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Points Distributed Inequally Once Again

1st Thomas Reinke averaged a rather high 503 points per game en route to a 4-0 +830 night. I guess that's what happens when you outbingo your opposition 11-2 over 4 games. In the first game of the night, Mary played the best defense of any of his opponents, holding him to a mere 472 points and limiting him to two bingos, INSIDERS and PRONOTUM. Thomas wasn't limited in his bingoing against Bryan in the next round, getting down DEROGATE, TONEMES, TURACOS, and ALEURONE while Bryan stared helplessly at his non-bingo racks of clunky tiles. In the third round Thomas dropped an even 500 against Aaron, using a devastating 200-point bingo-bango of RAMENTA and PISTOLE to turn a close game into a blowout. Against Gail (coming off a win against Charles, which explains things), he upped the scoring even more, playing ANOXIAS and SETTLES on his way to 554 big ones.

2nd Bryan Benwitz only averaged 492 points during his 3-1 +673 night, which isn't even 500. The highlight of his night/year/life came in the first round, where he scored an amazing 673 against Gail, playing 5 bingos and earning the unending (at least until the club session was over) admiration of everyone in attendance. He played the word-of-the-week MARAVEDI in that game, which means "a former coin of Spain". His good fortune quickly turned south against Thomas, but then just as quickly rebounded against Mary and Dave in the last two games, where he scored 475 and 465 points respectively.

3rd Aaron Bader went 2-1 +221, earning third paragraph privileges in this prestigious writeup. He put the hurt on Charles in the opener, winning 448-305 and playing PERIDOT (n. an olive-green gemstone) and COARSENS. Against Dave he scored 578 while playing three bingos, ADAPTORS, UNTREAD, and TOODLES. Dave, never giving up in the face of an unstoppable scoring onslaught, did get down RELOANS for 87, and his score of 342 lead to one of the higher combined game scores of the year. He wasn't so lucky against Thomas in the third round, even if Thomas did almost challenge REWED. Don't laugh; sometimes words look really weird until you turn the board around!

Aaron Bader Banishes Foes to Nether Realm

1st Aron Bader dominated the evening from start to finish, going 5-0 +526. Things seemed to be off to a rough start in a two-on-one against Lynda Finn and Gail Salm, with both Lynda and Gail bingoing on their first turns, but Aaron reversed his fortunes through sheer willpower (and tile-drawing technique) to win both. Following that triumph, he held the high-scoring Charles Reinke to 313 points while scoring 393 himself, all despite getting outbingoed two to one (Aaron had WETTEST; Charles had ANVILTOP and CENTRALS). Andy Bohnsack fared only slightly better than Charles did, losing 336-425 to the unstoppable Aaron machine, but he at least played the word of the week, HERSTORY, to lessen the blow of the loss. To wrap up his perfect evening, Aaron took down Bryan Benwitz 470-357 thanks to bingos of ADROITER and BARTERED, proving conclusively that he would never again lose a game if he didn't have all those Collins words rattling around in his skull.

2nd Lynda Finn went 4-1 +363, her only loss being to eventual first-place finisher Aaron Bader. Her best game was a 450-293 win over Gail Salm where she succeeded in preventing the bingo-oriented Gail from getting down any bonus plays. Lynda had two of them herself, the high-probability TONEARMS (anagrams STOREMAN, MONSTERA, and ONSTREAM) and INSTEAD (too many anagrams to enumerate; look them up yourself). A two-on-one match versus Sue Goldstein and Dave Gilligan was successful in much the same way as Aaron's two-on-one; a 398-314 win over Sue saw just one bingo of BASTARDS, but Lynda had three bingos (MOISTENS, ALIENEES, and CUPOLAS) to beat Dave 438-364. Lynda then took down a high-flying Helen Flores, who had just beaten BOTH Reinkes in succession, by a score of 423-313.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +434 and finishing with a club-leading 464 per-game average. Falling victim for Bryan Benwitz' penchant for bingoing at inopportunte moments, Thomas lost his first game 432-422. Bryan's late game PRONOTA, in addition to finds of LEADSMEN and the nine-letter CHINTZIER through HI on the board, were just enough to beat out Thomas' FERMION and EXCLUDE. Thomas's two-on-one excursion was not as successful as Aaron's or Lynda's; he beat Betty Hasselkus handily, 497-239, but fell to Helen Flores 401-426. Helen found her chances were helped by matching Thomas' bingo total, as both players had two such plays: SPITING and RETREAT for Helen, MISERERE and YEASTING for Thomas. Rebounding strongly from that disappointment, Thomas released the full power of his Scrabble might upon an unwitting Andy Bohnsack, and won their game 539-408. Andy did play DENARII and STODGIER, but when Thomas bingos four times (RATTENER, SWAGMAN, REALIZER, CAPTURED) a win is rather unlikely.

Club Struggles Through 4 Games Without Snacks

1st Thomas Reinke slammed down 13 bingos en route to a 4-1 +469 night, good for first place. Playing two in the first round, he experienced two very different games. Against Betty, he drew all the good tiles (just reporting the facts) and won easily, but against Helen, the good tiles were more evenly distributed. Helen fought until the very end, eventually losing 430-431, tying the club record for closest loss. Defense was the name of the game against Bryan, until a flurry of bingos in the second half led to a 420-316 win for Thomas. In the third round, Thomas bingoed early with JADEITE and OUTRANK, but was overcome by Charles' P-and-Y-containing bingos, DRAPERY and PODIATRY. How is a guy supposed to win a game when his opponent draws BOTH P's and BOTH Y's? The bulk of Thomas' spread came in the final against Aaron, where he won 571-275.

2nd Charles Reinke is the topic of the second paragraph of this writeup, so he must have come in second place. Right? I think that's how this works. Anyway, he played the nice WEBINARS against Andy in his first-round 477-419 win, along with PREFACE and MOTIONED. The bingos dried up against Gail, with him only getting down ACETINS (poll: is it spooky or not spooky that his twin played the same word in the same round?????? i'm going with spooky on this one) but he was able to get other high-scoring plays to earn the win, 440-368. Against Thomas, he hogged all the P's and Y's and, given that fact, won easily, 463-367. Charles' contest against Bryan in the last game featured only one bingo, RESTAGES for Bryan. Bingos are usually needed for high scores, reflected in the 322-345 final score.

3rd Bryan Benwitz outwitzed his opponents, going 3-1 + 71, but if you take out his games against the Reinkes, he went 2-0 +144! He and Dave had a high-scoring opening game, with Bryan prevailing, 469-398. Bryan got down TIMEOUS (adj. timely) and COREIGN, while Dave played CHANGED and ASTILBE (n. a flowering plant, also known as "false goat's beard", which has a much nicer ring to it). Angered/enraged (a fitting anagram pair) by his second-round loss against Thomas, he vowed to obliterate whoever his next opponent would be. That opponent turned out to be Helen, who took her certain defeat gracefully. His anger somewhated placated, he took it easy on Charles, only winning by 23 points and only playing one bingo.

Gail played the word-of-the-week, EGOTIZES for 107 big points in her win against Aaron.