Charles Reinke Wages Word War

1st Charles Reinke, tired of mundane 4-0 outings, surpassed that drudgery with a stellar 5-0 +669 performance. He built up some momentum in the first round by taking out both Betty Hasselkus (482-290) and Mary Becker (399-381). That momentum was clearly carried over into the next round as he scored a mind-boggling 647 against Gail Salm. Charles had just three bingos in that game (RETAKES, INWEAVES, and VICTORIA), not an unusual total for him, but a bevy of high-scoring power tile plays were what propelled his score to stratospheric heights. Charles ensured that another three bingos (ANTEDATE, STERLING, DELATES) were on order for Bryan Benwitz, but the score of that game was a more reasonable 453-402, as Bryan got down CENTRUMS and VALIANCE (anagram VALENCIA). As so often happens, Charles had to face his undefeated brother in the final round, and, given that Charles got first-paragraph honors here, you know who won. In contradiction of their high per-game averages, the match between brothers ended in a somewhat low 412-395 score, and neither player reached their bingo average either (Charles had PAVISERS and ADRENALS; Thomas had REIGNITE).

2nd Thomas Reinke had a perfect record going into the fourth round and should have stopped there, but he foolishly played his fourth game to wind up with a 3-1 +376 record. He took out Lynda Finn in the first round by callously denying her even a single bingo, despite the UN having declared bingos to be a universal human right. The final score was 461-347, and Thomas had the only two bingos in the game, EROTICS and AIRLIFT. Thomas wasn't quite as callous in the next game against Dave Gilligan, allowing him to play a 90-point POTTIES, but the result was even more lopsided, this time 456-300 in Thomas' favor. Two bingos of TORNADIC and FAIRIEST certainly helped there. A third big win was tallied against the wily Richard Lauder, 389-266, despite a big bingo of HAZINESS from Richard's end. Thomas continued his trend of playing dubious comparatives that started with FAIRIEST by unblinkingly laying down TOWERIER. What's next for this madman? IVORIEST? PARTIEST?

3rd Bryan Benwitz narrowly missed second place, going 3-1 +364 (for the mathematically-impaired, that's 12 fewer spread points Thomas). Just saying, twelve points could easily be made up over four games via "innocent" "scoring errors". Bryan didn't break 400 in either of his first two wins, but managed to average 432 for the session thanks to a big game at the end. He defeated Helen Flores 386-288 with bingos of RESTIVE and TUNDRAS, then played a very similar game against Mary Becker which he won 392-304 (getting down SORTERS and TRIPLING). Neither opponent bingoed, which is always a strategy for success if it can be pulled off and if you don't care about blatantly violating UN resolutions. After a brief hiccup in the form of a loss to first-placer Charles Reinke, Bryan released the full power of his word arsenal upon Gail Salm, and won their match 549-320. In truth, Bryan didn't have to delve that deep into his well of words, as his three bingos were rather pedestrian: DILUTERS, ENTITLE, and SITTERS.

Dave Gilligan is the proud recipient of Word of the Week with his find of HEJIRAS, played against Lynda Finn.