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Aaron's Streak Ends at Eleven, But We Finished Before Ten

1st Charles Reinke compiled a perfect 5-0 +587 record to secure undisputed first-place honors. To start things off, he played a two-on-one against Dave Gilligan and the late-arriving Dennis Lloyd (maybe if we shame him enough it will miraculously ease rush-hour traffic!); this opening venture was very successful for Charles, as he won both games: 501-320 against Dave (playing SERIOUS, LEISTERS, and ABUTTED) and 429-360 against Dennis (playing SNAPWEED). Charles then faced off against win-streak-possessor Aaron Bader in a tense battle; the game was symbolically played at one of the more highly-elevated tables in the space to represent how momentous the occasion was. However, the symbolism was wasted as Charles ran away with the win, 502-374. Aaron played DOILIES; Charles had SOVRANS and RECOILED. As a reward for his strong start, he encountered Lynda Finn in the third round and cooled off his scoring a little bit, winning a defensive match 373-331. Both players were held to a lower-than-usual amount of bingos; Lynda had LORINERS to Charles' UNROBES. Understandably annoyed by this perceived lack of bingos, Charles went on to play four of them (RETINOLS, FORCEDLY, SONATINE, EMBROWN) in a 504-337 win over Thomas Reinke that cemented his undefeated night of tile-slinging.

2nd Lynda Finn replicated her 4-1 finish of a few weeks ago with a 4-1 +242 record. She finished second in the standings, but tied for first in number of bingos, playing eleven of them through her five games. Her first game was a high-flying match against Bryan Benwitz which ended with a heady 517-425 result. Bryan got down ENAMORED and SKIPPED, but Lynda Finn had four bingos of her own, one of them being a money-earning triple-triple: REFIGURE, TENDRILS, ENROOTS, and 3x3 LUSTIEST. She then, due to our odd nature, took part in a two-on-one against Helen Flores and Mary Becker; she won both of them, spookily with the same winning score (423-355 against Mary; 423-347 against Helen) and played five total bingos: ISOLATE, PETERING, ERASABLE, STAMPED, and NEARING. A loss to Charles Reinke dashed her hopes of an undefeated record, but, free from the pressure of aiming for a perfect night, she took down Aaron Bader in the final game, 420-373. Aaron out-bingoed her (his TOKENING and PRESTER vs her STOOLIES) but failed to benefit from the imagined rule that says that the player who bingoes more is awarded the win.

3rd Helen Flores boldly entered the triumvirate of place-winners with her 3-1 +179 record. She averaged an astounding 428 per game, nearly 70 points above her average score for the year. Her first game, against Gail Salm, was a comfortable 408-338 win, due in part to a 70-point DIGESTED (Gail played LANKIER to even up the bingo tally). A loss to Lynda Finn followed, but Helen transformed the agony of that defeat into all-out rage against her next opponent, Mary Becker, and the result of that rage was a decisive 509-354 win for Helen. Mary played STASHED, but Helen's OUTLIES and VITAMIN (the latter for 92 points), plus a bevy of other high-scoring plays, resulted in an easy win for her. The high-scoring trend continued for her going into the final game as she notched a rare win against expert Bryan Benwitz, her first against that particular opponent in over a year. The final score was 451-417, and Helen flexed her newfound clout with three bingos (LAUWINE, RELAXED, and SLICERS) against Bryan's sole ORCEINS. Rumors circulating in Scrabble circles indicate that the scoresheet of this game may be affixed via magnet to Helen's fridge.

Bryan's VELVETY was chosen as word of the week.

Someone Other Than The Usual Suspects Has a 10-Game Win Streak

1st Aaron Bader played 16 bingos (is that a club record? must be close at least) on his way to a 5-0 +573 record, his strong performance putting him at 10-game winning streak. He got off to a quick start in his opening two-on-one, beating Gail and Betty by a combined 300 points and playing 7 bingos. Gail's early word-of-the-week QUIXOTES (the first bingo played at this club with both a Q and an X, quick, someone work on QUINCUNX) helped her early, but Aaron's DELUGED, ERICOID, and LINOTYPE led to a big win for him. In the second round, he faced Lynda and won, 464-432. He started with bingos of SLEIGHT and DARINGLY, and later added RENNASE, while Lynda played ROUTEMAN and OUTVIES (and I thought I saw SIGNEES on the board but it wasn't written on the scorecard) but it wasn't quite enough. His 400-368 win against Bryan in the third round was marked by the 5-vowel-8 OOGAMETE (n. a female gamete of certain protozoa, and it takes a Z on the front for ZOOGAMETE). His most impressive win he saved for last, a 478-278 drubbing of club champion Charles. Aaron played ERIGERON, EPICENE, ONAGERS (n. ONAGER, a wild ass of central Asia, the other plural ONAGRI is a little less useful), and PLATFORM. Here's the list of bingos Charles played in that game:

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +193, tactfully avoiding the unstoppable Aaron to come in second place. In the opener, he beat Charles 397-390, a low winning total for someone with 3 bingos. He played OTALGIA (n. pain in the ear), CASKETED, and UNSHAPED. That last one was the game-winning play, scoring 86 and going out on a closed board to win by 7. Against Bryan, he lost 301-394, only squeaking above the desired 300 mark by playing SNARLIER. Bryan played ACHIOTE and BURRITOS,  that last one invoking the little-known club bylaw B.IV.4 that states in part "any time a player bingos with a food item, they must bring that food item to the next club session for everyone to enjoy, unless that food item is LENTILS". Thanks for the future burritos! Thomas recovered from that low-scoring loss with a 491-310 win against Dennis, playing GENUINE (which doesn't take any hooks in case you were wondering) and RENDZINA (n. a type of soil) as well as a bevy of other high-scoring plays. In the final game, he got outbingoed 2-1 by Dave, REALISE and PROSIEST to his RACIEST, but won anyway, 432-334.

3rd Bryan Benwitz came in third with a 3-1 +172 record, missing out on second by only a few spread points. He won a close-ish 387-346 game versus Helen to start his night, aided by his successful challenge of BONZERS*. BONZER is an adjective meaning "very good", not to be confused with BONZE, which is a Buddhist monk. In the second round he ended a 5-game losing streak he had against Thomas with a 394-301 win. He played VIRUSES and ROSINED against Aaron but lost 368-400, which doesn't seem fair since one of his bingos had both a V and a U in it. In his last win, a 416-346 win against Mary, he responded to her SCATTER with PRINTERS, then added TEENIEST later to seal the win.

Aside from Gail's QUIXOTES, other bingo news includes Mary's triple-triple of RESPITES against Helen, and Dennis and Lynda's matchup which featured three phony bingos and no valid ones. If they were just going to let each other play fakes, they should've went all out and phony-bingoed every turn. That would definitely set some records!

Every Win is Like Its Own Miniature Winning Streak

1st Aaron Bader easily came in first place with a 3-0 +264 record. He started off slow-ish with a 400-340 win over Thomas, playing INSERTED and a late RETABLO (n. a shelf above an altar, also RETABLE) to seal the game. Against Lynda in the second round, he got down the word-of-the-week THANATOS (n. the instinct for death, the opposite of EROS), ASTEROID, and LEUCINE on his way to a 481-334 win. His big accomplishment of the night was ending Charles' 18-game winning streak in the third round, 468-411. His key to success? Play phonies and hope they don't get challenged. He made a phony three-letter word on one of his high-scoring plays, and also played POSTHEEN* as a bingo. POSTEEN and POTHEEN are both acceptable; the close spelling POSHTEEN* is only good in the British Scrabble dictionary. There was no fourth game for him; I think beating Charles counted as two.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +209, which doesn't seem like it should be a good enough record for second place but it is. His low-scoring 340-400 loss to Aaron gave way to a slightly-higher-scoring-but-still-low-for-him 372-301 against Bryan. He played ATTAINED and INSTARS (n. to adorn with stars, anagrams STRAINS and SANTIRS), while Bryan played PINITES as his sole bingo. Thomas had his best game of the night against Lynda, winning 535-386 in round 3, playing INFINITE, CATTALO, THORACES, and DONNEES. At the same time, however, he was getting cut down to size by Mary, against whom he ended up losing 330-375. Mary's late QUEERING was the key to her victory. In the final round, he defeated Charles 453-359, but most of the difference can be attributed to the fact that Charles had just lost the previous round and was still getting over the shock. Thomas played REGINAE, PYRANOSE, and a double-blank SATSANG as his bingos in that game.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 -70, winning his first three games before getting in the first two games of what will undoubtedly be a very long and frustrating (for him, not for anyone else) losing streak. He opened with a 419-397 close win over Bryan, featuring a nine-letter ESTIMATED. Bryan himself passed up PROGRAMED in the same spot (nines ending in -ED are the best). Bryan had some sort of unholy VWXZ combo on his last rack, the point that he would normally be getting from those letters instead being given to his opponent who managed to go out before him. He then faced Helen and Gail in a two-on-one, and he squeaked by both with a combined 59 points to spare. Only careful endgame play saved him against Gail. He failed to bingo, and managed to win 340-321. Against Helen, he played SEMIBALD (adj. partly bald and ROSETTE, with the final scoring being 433-393 in his favor. He then finished the night with losses to Aaron and Thomas, and we say farewell to him receiving paragraphs in the writeup for the foreseeable future.