Charles Reinke: "Points are Good"

1st Charles Reinke had a rather productive evening in the points-scoring department, with the outcome of all those scored points being a 4-1 +665 record. The challenge of playing as the "one" in a two-on-one game proved not to be much of a challenge at all, as both games he won handily: 499-304 against Lynda Finn and 565-310 against Helen Flores. In the latter game, he slapped down four bingos: TRANSIT, BISTERS (n. a brown pigment, also BISTRE), LEGATINE, and OVERCOME (missing the new bingo EMOCORE). More bingo racks were on deck for a game against lifelong adversary Thomas Reinke, with Charles playing ENDMOST, FENCEROW, and ONSTAGE (new anagram: TANGOES) to attain a convincing 491-325 win. Thomas got down SHOALEST but otherwise was unable to do much in the scoring department. Peter Schmiedicke managed to hold Charles to just one bingo in their matchup, and the result was a 392-356 victory thanks to Peter's out-bingo of AGONIES. Charles' TRYPTICA (n. an ancient writing tablet) was dubbed Word of the Week, but even an honor as high as that cannot erase the piercing pain of the loss.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke also went 4-1, but his smaller spread of +196 left him in distant second place. He had his own four-bingo game against Gail Salm; CRAYONS, TAENIAS, DELIMING, and RESOLVE were his words of choice in the 480-378 victory (Gail played two bingos of her own, ORDAINED, and the new AIRBASE, which was also played last week). In the night's closest game, Peter turned away Aaron Bader 375-371, a pair of abnormally low scores for the normally high-scoring experts. Aaron was held to a grand total of zero bingos; Peter found GRADERS and TITRATES for just enough points to take the win. In what must be some sort of cosmic justice, Thomas Reinke handed Peter his only loss in another low-scoring game, 399-346. Thomas' VERDINS and TRIBUTES were not quite offset by Peter's REIFIES.

3rd Lynda Finn averaged 429 per game, a full forty points above her yearly average, en route to a 3-1 +302 outing. Other than the previously detailed loss to Charles, she found the bingos to be plentiful. After five straight losses against Aaron Bader, she finally one won to the tune of 426-400, utilizing a crafty phony of NOCKERS (RECKONS and CONKERS are good) to gain the upper hand. Aaron responded in kind with a phony CODENAME as well as a nice nine-letter out-bingo of HEARTLAND (played through AN). Lynda's other two wins could fairly be classified as blowouts: 490-266 against Helen Flores and 495-288 against Gail Salm. Combined, her bingos in those games were GUNFIRE, MISPART (anagrams: IMPARTS and ARMPITS), SPHERED, SNOUTIER, and VENTAIL. It remains to be determined if the useful "A" hook on VENTAIL (for AVENTAIL) was ever put into use.

After a honeymoon period wherein multiple new bingos were being played every week, only one was played this week, Gail's AIRBASE.