Aaron Dominates the Collins Field

It was a hotly contested night in the church basement where Scrabble scores consistently exceeded room temperature despite how it felt at times. The Brothers Reinke were absent as they were returning from the North American Scrabble Championships. As a result there was a palpable energy in the air from the excitement of the numerous players who thought they might actually have a chance to finish in the top two for a change.

1st Aaron Bader had an unbeatable 4-0 +475 showing against arch Collins Rival Mark Kenas. Aaron averaged 480 points and 11 bingos, 7 of which are good in TWL as well. The other 4 were Collins valid for sure, even though they are marked here as TWL phonies. Aaron not only had the high average, but the high game score of the week with a 480. 

2nd Andy Bohnsack led the TWL pack with a 4-1 +215. Andy's only loss was to Lynda, during which he noted it was the third time tonight that his opponent opened with a blank bingo. Andy fired back with plentiful bingos of his own, including the lovely 5 vowel 8, ETIOLATE.

3rd Lynda Finn with 4-1 -88, showed the 3-1 finishers that if you plan on losing one game and still placing in the top three, you better play 2 at a time, like Andy and Lynda did. Despite her huge loss to Bryan Benwitz, where she was outbingoed 3 to 0 and outscored by 149 points, she mananged to claw out very close wins against all her other opponents. The closest was in the final game against Richard Lauder, where she won by the narrowest of narrow margins. It was a bit of a comedy of errors. Early in the game Richard passed on the valid UNDREST, and late in the game Lynda inadvertently emptied the bag, allowing Richard to bingo out and catch her with a large rack. Memo to scrabblers, count the bag before you play late in the game when only a bingo out could catch you.

Shout outs to Bryan Benwitz for his 150 pt. word of the week ZEMSTVO and his high TWL average of 464 and his 11 bingo bonuses tying Aaron for bingo kingo. Honorable metions to Gail Salm for her lovely ZOISITES, Richard Lauder for his lovely CATTLEYA and Helen Flores for the ever so lovely 158 point triple-triple of BLINDERS. 

This just in from Ft. Wayne IN. CONGRATS go to Thomas Reinke for his 18th place finish in a field of over 400. He finished 17.5 - 13.5 +758. To be reminded of how great a player Thomas is, follow along with his two tight losses here, and see if you can find all the superior moves that he does:

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2016/9;turn=0

http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2016/12;turn=0

CONGRATS go to Charles Reinke for his 30th place finish. He finished 16 - 15 +442.

CONGRATS to Buffy Hogan for her 15-16 showing in a tough division D.