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It's Never Too Cold For Scrabble® Brand Crossword Game!

1st Dave Kinzer took advantage of a holiday/cold/illness-diminished group, going 3-0 +88 to take first place. His first win was a low-scoring 285-271 affair against newcomer Jayant. His bingo attempt that game, SWINGOUT* (OUTSWING is acceptable), was challenged off, despite his confidence in baseball terminology. In the second round he again notched a win against a neophyte, Pranav, in a 354-302 battle. He got down FREAKING (the dictionary gives the definition "to streak with color", I don't know if I believe that...) in that one, not to be confused with PHREAKING (v. to gain illegal access to telephone services). After that, he faced a savvy veteran of the club, Sue, and won 347-325, playing MISTOOK.

Due to a shortage of boards, the quartet of Aaron, Bryan, Charles, and Thomas played a series of 2-on-2 games, with everyone going 2-1 except for Thomas who went 0-3. Some of the cooler bingoes played were REDUVIID, GOSHAWK, CONIINE, and NATANTLY. The most exciting game was the superior Charles/Bryan combo beating the inferior Aaron/Thomas tandem 542-477, a close game that turned into a blowout due to one side getting stuck with the Z.

Club Says Goodbye To Attic Angels, Hello to...

1st Lynda Finn, going 4-0 +279, held an "undefeated" party in celebration of our last night at Attic Angels, but it turns out she forgot to invite anyone but herself. The festivities began against Charles, who she beat 461-433. Details are scarce, but we do know that she managed to score that many points with only two not-very-high-scoring bingos, SNEERIER and STANDER. Things didn't get much easier in the second round as she was matched up against Bryan, but with her 380-342 victory she has now won (palindrome alert!!!!!) 4 out of her last 6 against him. In the third round, Gail got down ERASION (one of the most probable bingoes to draw, so it's a good one to know), but could do little else but watch as Lynda piled up 453 points. Lynda played RESENTS and NAILERS in that contest, and probably some other words too. Her final match was against Thomas, and it turned into a defensive showdown, with Lynda coming out on top, 359-299. Thomas' final rack of AEILRST sat homeless because of Lynda's board-closing acumen. Lynda's bingo of OUTSANG was particularly relevant as the club enjoyed the pleasing tones of the carolers wandering the halls.

2nd Aaron Bader came in second at 3-1 +470, his 467 points per game average the best of the night. It's easy to average that much when you score 586 points in the first game, which he did against Helen. He played BROWNED, LAICISED (v. LAICISE, to free from clerical control), WAXIEST, and ROSEBUDS. In the second round, he got outbingoed 2-1, with Gail playing ANTISERA and UPLIFTER, and him only playing EROSIONS. Despite that, he won, 441-316. How did such a thing happen? We may never know. Aaron suffered his sole loss of the night against Thomas in the third round, 385-442. Thomas bingoed with PERMEANT, ONANISTS (heh), and FREELOAD before Aaron finally got down one of his own, EQUATING. Detecting the strategy that bested him in the game, he went into the final round with a strategy of his own: don't let the opponent bingo. His plan went off without a hitch, as he won 454-368 and held Bryan bingoless.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +362, edging out his brother by 41 spread points to claim sole possession of third place. He fell to Lynda 433-461 in the opener, which ended up being his lowest point total of the evening. Against Richard in the next round, he won 483-327, playing LANNERS and UNBOOTED (adj. something to do with computers, not boots), while Richard got the phony GASLIKE* as well as PISTOLES. Charles followed that up with a solid 458-383 win against Bryan (this writeup makes it seem like Bryan never wins a game, sorry Bryan!). In the final round against Dave, he opened with a double-U bingo, UNCLOUD (v. to free from clouds, no idea how you're supposed to do that but whatever), the advantage of which snowballed into a 457-298 win. Dave did get down BETIMES and GIRDLES, but sometimes an opening bingo by one's opponent is just too demoralizing.

Richard played the word of the week, MENINGES, plural of MENINX, which are membranes in the brain.

East Side is the Beast Side for Thomas

1st Thomas Reinke overcame the intoxicating aroma of Domino's pizza which threatened to overwhelm his brain and went 5-0 +404. In the first round, he was tasked with dispatching two opponents at the same time, which he did. He beat Bryan 425-399 by drawing two late bingos, ELASTIN and TAPERING, while at the same time beating Helen 432-276 with ANTIGENE and JOWLIER. Next on the docket was Andy, himself coming off a mondo 625 5-bingo game. Feeling neither fear nor intimidation, Thomas won 484-351, playing FULMINE and EVERTING (later extended to REVERTING by Andy's RETURNS). Against recurring foe Charles in the third round, Thomas used a 101-point double-double ELYSIAN (adj. heavenly, delightful, referring to the Elysian Fields, the concept of afterlife in ancient Greece) to seize control. The game would've been much more of a blowout had Charles not slapped down RETACKS for 116 right at the end. In the last round, he faced visited Iowan Mike Johnson and showed him traditional Wisconsin hospitality, beating him but not beating him by too much. 436-413 was the final, with Mike playing MIAOUED, word-of-the-week ELUVIATE, and STRANDER, and Thomas playing BOSSING and DECURION.

2nd Lynda Finn came in second with a 3-1 +186 record. Her night got off to a slow start against Mike, as she won 352-283 but played no bingos, a fact she indicated on her scorecard with a ":(". Bingos again eluded her against Charles, and this time she couldn't overcome the deficit, losing 360-402. The sad faces ended for her in the third round, as she got two bingos facing off against newcomer Robin. She played RETILES (one of the more famous phonies before it was finally added in one of the earlier dictionary updates) and BLASTIE (n. an ugly little creature, the perfect word for insulting your foes!). Robin did get down the nice find of NIDATION, but Lynda's total of 445 was hard to top. In the finale she triumphed in a low-scoring battle against Dave, 364-335. Dave got down SLANDERS against Lynda's FROSTED, and if anything else exciting happened in the game, I didn't hear about it.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +153, missing out on second place by 33 spread points (only one or two extra turns over the whole night) and having to settle for third. He opened things with a 383-309 win over the other newcomer, Peter. Kind of like me walking into the Madison chess club and having to play Magnus Carlsen right away, so Peter did a good job to not get crushed into oblivion. Against Lynda, he faced a strange rack containing three S's and two blanks, fished off one of the S's, and drew the fourth one. No wonder Lynda couldn't get any bingos down with him hogging all the power like that! Charles notched his only loss of the night against Thomas despite the 116-point RETACKS (STACKER, RESTACK, TACKERS, and RETACKS are all good, as well as RACKETS) mentioned previously. He recovered in the final round against Bryan, winning 459-356, overcoming Bryan's RANKNESS and CATALOGS with his own UNDERLIT and ENVIERS.

The club's first meeting at Misty Mountain Games seemed to be a success. The plan is to play there once a month, we'll let everyone know when the next time is going to be.