1st Charles Reinke found himself on the top of the proverbial heap with a perfect 4-0 +334 record. His first game was, unsurprisingly, a victory, with Charles triumphing 418-334 over James Frankki. Charles had SNEERED and PANIERS as his bingos, while James had SERENADE (which is SNEERED + A). A match against Dave Gilligan ended with Charles' out-bingo of GURGLING, which took a relatively close game into "drubbing" territory, 452-267. The upward trajectory for Charles continued as he faced off against Bryan Benwitz and won 516-389. Bryan played CRISPIER and URETHANS, but Charles proved once again that three bingos is better than two by playing DETENTS, DEBATING, and EMENDERS. That previously-mentioned upward trajectory, which seemed poised to unceasingly continue upward for all eternity, did drop down a little bit in the final game as Charles squeaked out a close game against newcomer Barb Pratzel, 398-376. Barb's SQUAREST for 100 was the highest-scoring bingo of the night, but it fell just short of securing her the victory.
2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +224, but his 80% winning percentage was barely higher than his 79.2% winning percentage for the club season, meaning he should have tried harder to go 5-0. His first game was a two-on-one with mixed results; he beat Dennis Lloyd in a tightly-fought 385-369 contest, but fell to Bryan Benwitz 397-440 in the other game. Interestingly, Thomas phonied Dennis with the plausible-sounding misscore, a word which all Scrabble players have used at least one time while correcting an incorrectly-counted play. In the second round, Thomas had another close game, but used bingos of DIVORCEE and DRONERS to take out James Frankki 408-392. James played CHOLERA, which is good in Scrabble but not good in real life. After a solid 405-324 win against Betty Hasselkus, Thomas went up against Mark Kenas in a game using the Collins dictionary. That one was a blowout in Thomas' favor, 493-339, and he had a trio of nice bingos: ACACIAS, FURANES, and word-of-the-week NAPROXEN.
3rd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 +147, taking third by just a few spread points over Barb Pratzel. He started strongly and fearlessly by taking down Thomas Reinke 440-397, playing bingos of ALEURONE, ENDORSEE, and ARRAIGNS to great effect. A game against Gail Salm in the next round was slightly less comfortable for Bryan, but he still got the win, 398-375. Gail did outbingo him by getting UNSEATS and BETAINES to Bryan's sole SUNTANS. In the third round, Bryan suffered his only loss, the 389-516 final score wiping out all of his spread and leaving him in the negatives. However, all that spread was gained back and more with a 524-316 win over James Frankki. His three bingos of MENTION, REVILER, and TORSADE were nice, but even nicer were his non-bingo plays of FUNPLEX and QAJAQ, the latter of which might not get played for another two decades.
4th Barb Pratzel, in her first-ever experience with competitive Scrabble, went 3-1 +130 (with a 406 average!) and just barely missed out on the top three. Her best game was a 458-378 win against Gail Salm where she played UNEARTHS and STRIVEN. With six bingos in four games, she found herself right at home with the club's collection of bingo-prone players!
Charles Reinke | 4-0 +418 |
Thomas Reinke | 4-1 +224 |
Bryan Benwitz | 3-1 +147 |
Barb Pratzel | 3-1 +130 |
Aaron Bader | 2-1 +216 |
Dave Gilligan | 2-2 -162 |
David Kinzer | 1-1 +37 |
Betty Hasselkus | 1-2 -83 |
Dennis Lloyd | 1-3 +70 |
Gail Salm | 1-3 -103 |
James Frankki | 1-3 -176 |
Mark Kenas | 1-3 -370 |
Sue Goldstein | 0-3 -348 |
Thomas Reinke | 75 | 154 | 51 | 1 | 446 | 372 | 476 | 2.31 | 11 | 2.3 | 20 |
Charles Reinke | 74.1 | 158 | 55 | 1 | 443 | 375 | 462 | 2.16 | 5 | 1.1 | 25 |
Aaron Bader | 61.8 | 68 | 42 | 0 | 445 | 419 | 243 | 2.21 | 54 | 22.2 | 2 |
Bryan Benwitz | 61.5 | 112 | 70 | 0 | 421 | 379 | 324 | 1.78 | 7 | 2.2 | 1 |
Lynda Finn | 52.9 | 18 | 16 | 1 | 395 | 385 | 52 | 1.49 | 1 | 1.9 | 5 |
Andy Bohnsack | 50 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 402 | 386 | 6 | 1.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Richard Lauder | 48.7 | 38 | 40 | 0 | 376 | 396 | 132 | 1.69 | 4 | 3 | 11 |
David Kinzer | 40.2 | 16 | 24 | 1 | 349 | 381 | 22 | 0.54 | 1 | 4.5 | 0 |
Dennis Lloyd | 36.9 | 23 | 40 | 2 | 373 | 406 | 80 | 1.23 | 9 | 11.3 | 8 |
Mark Kenas | 35.7 | 40 | 72 | 0 | 416 | 445 | 230 | 2.05 | 44 | 19.1 | 0 |
Helen Flores | 35.1 | 57 | 106 | 1 | 348 | 399 | 133 | 0.81 | 8 | 6 | 1 |
BingosBryan Benwitz | 9 | ALEURONE ENDORSEE ARRAIGNS SUNTANS CRISPIER URETHANS REVILER MENTION TORSADE |
Charles Reinke | 8 | SNEERED PANIERS COPILOTS GURGLING DETENTS DEBATING EMENDERS RESTATE |
Thomas Reinke | 8 | GAMIEST DRONERS DIVORCEE FOOTSIE NAPROXEN FURANES ACACIAS misscore |
Dennis Lloyd | 8 | WALLETS ETESIAN BRAINING AUTOMAT LEAKING NAILSET unspring bailist |
Mark Kenas | 7 | STIRRED MISSOUT PONTILS STERNWAY UNDERLIE REJOINS TENTIER |
Barb Pratzel | 6 | AUDITORS INQUIRE UNEARTHS STRIVEN SQUAREST methene |
Aaron Bader | 5 | FUCOIDS GESTATE ABALONE CODINGS TUTORED |
Gail Salm | 5 | OATIEST UNSEATS BETAINES GRANITES INCOMES |
Dave Gilligan | 4 | OVERSOAK CINDERS SNORTED GROUNDED |
James Frankki | 4 | SERENADE CHOLERA DISUNITE TINKERS |
Betty Hasselkus | 3 | STAGIER PIMENTO ANGLERS |
Sue Goldstein | 2 | TEACHER LANCERS |
David Kinzer | 1 | READOUT |
21-May: Scrabble at Misty Mountain Games | 28-May: Scrabble at Covenant Church | 4-Jun: Scrabble at Covenant Church | 11-Jun: Scrabble at Covenant Church |