Bryan Benwitz Has Sworn Off Losing, Perhaps Forever

1st Bryan Benwitz enjoyed a night free from the agony of loss, going 4-0 +436. His big game came against Mary Becker, who he defeated roundly by a score of 506-290. Bryan unleashed four bingos in his winning effort: PICRITES, INGRAIN, OBTUSER, and ENMESHED. Charles Reinke fared somewhat better, but not much, as Bryan handed him his only loss, 471-339. This time around, Bryan had just three bingos (SPOOKED, STOURIE, and PANNERS), but it was easily enough to overcome Charles' singular bingo of LEASHED. The experience and knowledge gained from beating one Reinke was then applied towards beating the other Reinke, and it worked, with Bryan besting Thomas in a close game, 388-385. In contrast to Bryan's other games, there was not much bingoing going on in this one, with each player having just one to their name: LEADERS for Bryan, SOLANDER for Thomas.

2nd Sue Goldstein bested her yearly average by fifty points, averaging 366 points per game while finishing 3-0 +266. She started off by introducing new player Adrienne Kiser to the ways of the world via a 361-276 win. She then reintroduced those same concepts to Susan Vergeront, playing a 72-point bingo of FASTING as part of a solid 344-282 victory. The best was saved for last, however, as she defeated the returning June Scott by a landslide, 377-258.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +261, with only first-place finisher Bryan Benwitz able to disrupt his winning ways. The rest of his games were higher-scoring affairs, the lowest of them being a 447-366 victory over Lynda Finn. Lynda had SHORTIA for 95 points, but three lower-scoring bingos are preferable to one high-scoring bingo; Charles had TENSION, DIPLOMAT, and ETERNITY to ensure the win. Similarly, against Betty Hasselkus, Charles' bingos of PHILTRE (v. to put under the spell of a love potion) and GREAVED more than countered Betty's SOUREST, and he won 488-337. To end the evening on a high note, Charles took down Gail Salm 470-309. Gail had NUTSIER, but a pair of hefty bingos (COZENAGE for 86, PERCIDS for 99) swung the pendulum far to Charles' side.

Dave Gilligan's IFFINESS was chosen as word of the week, narrowly beating Mary Becker's ALPACAS. We had a good amount of new bingos played: ANODISE (Bryan), PERCIDS (Charles), SHERWANI (Aaron), and ANTHROS (Peter). We also welcomed a new player, Adrienne Kiser, to the club. She got her first taste of Scrabble success by defeating Barb Besadny 320-317 thanks to a bingo of JELLIES.