Blog

Cats Away; Mice Play

(big thanks to Helen for doing the write-up!)

The Reinkes were at Nationals, Lynda at a college reunion, Richard was in Door County, and Aaron suffered an injury. The weather may have kept several other club members away when the stalwart band of Scrabblers at the Church – Bryan, Mary, Sue, Gail and Helen – faced a new and formidable opponent.

Nomadic Scrabbler Vicki Holmes came to town and took first place. She routed Gail in a 393 – 264 match, bested Bryan and then Mary. But those were just warmups. Against Helen Vicki had a couple of "bam-dingers," i.e. a regional idiomatic term for plays worth more than 100 points. She tripled for 105 points by hooking Helen’s "evoke" with HARRIER. Not satisfied with that fine play, she managed the triple-triple EMULATED for 149 points, defeating Helen 511-309. Thanks to our more than gracious hospitality she plans to return to club when next in town.

Excepting his loss to Vicki, Bryan scored over 400 points in his other games, beating Sue by 81 points and Gail by 86. His best game against hapless Helen was a 496 – 245 point rout.

Mary Becker placed third. She had only one bingo, VIOLATOR but scored 414 points against Gail’s 293. She tied Helen at 347 with her out play, had a close game with Sue and lost the fight against Vicki.

Lynda Finn Warning Issued For South-Central Wisconsin Starting at 6:00 PM CDT

1st Lynda Finn put together her second undefeated performance of the year, finishing with a 4-0 +295 record and scoring above 400 in all of her games. Along the way, she fearlessly took down some of the club's most feared players. A bout against Thomas Reinke ended in her favor by a score of 459-411; Lynda's 110-point MACHINED not only secured the victory, but also was the highest-scoring bingo of the night, and an 85-point RETSINA didn't hurt either. After that point, Lynda decided that two bingos wasn't enough for her, so she played three such plays (TAENIAS, ELEPHANT, and ENLISTER) while taking down Aaron Bader, 474-401. Aaron had DATEABLE as well as a late VIRELAIS to make the final tally somewhat respectable. In the final round, Lynda faced off against fellow undefeated player Charles Reinke, knowing that the outcome of their match would determined who attained the coveted "first paragraph" honor in the writeup. Even in the face of that immense pressure, Lynda kept it cool, and cruised to a 401-333 victory. Lynda's recipe for success? Bingo three times while preventing your opponent from bingoing even once. More people should try that strategy.

2nd Aaron Bader went 4-1 +524, just one Lynda loss away from a perfecter-than-perfect 5-0 finish. He came tantalizingly close to his third 600-point game at our club, but fell six points short in a 594-261 win over Helen Flores. No triple-triples were played, but four ordinary bingos of RISTRAS, ADULTERY, EROTICA, and LINEATE revealed themselves to Aaron. Presumably some additional high-scoring plays were sprinkled in there as well. Subsequent games failed to live up to that standard, but that's what you get when you selfishly score so many points in your first game. A game against Gail Salm saw only one bingo on the board, Gail's LARGEST, but it was still a 369-282 win for Aaron. A final-round encounter with Bryan Benwitz was more typical of Aaron's style; that game ended in an Aaron win, 488-394. He got down TENANTED, FADEOUTS, and SOOTHES, nearly making up for the game where he didn't get any bingos at all.

3rd Charles Reinke assembled a 3-1 +205 record, which seems pretty good until you look at the previous week's results. He was poised for another undefeated night until he was turned away by Lynda Finn in the final game. His first-round meeting with Bryan Benwitz saw both players show off their knowledge of high-probability bingos (TEOPANS, ARSENIDE, and PUERILE for Charles; EDITIONS and TUTELAGE for Bryan); since Charles had one more bingo than Bryan, it follows that the winning margin was roughly the size of an average bingo, 451-385. Another bingoey game was played against Dave Gilligan, a game which Charles also won, 454-387. Dave got down ROTATING and GREASIER, but Charles' 100-point OXALATE, along with OVARIAL and ICTERUS, proved to be just too many points. Charles' third and final victory was against Gail Salm, 475-335. To prepare for the upcoming bingo-less game against Lynda, Charles played four bingos against Gail: FORTUNED, RETINITE, REACTANT, and LOIASES.

Bryan's VENENOSE (adj. poisonous) was chosen as word of the week.

I Bet If You Cut Off His Hair He Would Stop Being So Good

1st Charles Reinke averaged a frankly ridiculous 503 points, won all five of his games, accumulated a spread of +807, and left the rest of the world wondering when the madness would ever end. His first two games, played at the same time, were his least impressive of the night. He scored only 470 against Sue, and barely escaped Helen, 428-403. Helen's bingos of CHORINES and TATTLER were nearly enough to prevent future events from ever transpiring, but it was not to be. Things picked up for Charles against Bryan, where he bingoed 4 times with INTRANET, GOSPELER, MORTISES, and NUTBARS on his way to a nearly 200-point victory. In the third round, against his dear brother, he opened with EXOTICS and later got a 6-tile overlap NORITES. Thomas, for his part, played RUMINATE, THALWEGS, and yet another nine-letter phony, FLICKERER*. If it ever comes up again, remember that FRECKLIER is the valid play with those letters. Charles finished up his night with a nice and tidy 600 against Richard. He not only bingoed 4 times, but scored 30 or more on the turns between those bingos. The only thing stopping him from 700 was Richard selfishly hogging a blank and an S for himself.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +428, averaging 464 which seems like a lot until you think about what some other player averaged tonight. He got off to a hot start against Betty, slapping down three straight bingos to open the game, SLEETIER, MANTEAUS, and ABALONES. He used that decisive advantage to cruise to an easy win, scoring 533. Against Thomas, it was close most of the way until an untimely V draw for him and a timely blank draw for his opponent led to a 27 point loss, 393-420. Aaron recovered from that injustice quickly, winning 526-363 against Mary. Somehow he played SPIERED for 110 points; that feels like too many points for such a word. An independent commission has been organized to investigate this incident. As those suspicious events were unfolding, he also beat Helen 402-371.

3rd Bryan Benwitz continued the proud tradition of people coming in third place winning three games, going 3-1 +189. He got the bulk of his bingoing out of the way against Gail in the first round, playing GORDITA (n. something you can get at Taco Bell), DEFIERS, and AEONIAN. He ran into a speed bump, as so many of us do, against Charles, but responded with a big win against Dave, featuring the sole bingo of ALIUNDE (adj. from another source, used in law). Victory was again his in the final game, beating Thomas 402-400.Thomas played TENABLE and SALTERS, while Bryan played GANOIDS and EMIGRATE. Bryan won the game by finding the one winning play with three tiles (including a blank) on his rack. There were probably hundreds of plays he could have made; Thomas wonders why he didn't chose on of those.

Richard played the word of the week, ASTYLAR, which means "having no columns". What an appropriate term for many things in our lives!