Cats Away; Mice Play

(big thanks to Helen for doing the write-up!)

The Reinkes were at Nationals, Lynda at a college reunion, Richard was in Door County, and Aaron suffered an injury. The weather may have kept several other club members away when the stalwart band of Scrabblers at the Church – Bryan, Mary, Sue, Gail and Helen – faced a new and formidable opponent.

Nomadic Scrabbler Vicki Holmes came to town and took first place. She routed Gail in a 393 – 264 match, bested Bryan and then Mary. But those were just warmups. Against Helen Vicki had a couple of "bam-dingers," i.e. a regional idiomatic term for plays worth more than 100 points. She tripled for 105 points by hooking Helen’s "evoke" with HARRIER. Not satisfied with that fine play, she managed the triple-triple EMULATED for 149 points, defeating Helen 511-309. Thanks to our more than gracious hospitality she plans to return to club when next in town.

Excepting his loss to Vicki, Bryan scored over 400 points in his other games, beating Sue by 81 points and Gail by 86. His best game against hapless Helen was a 496 – 245 point rout.

Mary Becker placed third. She had only one bingo, VIOLATOR but scored 414 points against Gail’s 293. She tied Helen at 347 with her out play, had a close game with Sue and lost the fight against Vicki.