Holiday Cheer Noticeably Absent for Thomas Reinke as he Romps

1st Thomas Reinke. The well-decorated Christmas Tree, shimmering with white lights and golden baubles, formed a stark contrast with his stony visage as he mercilessly defeated his opponents. A second-round matchup with lifelong foe Charles Reinke ended with him the victor, 570 to 331. Thomas' score, while impressive, was made impure with the playing of the phony EXIGETE*, a creative combination of the valid words EXEGETE and EXIGENT. His other three bingos in that game where a little more reasonable: DAMMARS (n. A hard resin, also DAMMER or DAMAR), HARPIST, and SEAFLOOR. His only scare came in the last game, against Peter Schmiedicke, a contest he won by only two points, 444-442, featuring his play of CROUPIER(n. An attendant in a casino, or adj. resembling croup). A complicated endgame sequence proved to be the downfall for Peter.

2nd Andy Bohnsack for the second consecutive week lost his first game to a Reinke, became enraged, and reeled off 4 straight. His 354-437 loss saw Charles play MOONRISE but saw neither play SUNRISE or EARTHRISE. His largest win came against Helen Flores, 528-373, with Andy getting down the 131-point triple-triple DUALIZES. It would have been more impressive had he not used a blank for the Z; as it stands, the council of club elders has convened and decided that the 4 dollars triple-triple prize he was awarded shall be unawarded, and the money instead used to fund public infrastructure projects.

3rd Peter Schmiedicke returned from Missouri, ready to win some Scrabble games and eat baked goods again provided by Leslie Seltzer. His opening 406-401 match against Dave Gilligan was a nail-biter, thanks to Dave's 122-point JIGGERED (adj. Damned, also v. to jerk up and down), not to be confused with REJIGGED. Against Helen Flores he came close to the fabled "play the same bingo twice in the same game" achievement, playing SANTERO and then TREASON. Sources say that he started putting down SANTERO again, thought those sources cannot be verified as of press time.

The hardy members of the club will have to wait an extra week for their scrabble fix; there will be no meeting on the 24th. The composer of this writeup would like to politically-correctly wish everyone happy holidays, but not a happy new year. That one can wait.