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Four Undefeated Sessions In a Row for Club Champion

1st Charles Reinke went undefeated again, this just keeps happening, finishing with a 4 wins, no losses, and an appropriate-for-the-setting +666 spread. He started off with a 416-290 win against Helen, where he navigated a closed board for the entire game before bingoing out with STRINES (n. English as spoken in Australia). Unsatisfied with the amount of bingo action in that game, he played four against Aaron in the next round: ALENCONS, DRAWTUBE, SILVEXES for 122, and REALISER. Oh, and he scored 543 while doing so. An impressive total indeed, until you see what he did in the next game: a 583-403 win over Lynda. Lynda triple-tripled with LURDANES for 140, but Charles played GROUTIER, DERIVING, VITTLES, GRANITIC, and NETIZENS (n. a frequent user of the Internet). 9 bingos in 2 games is no small feat, but how would you react if I said he bingoed NINE MORE times in his final game????? Disbelief would be the proper reaction, because I don't think anyone has ever bingoed that many times, and in reality he only did so twice against long-traveling visitor David Weiss. A close game turned into a decisive 454-333 win on his back-to-back DOLICELY and EXTREMES. In case people weren't aware: Charles is on a 16-game winning streak right now, having gone undefeated 4 straight sessions. I'm starting to worry that he's never going to lose again.

2nd Lynda Finn went 4-1 -73, her low spread attributable to Charles' 5-bingo onslaught against her. She opened with a 2-on-1, winning 403-372 against Dave K. and 393-370 against Dave G. A 3-on-1 with the third David was planned for that round, but didn't prove to be feasible. Her most impressive win of the night came against Thomas in the second round, 505-460. Thomas started off big with FREEZES for 103 and GENOCIDE for 89 back-to-back, leaving her in a big hole, but she stormed back playing TURNERS, BEACHING, and the fancy five-vowel-eight word-of-the-week AGUELIKE (adj. resembling ague, malarial fever), along with some high-scoring power tile plays. Thomas could do little but watch, and their combined total of 965 is the fourth-highest of the season. As already detailed, her triple-triple of LURDANES for 140 against Charles didn't come close to winning her the game, but it did win her 5 dollars, which is almost as good, really. Maybe even better, if you consider that the real joy in Scrabble is not winning or losing but in finding the best plays. In the final round, she faced Helen (who was in a 2-on-1 herself, because Lynda for some reason didn't want to do two in the same night) and won 385-377. Helen got down IRONIST (having just had that word played on her by Aaron in the previous round) and LICENSED, while Lynda got RIVIERA.

3rd Aaron Bader went 3-1 -41, his low spread attributable to Charles' 4-bingo onslaught against him. His first-round match against Bryan ended 435-354 in his favor. He played the Collins-only RATLING* in that game (RATLINE and RATLIN are the acceptable variants in the "normal" dictionary), but Bryan later hooked it for his own bingo so it wasn't all bad for him. Things went south for him against Charles when he foolishly put down a D in the triple lane, allowing his opponent to play DRAWTUBE for a ton of points. This illustrates a key strategy regarding the game of Scrabble: playing letters on the board means your opponent could use them to play their own letters, so you should probably avoid making a play most (if not all) turns. Things got better in the third round, where he faced Helen and Thomas (who was very upset at being part of the "two" instead of the sole "one") in a two-on-one. He beat Helen 384-307 with his SERMONIC overcoming Helen's WIZARDS. Against Thomas, he played IRONIST and OUTRIDE and won, 385-345, a low scoring game that should cause both players some measure of embarrassment.

Charles Reinke at 13 Straight Wins, but there are Cracks in the Facade

1st Charles Reinke came out on top of a smallish group of players by going 4-0 +127, his third-straight undefeated night of Scrabble. However, his smaller-than-usual point spread and his lower-than-usual 398 per-game average showed that he is indeed fallible. Aaron Bader would disagree with that assessment, as he was the first victim in Charles' running of the table; their game ended with a score of 414-344 despite equitable bingo totals (UNDERTOW and SANDABLE for Charles, TAILORED and TEAHOUSE for Aaron). The bingo situation was uncannily similar in a 438-410 win over Bryan Benwitz (the winner's ALIDADES and BROMELIA to the loser's DEACONRY and WIRINESS, note that the use of the term "loser" here is only meant to be lightly disparaging). The two games which followed both saw Charles held underneath the 400-point mark, which is a good start to beating him, but isn't enough by itself (you also have to score more points than him). He barely escaped with a win against noted tough customer Lynda Finn, 348-340, then played a close game, 391-370 against a second tough customer, Helen Flores. For the only time in four wins, Charles out-bingoed his opponent in that one, playing MENORAH and ELEVATED versus Helen's CHARGERS.

2nd Aaron Bader ducked out one game early due to a board shortage, but the missing game turned out not to present a penalty, as he still came in second place with his 2-1 +176 record and nifty 445 average. Besides, going 2-1 against three of the best four players in the club (with Aaron himself being the other) should automatically qualify one for some kind of (prestige-based, non-monetary) award. He got revenge for his first-round loss against Charles Reinke by scoring a decisive win against Thomas Reinke, 518-398. Thomas had two high-scoring bingos, NARCOSE for 94 and PREARMED for 102, but succumbed easily under the combined weight of Aaron's three bingos: PEAFOWL, WATERIER, and GARRISON. Aaron then continued his crusade for revenge, now misguided, by laying some hurt on Bryan Benwitz to the tune of a 474-348 victory. The invaluable value of high-probability seven-letter words was proven once again by Aaron's plays of DEMERIT and AROUSED, and let's not forget Bryan's CRETINS.

3rd Thomas Reinke also played just three games, also due to a deficit of boards (recommendations to "just use your imagination" were not well-received), but nevertheless, he came in third with his 2-1 +48 record. He was out-bingoed in his first game by Lynda Finn (LAUDERS, THEREIN, and INSANER vs. BESTREW and ISOLATE), but still came away with the win, 475-409. After enduring a tough loss to Aaron, described in more detail above in case you have a short attention span or are taking well-deserved breaks between paragraphs, Thomas rebounded against Bryan Benwitz (who seemed to be on the wrong end of things all night, judging by this write-up), using his well-developed point-scoring prowess to take the glory of victory for himself, 483-381. Bryan played SMIDGEON and TENNISES (because we all know there's more than one kind of tennis), while Thomas had SCENTED, CHORTLED, and AIRSIDE.

New player Alex made her Scrabble club debut with a win in addition to two bingos, ENDLESS and word-of-the-week RUGRATS (no longer just the name of a Nickelodeon cartoon, it was added in the last dictionary update).

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!