I Hear Peter Schmiedicke Sleeps With A Dictionary Under His Pillow

1st Peter Schmiedicke went 4-0 +508 averaged 485 points per game, his highest-ever single-session average. Dave Gilligan was made to know first-hand the potency of Peter's scoring skill when thier match ended with a 465-248 final score. Peter played INFLAMED, AEROLITH, and SLOTHING to neatly slot in with his three-bingos-per-game average for the night. He followed up that win with a 526-484 victory over Charles Reinke that could only be described as a "scoring frenzy". Charles recorded three bingos (RETAINERS, ALUMINIC, and PALTERED), but Peter one-upped him with four (INOSINE, REDRAFTS, ANODIZE, and OUTGIVES). Rarely is a 1,000-point total score achieved; that combined total is the second-highest this year. Charles' score is also the third-highest losing score this year (Aaron Bader having lost with both a 485 and a 506). After that satisfying win, one would think that Peter was done crushing people's dreams, but he wasn't; in the final deciding game, he roughed up Dennis Lloyd quite badly, scoring 518 to Dennis' 346. IDEALESS and AVERSION were Dennis' bingos, but there was nothing he could do as Peter again got four such plays: ATTRITE, HANDIEST, FOREPLAY, and UNBRACED.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +393, and while he couldn't finish above Peter in the nightly standings nor beat him in their game, he did manage to average more points, at a heady 490 per game. It took him a while to get his engines running, as he barely escaped with the victory against Bryan Benwitz, 383-368. Bryan had MOONRISE and SWEATED to Charles' STIFLERS and FORMATE. Then, Charles' engines were fully operational, and he proved it by dropping a 613 on his own brother, who scored just 338. A pair of 100-point bingos (SEXTING for 123 and SHOALED for 101) were supplemented by METALED (76) and PEDOLOGY (68). That 600-point game was the seventh such game this year, however, it was not even close to the highest game score this year, which was Thomas' 658 just a few weeks ago. Charles wound down the evening with a 481-336 win against Helen Flores, playing ENDURING, TRIASSIC, and UNVARIED along the way.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +83, winning the first three before facing Peter Schmiedicke and being denied what would have been his first undefeated performance at our club. In the first game, he evened up his lifetime record against Gail Salm by winning 423-339. They now stand deadlocked at three wins apiece. Gail played the high-probability ELOINERS, but Dennis had two bingos in DIRTIEST and TRUNDLE. Two more bingos (ASSEMBLE and LUSTIER) were served up to Aaron Bader, and again, Dennis walked away with the win, 396-350. Do you sense a pattern emerging? Against Helen Flores, Dennis AGAIN found himself blessed with a duo of bingos, this time ARTISTE and INTONES, and AGAIN came away with victory clutched tightly in his fists, 400-275. If Dennis can continue to reliably get two bingos in every single game of Scrabble he plays, the phrase "club disbandment" starts to sound kind of like a portent.

Since September is right around the corner, that could only mean one thing: the club season has drawn to a close! Thomas Reinke is this year's club champion with a sweet 75.6% winning percentage. That's like going 3-1 every single night! Charles Reinke trailed behind at 73.2%, with Bryan Benwitz in third at 65.988% (Andy Bohnsack, at 65.951%, was very close to overtaking Bryan).

Helen's nice find of HABITUES was chosen as word of the week. A HABITUE is a resident or frequent customer of a place. Just two words from the new book were played: Gail's GAITERED (the third time she's played that word) and Charles' SEXTING, later extended to SEXTINGS.