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Next Club Meeting There Will Be a Vote On Whether U's Should Be Worth Two Points Instead of One

1st Charles Reinke went 4-0 +288, going undefeated for the second week in a row. His first game was his lowest-scoring, as he scored a mere, A MERE, 414 in a win against Lynda. Not acceptable. He picked up the scoring against Dave in the secound round, even though he only got one bingo, an outplay of KILLERS. Dave played TASTIER and the phony RETANNED*, which Charles purposefully didn't challenge so as to play his outbingo and win the game right then and there. His third-round matchup against Thomas was, as is typical for this particular pair of opponents, a high-scoring affair, with Charles winning 512-446. His first act was turning an awkward rack into TUITIONS, then added HAIRBAND. After Thomas played RECANTS to go up by a bunch, he responded with a 95-point DOILIED (adj. covered in doilies, not to be confused with DOILED, which means "dazed", but don't play DOIL*), a game-winning play that forced an unsuccessful challenge.  He secured his  perfect night with a 448-438 win against Aaron that came down to the final plays. Aaron played the fancy UNCIALLY (adj. in uncial script) and REPAIRED, while Charles got STOOGES, EUGENOLS, and REALTERS.

2nd Thomas Reinke came in second with his 3-1 +343 record, averaging 478 points per contest. He started off with a 491-373 win over Aaron, playing a trio of semi-weird words: WRENTITS (n. a small bird, often confused for a BUSHTIT), LUPANARS (n. a brothel) and FLIVVERS (n. an old, battered car). Against Bryan, he won 473-326, with a not-insignifcant amount of points coming from the phony WHEATLIKE*. Thomas' phony percentage on nine-letter words is very high lately, so if he plays one against you, be sure to be alert and to not let him pull the wool over your eyes. Bryan played the double-double SEARCHED for 106, but Thomas' numerous other bingos were too much to overcome. After a heartbreaking (okay probably not really that heartbreaking but maybe a little sad) loss to his brother, he exacted misplaced revenge on an unsuspecting Helen, 503-359. Helen started off with SOILAGE, but Thomas' MESQUITS (also MESQUITE or MEZQUIT or MEZQUITE) for 122 made things tough. He also played ARENOUS, the definition for which is "ARENOSE", which Dennis played in a different game tonight. If you're not satisfied with that definition, and you shouldn't be, they both mean "sandy".

3rd Dave Kinzer, in the absense of any other 3-1 players, came in third with a 2-1 +51 record. In the first round he turned a very close game into a 55-point win, 381-326, with a late bingo of CIGARETS (angrams AGRESTIC (adj. rural) and ERGASTIC (adj. constituting the non-living byproducts of protoplasmic activity), which drew a challenge from a disbelieving Sue. Obviously, the normal spelling is CIGARETTES; CIGARET was used more often in the 40's/50's before the spelling fell out of favor. He won again in the next round, 336-314 against Betty, where both players had to navigate a board where there didn't seem to be any places to score points. My proposed change where E's are worth 5 points would fix this problem, just saying (for real though U's should be worth 2 all in favor say "aye"). Dave managed to get down TEAPOTS for 73 before things got unplayable, which ended up being the difference in the game. His final game was a 355-381 loss to Helen where he didn't bingo, but Helen got down two: RECITER and what looks to be a phony BISQUITS*. Curse the Bisquick marketers for tainting the brains of our innocent Scrabble players!

East Side, West Side, Doesn't Matter, Charles Wins No Matter Where He Goes

1st Charles Reinke ran roughshod over his "competition" (notice the quotation marks), going 5-0 +920 and averaging 503 per contest. He opened with a 482-433 win against Bryan, outbingoing his opponent 4-1. Bryan did well to keep it close-ish in the face of the onslaught; a high-scoring GRIZES (probably the worst-looking word on the whole dictionary, GRIZ is a grizzly bear) kept that game from being a blowout. Charles upped his scoring in the second round, dropping 547 on Dave while playing HETAIRAI (n. HETAIRA, a concubine, also HETAERA with the plural HETAERAE), BRISTOL, TWENTIES, and WEEPILY. Simultaneously, as he was playing two at once, he scored 570 against Mary, somehow scoring that large amount while only bingoing twice. Let's just assume he got all the high-point tiles in that one. In the third round, the Biblical story of Cain and Abel replayed itself over the Scrabble board, as Charles murdered his brother in cold blood, 505-267. IODATION, PRIORIES, ALIENEE, and OMERTAS where his bingos; Thomas bingoed not at all, and didn't do anything else either. Except get murdered. Lynda put up the best fight of all, losing to Charles by only 48 points, 365-413. Charles' hopes for a 20-bingo night were foiled as he only played a single rack-clearer instead of the 6 he needed to reach his goal.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +124 falling a full win and 800 spread points short of first place. His night got off to a fast start in a two-on-one, beating Lynda 499-318 and Dennis 507-351. His win against Dennis was marked by the nice find of BAUHINIA (n. a tropical tree, the flower of which is the national emblem of Hong Kong) for 101 points. Remember to look for bingos in every rack, even if it doesn't seem very likely! In the next round, he played three bingos against Gail, NEOTERIC, STENTOR, and SPICIER and barely won, 427-411. As he was going for his fourth, Gail went out with RETAKING, leaving him with an orphaned bingo and almost stealing the game. After getting stomped in the third round, Thomas won a close one against Bryan, 441-432. He opened with DELIRIA and later added JOGGLERS, while Bryan played TROUNCER, ENTERAL, and the word-of-the-week nine-letter ORGIASTIC (adj. of or resembling an orgy, or if you want a slightly nicer definition, characterized by unrestrained emotion).

3rd Dennis Lloyd came in third with a 2-2 +38 record; looks like everyone's records were skewed downward by Charles' rampage. He started off with a 351-507 loss against Thomas, getting down YOUNGERS for 80. If that word looks a little funny to you, just think about what the word for the opposite of ELDERS should be. In the second round, he faced Sue, who he beast 364-275 with the aid of CAVITIES. He played a close match with Bryan in the next round, eventually falling 401-425. Bryan played ADVISED and TERRINE, while Dennis' DETOXER* (n. one that detoxes, come on, I even came up with a perfectly good definition for it) was challenged off. He then found a 95-point DEXTROSE to salvage the rack, and then added GAMIEST for 90, but it wasn't enough, or maybe it was for a bit and then wasn't by the end. His trend of bingoing once per game continued against Gail, as he won 471-342 while playing DESERTS. 471 seems like a lot of points for only one bingo; it is likely that he simply didn't write down his multitude of other ones so as to not make the rest of us feel bad.

In other news, Gail played a triple-triple for the second week in a row, this time OVERCOAT for 167 points against Mary. Can she make it three in a row? Find out next week!

Bryan Benwitz Remains Club Leader, We can Only Pray that his Reign will be Fair and Just

1st Bryan Benwitz barely held on to first place this week, beating out the second-place finisher by nineteen spread points with his 3-1 +459 record. In the first two rounds, he built a comfortable cushion of spread against the "Dave Duo" of Dave Kinzer and Dave Gilligan. First, he beat Dave K by a decisive score of 468-293, but his seemingly flawless victory was, in fact, flawed by a phony of DEMINES. DEMINER (one who removes mines) and DEMINING (the act of removing mines) are both good, but, strangely, there's no DEMINE. SIDEMEN was the valid word in the letters than Bryan played. An even more authoritative win over Dave G, 528-245, was not so shamefully marred; Bryan's trio of bingos (FEASING, ROASTED, and NOCTURNE) were all legitimate. His next game, against Thomas Reinke, was much more of a nailbiter, being only a three-point win, 415-412. But just one close game wasn't enough for a thrill-seeker like Bryan, so his final game against Aaron Bader was even closer in margin (although, being a loss, it was a less satisfactory result overall), 388-390. Bryan had EUPLOIDY (word of the week) and GENERATE (not word of the week), while the victor Aaron had just one bingo, GATEMEN (also not word of the week).

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a neat 482 points and over three bingos per game en route to a 3-1 +440 final record. His first game was a 475-388 win over Gail Salm, whose bingos of ERASION and LUSTING weren't enough against Thomas' BUTENES, ETAGERE, and ARRAYERS. While that win displayed an alarming lack of mercy, Thomas' mercilessness was fully unleashed against Aaron Bader, whom he walloped by a score of 528-300. Of the four bingos on the board, all of them were Thomas': MOULTER, COEQUALS, LIONISED, and the triple-triple UNAKITES for 116 (the K must have been a blank). A loss against Bryan Benwitz was more evenly matched at 412-415, with Thomas' two bingos (TEABOARD and EYEHOLES) countered by Bryan's (DUPERIES and NEUROID). Then Thomas returned to his 500-scoring, quadruple-bingoing ways by easily taking down his brother Charles, 511-383 and playing four bingos in the process: DURANCES, ROSELLA, FARROWS, and ELUVIATE. Charles got INHERING and GESTATED to partially soothe the sting of defeat.

3rd Mary Becker returned the top three after a period of absence thanks to a strong 3-1 +140 showing. She began her night by beating Betty Hasselkus 418-324. Mary's play of CRAPPIE drew a challenge from her startled opponent (who knew Mary was capable of bad language?), but was ruled acceptable (Betty's bingo of SLAVING hopefully did not provoke a challenge). The next game was tougher for Mary, as she faced off against Charles Reinke and lost, 291-492. Charles' phony of DELETER (maybe he was thinking of the newly-added UNDELETE?) cast a cloud of regret over the game. However, Mary bounced back nicely while playing two-on-one in the next round, beating both her opponents to get her spread back into positive territory. One win came against second-timer Carl Skalitzky, 453-235, and the other win was a lower-scoring 320-291 match against Sue Goldstein. Mary bingoed once in each of those games, playing DISTILL against Carl and the nice find of CHIGGERS against Sue (a CHIGGER is a type of fly).

Aaron Bader also went 3-1, but his prim and proper +0 spread left him on the outside of the top three with his face pressed against the glass and looking sad.