINE). The undefeated run continued for Bryan when he went up against Charles Reinke and won 430-396 (playing the aforementioned EQUISETA for 118 points, enough points that it gets mentioned twice). Bryan was rewarded for his strong play by getting to play current club leader Thomas Reinke in the final round, but no good deed went unpunished as he was defeated 335-457.
Wednesday, October 9:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, October 16:
Scrabble at Location TBD
Wednesday, October 23:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, October 30:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Friday, November 8:
The 3rd Annual Midwest Major
Club Results 10/2
Posted 10/4/2024
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Posted 9/13/2024