Charles Reinke Enjoys Racks Full of Bingos, Face Full of Cookies in Closing Out 2014

1st Charles Reinke went 4-1 +570 to top a small field of seven players (everybody else missed out on the champagne fountain). He poured in the bingos like so much alcohol into a glass, getting fourteen through five games. Eight of these came in a pair of 500-point games which both featured four bingos. Against Mary Becker, Charles played ADVISOR, TAENIAE (remember that one, it comes up often), PUERILE, and DEPORTS; he went on to win 512-269. Against Gail Salm, the bingos were slightly less prosaic: CANZONI (plural of CANZONE, a type of poetry), ARMIGERO, CALIFATE, and TONGUES. The score of that game was also an improvement; Charles set a new yearly record for himself with his final tally of 583.

2nd Bryan Benwitz also had a strong bingo showing, playing ten on his way to a 3-1 +206 record. He reeled off three tri-bingoed games to start the night before being halted by Charles Reinke, 347-431. In that game he was sadly limited to a sole DEPOSITS; Charles had SCALENI and TITTERED. Bryan's best game was a bout against Leslie Seltzer which ended strongly in favor of the Bryaniac, 473-327. Leslie did not bingo, but Bryan made up for it by playing DROSERA (double-double for 90 points), MINTIEST, and CREAMING. Bryan also took down club leader Thomas Reinke, 434-337. There he played DRAINING, NATIONS and ENDOSTEA (another one to remember); his opponent found the odd-looking but perfectly valid DISMALER.

3rd Thomas Reinke lost a small amount of ground in the club leaderboard, going 3-1 +174. He made Richard Lauder suffer a weighty 481-354 defeat despite both combatants finding and playing two bingos: INSECTS and SANGRIA for Richard, KNITTER and LISENTE for Thomas. A brother-on-brother matchup was somewhat closer, but still ended in a convincing Thomas win, 452-401. In his "only" three-bingo game, Thomas played MEUNIERE, MISDIAL (anagrams: MISLAID and MILADIS), and OSSATURE. His similar-looking but non-bearded opponent found DUNGIER as well as the highest-scoring bingo of the evening, RELAXING for 98 points.