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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.

New Location, Same Game

1st Bryan Benwitz came out on top in the club's first night at Festival Foods, sneaking into first place with a 3-1 +314 record, a mere two spread points preventing him from relgation into the second paragraph. He started out with a 465-342 win against Dennis, where he played CASETTES, DINGIES, and DRAWEES. Dennis got down a double-blank UNVOICED, but he probably wished those blanks had come at separate times so he could bingo twice with them. Anyone brave enough to try exchanging one of them so you can draw it back and bingo again? No? Anyway, he followed up that win with another in the second game, this time verus Charles, 461-370. He played the nine-letter ENSHRINED (ENSHRINEE is also good), while Charles' missed DISAVOW cost him, if not the game, a lot of spread points. Bryan had his highest scoring game of the night against Dave, dropping 510 and getting LEGIONS, FONDEST, and SYRINGA (n. an ornamental shrub, also known as "lilac"). He lost his final game against Thomas, 389-481, but it was also sort of a victory, because the difference wasn't enough for his opponent to secure first place, and that's all that matters. Except we don't give money for first place.

2nd Thomas Reinke's 3-1 +312 record was good for second place, which seems good if you ignore how close he was to first. His night got off to a phony start with his early bingo of CHAZENS* being no good (CHAZZEN, CHAZAN, and KHAZEN are all good, and all mean the same thing). He used that ill-gotten advantage to win 509-281 against Gail. He avoided playing any phonies against Dave in the second round, but maybe he should've, because he lost, 386-426. He played COGNISED and TAILBONE, but they both only scored 64, and Dave was able to get down three bingos of his own, HORSING, MILTING, and MOLESTS, the last blocking Thomas' hopeful bingo and sealing the win. In the third round, his next opponent, Charles, got off to a quick start with a double-double PIPEAGES, but found his luck ran out there. Thomas won that contest 405-373 with bingos of BEAMIEST and OVERRIDE. Against Bryan in the final, he watched CANTEEN go down before playing three bingos of his own, SATINIER, TOLEWARE, and a double-blank word-of-the-week YEOMANRY. In case you think that last one is cool, maybe it is, but Bryan had already played it in a game in 2014, and so was wholly unimpressed. That word joins ENTRYWAY, LAYAWAYS, and SYNKARYA (!?) as the only double-Y bingos played. Only about 200 more to go! Remember to look for the always-fruitful -NYMY ending.

3rd Betty Hasselkus, normally mild-mannered, came out swinging, and not only was she swinging, she was connecting as well, and ended up coming in third place with a 3-1 +187 record and averaging 407 per game. She started off slow, losing to Helen 335-427 and not bingoing. Things rapidly picked up after that, as she beat Dennis 415-303 in the next game. Betty played MARTINS (n. a small bird) and BALKIER (also BAULKIER) to win that one. If you thought that was good, her next game will blow your mind: a 4-bingo 508-point explosion against Lynda. That's Betty's highest score since we started keeping track, as well as 4 doubling her previous high in bingos played. EMERIES, TACKING, FAILINGS (after the plausible LEAFINGS* got challenged off), and TINGLES were her bingos. That was a tough act to follow, but she did get another win in the final game, 370-316 against Sue, playing DESIGNS. That win earned her prestigious third-paragraph honors; perhaps next week she can aim for second?