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Thomas Reinke Inches Closer to Club's Top Spot and with it, Immortal Glory

1st Thomas Reinke put together a strong, but not entirely unprecedented (for him) 5-0 +545 record. This is his second time going 5-0 this year after also doing it in early January. His first round match saw him playing two at once, but Thomas was not fazed in the slightest; he beat Helen Flores 443-332 and Dave Gilligan 533-264 while playing six total bingos between the two games. This strong start was followed up by a closely-contested, high-scoring game against Bryan Benwitz which ended with a score of 448-441 in Thomas' favor. Bryan got down PALINODE and NOXIOUS (for 59 points, one thinks that the X must have been a blank), while Thomas had REDDENS, LINTERS, and HOTTEST. After the game, Bryan immediately began to plot his revenge, given that he has lost ten of the last eleven games to the elder twin. A win over Aaron Bader (described in gruesome detail in the following paragraph) gave Thomas the coveted 4-0 record, but he still had one game to go, and he used that extra game to beat the snot out of his brother Charles Reinke, 502-377. Charles had NEGATION and RELIEVOS, which ensured that he retained some of his snot, but much snot was lost when Thomas got down ZIPPERS for 131 points (along with his other bingos, PROTEASE and WOODIEST).

2nd Aaron Bader faced a tough lineup of opponents, but succeeded in the face of pairings-borne adversity, going 3-1 +375. A 442-349 victory against Lynda Finn saw a rather unexciting collection of bingos get played (IDEATES for Lynda; ATONERS, ANERGIES, and RELENTS for Aaron), but there is no stipulation in the rules that bingos have to be exciting to get the fifty-point bonus. Aaron built upon that strong start by downing club leader Charles Reinke 461-336, playing NEROLIS (lame bingo alert! [sirens]) and SAPOTAS to Charles' TEASING [additional sirens]. The bingos continued to effortlessly flow out of Aaron's rack in a game against Thomas Reinke, but even a 3-to-1 bingo advantage (CENTAURY, ESCALATE, and GLORYING vs. word-of-the-week PURLIEUS) could not secure the win for Aaron; he lost 381-421. Denied the chance to go home after the third game, Aaron then took out his inner rage on Bryan Benwitz with a 499-307 win.

3rd Mike Johnson made the long trip from Decorah, Iowa, and his trip was definitely worth it as he finished 3-1 +131. After being informed that players from Iowa are not allowed cheat sheets, he got creamed by Bryan Benwitz, 281-453, but Mike rebounded from that loss to win the next three even without the aid of any cheat sheets. His biggest game was a 533-327 victory over Dave Gilligan, and he was also the proud recipient of five entire US dollars for his triple-triple of TABORINS for 149. Somehow, that play wasn't the highest of the night, as Dave himself played AVOIDERS for 176 in a later game (in other news, the club is now bankrupt). Mike's second win was against Betty Hasselkus, 412-334, but it was tainted by Mike's creatively-spelled, but ultimately phony, play of QUAESAR (QUASAR is what he was looking for). Meanwhile, Betty's DICTIONS was perfectly valid. No bingos, phony or otherwise, were needed in a 419-400 win over Gail Salm. Technically, this 3-1 performance gives Mike the top spot in the club's yearly standings, so way to go Mike!

Charles Reinke Brought a Broom for Sweeping, and He Used It

1st Charles Reinke swept through his competition with an immaculate 4-0 +385 record. He played an even three bingos in each of his games, so the expectation is that he will continue to play exactly three bingos in every game...forever. Charles' closest game, and his lowest score, was a 441-414 victory over Aaron Bader; Charles showed great compassion in allowing Aaron to bingo with a phony REOBLIGE, but also showed ruthlessness by bingoing himself with RIDABLE, TOOTSES, and PRINTED. Richard Lauder, like Aaron before him, also put up a good fight against Charles; their game ended with a score of 509-447, setting a new high-loss record for the club director (he has twice lost with a 445, both to, you guessed it, Charles). Both players had three bingos: MODERNER, UNSOCIAL, and INSERTS for Richard, GAITERED, INTRORSE, and DIALOGER for Charles. The final round against Dave Gilligan was a true clash of the titans, both players being undefeated going into the game and knowing full well that one had to fall. Charles ended up running away with it, 505-290, thanks to plays like OUTGROW, COEQUATE, and REQUITES. You know things are going well when you bingo with the Q twice in the same game.

2nd Thomas Reinke didn't quite sweep like his brother did, but he did go 4-1 +520. His first round matchup was actually two matchups, as he was the lucky one appointed to do a two-on-one. The result was mixed; he scored exactly 600 points (his second 600+ game this year) against Helen Flores thanks to bingos of REFUTED, UNTANGLE, ATONERS, and DILATED, but also registered his only loss of the night against Dave Gilligan, 356-444. The subsequent game against Aaron Bader did not see either player attain the lofty scores that we expect from them, but it was still a win for Thomas, 351-334. Thomas' scoring mojo was revitalized in a 425-349 triumph over Bryan Benwitz, and culminated in a 503-295 victory over the 2-1 Dennis Lloyd. Dennis got down LAUNDERS, but Thomas had FARSIDES, INFERNAL, and INEPTEST to seal his second-place finish.

3rd Dave Gilligan bounced back from a rough couple of weeks to go 3-1 -34. He was 3-0 +181 going into the final game, but, as described above, took major body blows against Charles Reinke and ended up with a negative spread. He started off strong by taking out Thomas Reinke, 444-356, playing STILLER to Thomas' SANTOUR but also letting Thomas get by with the phony NOPES. His patented "one bingo is enough" strategy again paid off against Lynda Finn, whom he defeated by a score of 380-340. Lynda had RESPITE and SPEARING as her bingos, while Dave just had SLANTED. Dennis Lloyd also was struck down by the might of Dave's single bingos; this time, Dave's BADGERS (winner of the unofficial Wisconsin Word of the Week [WWotW]) led him to a 381-328 win.

Aaron's TEPEFIES (v. TEPEFY, to make tepid) was chosen as word of the week.

Lynda Finn Finishes First for Second Straight Week

1st Lynda Finn's 4-1 +269 record was slightly worse than her four-and-oh performance last week, but it was still good enough forst first place on a night where nobody went undefeated. She was given a chance early to go for the elusive 5-0 record with a two-on-one in the first round, but emerged having split the pair of games with a 418-274 win over Helen Flores and a 344-419 loss to Gail Salm. It was smooth Scrabbling from there on out; Lynda scored above 400 in the rest of her games while preventing all of her opponents from doing the same. Richard Lauder came closest to adding another loss to Lynda's record, losing 398-425 despite outbingoing her (HALITES and SALTING to Lynda's UPROOTER), but Andy Bohnsack was thoroughly bamboozled by Lynda's tile-laying prowess, losing 449-335. Then, in an emphatic display of primal dominance, Lynda squelched Thomas Reinke's hopes of a perfect record by defeating him 402-344. If this seems like a familiar storyline, it is: Lynda trampled upon Thomas' dreams in a similar manner last week. This time around, Lynda got down CETANES and OVERING, while Thomas was only able to muster a lone BEATIFY.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +314, his fourth week in a row with that exact record. Since his current winning percentage is below 75%, he'd probably be happy (or at least content) if this streak continued indefinitely. His night started off well; for the eighth time in nine tries he defeated Bryan Benwitz, this time by a score of 422-331. He reached deep into his well of bingos to pull out HAULAGE and the word of the week, RATAFIAS (a type of liqueur), but Bryan also got in on the bingo action with SATIRES and DOORMAN. Thomas then got the highest score of the night when he tallied a 530 to Gail Salm's 369. Three bingos of CLEANOUT, TELNETS, and ATABRINE, along with an 86-point KANZU, helped make his lead insurmountable despite Gail's CONCISER and STOGIES. His third and final win before getting Lyndaed was a 443-323 contest with Aaron Bader, who outbingoed Thomas (HATBANDS and BIASING vs. REWINDED) but otherwise found few other ways to score points. Scrabble tip of the day: scoring points is good.

3rd Charles Reinke enjoyed an identical 3-1 record to his brother (gasp) but was relegated to third place with his inferior +271 spread. He amassed a fair amount of that spread in a 415-242 win over Sue Goldstein, a game that so no bingos played from either side. Charles' other wins featured more in the way of bingos: a 459-357 victory against Mary Becker saw the uncaring victor play three of them, all top 200 in probability: AERADIO, ANISOLE, and SONATINE. Mary did play UNCARING for 77 to minimize the damage. Charles followed that up by beating Aaron Bader in a high-scoring game, 467-452. Aaron prevailed in the bingo count, playing ABALONES, ELECTION, and INERTIA to Charles' ABROGATE and ALEXINS, but his demise was brought about by an unfortunate Q-stick, a rarer occurrence in the post-QI era. The one loss which sullied Charles' scoresheet came against Andy Bohnsack in a low-scoring 346-365 game. Much relief was felt by all participants in, and observers of, that game as Andy's HARASSED turned out to be spelled correctly.

Andy also happened to go 3-1 (with a +187 spread) so he gets an entire sentence in his honor. Or two sentences since the editor is feeling generous today. This is practically an entire paragraph! How many sentences do you have to write without breaks before it becomes a paragraph?