New Season, Same Game

1st Thomas Reinke started the new club season off right, but not as right as he could have, going 3-1 +292. He opened with a big 525-299 win against Gail, where he played VOTARESS, SHINOLA, and RECANED (dumbest RE- word ever?). A smart person would have stopped playing right then and there to maintain a 525 average on the year, but Thomas, greedy as ever, desired wins over statistical feats. To that end, he beat Charles 470-406 with his bingos of IDEALISM, UNFORGED, and TENTERS. Charles was held bingoless until the very last play, when he played VIOLATES. As they say, if you can't bingo early, bingo late, and if you can't bingo late, bingo early. In the third game, Aaron attemped to put that adage to use against Thomas, seeing a blank as his first tile, but was stymied by his remaining draw of IIRRUU. Aaron did end up striking first, with the fancy DEIFORM, but lost 387-430. Thomas' dreams of an undefeated season ended when he faced Bryan in the final game, where he lost 393-434. He played SOOTIER and RETINULA versus Bryan's ADAPTION and CONFUSED, but Bryan's late flurry of non-bingo scoring put the game away.

2nd Charles Reinke bingoed only 5 times in 4 his games, a low total for him, but still went 3-1 +228, good for second place. In the first round, he overcame an early 100-point deficit against Mary to win 414-325. His find of TAPIOCA (n. a disgusting "food" concoction) for 84 points seemed to make the difference. After falling to his brother in the second game, he faced Bryan, who he dispatched without the aid of any bingos, 373-335. Details are scarce, but it seems safe to assume that he scored points in other ways. Perhaps power tiles? Let's go with power tiles on this one. Things picked up a bit for him against Gail, where he won 487-322. He played the oddly-spelled COLISEUM as well as PROVISO in that contest.

3rd Bryan Benwitz also went 3-1, his spread of +144 putting him in third place. I haven't looked at the full standings yet, but I'm just going to assume that everyone went 3-1. Anyway, Bryan got the best of of Helen in the first game, 393-352, playing BRAINED (adj. what Bryan is) and TIPTOED against Helen's BOOGIED. Following that, he won the "most reasonable nonword of the week" prize (0 dollars) with LATCHERS* in his 444-344 win versus Mary. If you are ever tempted to play that almost-word, play TRACHLE instead. In the interest of full disclosure, Bryan also played INDIGOS and MULATTOS in that game. Just so you don't think he plays nothing but phonies. As stated in the previous paragraph, Bryan outbingoed Charles 2-0 in their third-round matchup, with NITROUS and word-of-the-week PANORAMA, but somehow lost. Luckily, he got some measure of revenge against Thomas.