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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.

Yet Another Successful Session for Bryan

1st Bryan Benwitz clearly outwitzed his opponents, going 4-0 +577. His ambitious goal of "average 568 while beating Dave every game" looked easily attainable after the first round, where he scored 568 against Dave and won. His bingos of ADROITER, RETAILOR, COLUMNAR, and SKIDDED for 101 easily overpowered Dave's singular REGRESS. However, Bryan's goal went off the rails in round two, as he was matched up against Charles and only scored 402. He did win the game, though, 402-347 as he held Charles bingoless. His third-round win over Gail was highlighted (highlit?) by a nice find of GAPEWORM (n. parasitic nematode worm that infects the tracheas of certain birds). In the final round, as everyone else became overwhelmed by sleepiness, he maintained his laser focus, beating the similarly undefeated Richard 472-331. Richard struck first with RAFTERED and later added EXPLORES, but Bryan's LENTANDO (adj. becoming slower, used as a musical direction), MENDIGO, and HETAIRA was enough to win.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +332, a 75% win rate that would be even more impressive if we were playing rock-paper-scissors. He secured a 435-333 victory over Helen by playing ADENOSES and ETHANOLS in the first round, a win that led him straight into the ravenous jaws of Bryan, who stymied him at every turn and held him to 347 points, well below his average. Things picked up for him against Sue, where he scored 531 and slapped down ANECTODE, OUTPREEN, and ESTIVAL (adj. pertaining to Summer, also AESTIVAL). A final-round match against Thomas was a scorcher, with the final score being 479-452. Thomas played ANEROID and SWORDMAN and was looking to win until Charles got down REDOUBT right at the end, adding to his already-played FLEABAG, TAILSPIN, and TELECINE.

3rd Richard Lauder came in third with a 3-1 +91 record. He played the word-of-the-week KERCHIEF (no word on if it was extended to HANDKERCHIEF) against Aaron in the first round, the 84 points it scored leading directly to the 398-368 win. He toughed out a close 351-343 win against Sue in the second round, where he played the phony CAROOMS*, a sort of combination of VAROOMS and CARROMS. The winning continued against Dave, 503-309, marked by his opening play of VOMITOS. He later got down OUTRAGES and STINGER, while Dave managed ALIGHTS. As detailed above, he fell to Bryan during his final obstacle on the way to undefeated-dom, but 3-1 is still pretty good.