With the Slate Wiped Clean, Charles Reinke Immedately Writes his Name on It Again

1st Charles Reinke couldn't have asked for a better way to start the new club season; he averaged 524 over his four games and played ten bingos. Probability and math say he won't keep it up, but the indomitable nature of his will says he can. Of all Charles' opponents, Bryan Benwitz came nearest to breaking Charles' will, losing by a mere 41 points, 393-434. PRICKED and FEASTED were Bryan's bingos, while Charles got down OMERTAS and ANTIARIN. Charles followed up that game with a pair of 570-point outbursts against Gail Salm (578-250) and Peter Schmiedicke (571-448). However, both were marred by phonies; Charles played EENIEST (confusion with EENSIEST?) against Gail and a 185-point triple-triple of REACCESS against Peter. The game against Peter was the second in a row between these two players that ended with a combined score of over 1000; last week, Peter beat Charles by a score of 526-484. When do they start drug testing in Scrabble, anyway? Only a 20% phony average can mar what is otherwise a very strong start to the year.

2nd Aaron Bader had a fairly consistent evening, scoring in the 400s in each of his games while going 3-1 +351. The new club season didn't begin the way Aaron envisioned, as he was paired with (and lost to) the formidable Thomas Reinke, 428-443. Both players had a pair of bingos; OUTLYING and LACTOSE for Thomas, VAUNTER and BOREENS for Aaron. His bingo fortunes would remain the same for the rest of the night (he played two in each game), but his scoring output did see a significant uptick in the final two games, allowing him to average 452 on the night. A game against Betty Hasselkus ended strongly in Aaron's favor, 467-306. Aaron played SIGNORE and FANTAIL (TAILFAN is also good), with Betty getting down LOANERS. Peter Schmiedicke did not fare any better, with his match against Aaron also being close to a blowout in the wrong direction, 330-496. After struggling with clunky racks for the first half of the game, Peter finally got down SEATLESS and OUTLINES, but Aaron's higher-scoring TANNERY and DOWDIER, plus a bevy of other high-scoring plays, were enough for a comfortable win.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 with a rather diminutive +80 cumulative. The perpetrator was a 132-point loss to his brother, 379-511. Thomas played TELLIES and VOYAGES, the latter for 96 points, but Charles' trio of ARGENTUM, NONAGONS, and word-of-the-week WIZARDER (adj. WIZARD meaning fine or superb) built up a fortress of points that proved impossible to breach. Fun fact: WIZARDER was deemed such a stupid word that the new Collins dictionary refused to include it! Thomas did manage to win two games in which he only bingoed one time: 436-404 over Bryan Benwitz (playing GAINSAID) and 422-257 over Dave Gilligan (playing VENDORS). Thomas' current 1.5-per-game bingo average will need to be improved if he wants to reach last year's 2.18-per-game average. Luckily, there are still 51 weeks to do so.

Both of the new words this week were played by Charles: OMERTAS (a useful anagram for MAESTRO) and WIZARDER.