Stats for June 14, 2023
1st Sara McLaughlin stunned the field with a flawless 4-0 +163 performance, defeating a lineup of the club's best players without so much as a single bead of sweat forming on her forehead. Her first win was 388-367 over Thomas Reinke, getting a pair of bingos, STUDIES and AMITIES. She then set her sights on Lynda Finn, and won in decisive fashion, 387-287. A phony bingo of RESTAIN* was perhaps the only notable flaw on her otherwise perfect scorecard, but there is precedent for that particular phony (three other players have gotten away with the same exact word), so she gets a pass. In round three, Sara squeaked out a win against Bryan Benwitz, 368-354. Then, in the final round, she faced Charles Reinke, an opponent whom she has never beaten, but with a perfect record on the line, she rose to the challenge and willed herself to victory, 433-405. A monster 158-point triple-triple of REHABBED was the turning point of the game, enough to overcome Charles' ECSTASY and ROASTING. And with that, Sara added her name to the illustrious list of players who played four games of Scrabble and didn't lose any of them. (A hard copy of the list, printed on the finest cardstock, will be furnished to the requestor upon receipt of a $25 check made out to the club.)
2nd Thomas Reinke made his typical appearance in the top three with a 3-1 +172 record. Aside from his first-round defeat at the hands of Sara McLaughlin, all his games were well over 400 points. His best game was a high-scoring Collins-lexicon bout against familiar foe Charles Reinke, which he won in the end, 508-482. Thomas got down a trio of showy bingos with LEVOGYRE, SONATINE, and JETFOILS; Charles had FANDOMS and AERADIOS. More crazy words were hurled violently down onto the board when Thomas vanquished Bryan Benwitz 483-436. Bryan found EMBOLUS and CORTEXES (the latter for 116 big points), while Thomas had ACHIRAL, FERRITE, and DOLMENIC.
3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 with a surprising -33 spread. The reason for that negative spread total will be revealed in due time. First, though, we must discuss some of the games which Dennis won. His highest score came in a 436-369 encounter with Lynda Finn, who was held bingoless while Dennis got down CHARRED, WASHERS, and IRONIES. Dennis also displayed some real Wisconsin hospitality when he defeated visiting Iowa player Mike Weepie 357-320. The combatants traded bingos in that one, with Mike finding RESTATE and Dennis getting PARTINGS. However, Dennis' match against Bryan Benwitz was considerably less successful, as Bryan scored an incredible 634 points, and Dennis was left with a respectable but insufficient 331 points. The main factor of Bryan's dominant display of Scrabble might was his triple-triple ZIPPIEST for 248 points. Since we began keeping detailed records in 2011, only one other play has scored that many points, that being Thomas' MOBILIZE back in 2016.
| Avg. Game Score | 387 |
| Avg. Intermediate Score | 0 |
| Avg. Expert Score | 387 |
| Avg. Winning Score | 421 |
| Avg. Losing Score | 353 |
| Avg. Bingo Score | 82 |
