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Is Winter Over Yet?

1st Thomas Reinke overcame the coldness of the night to go undeafeated, 4-0 +251. Against Andy in the first round, the game hinged on the validity of Andy's BARGERS*. If it was good, it would be a 50-point win for Andy, if not, a 100-point win for Thomas. Given Thomas' final record and the little asterisk next to the word, you can figure out how that one turned out. Defense was the name of the game against Gail in round two, with Thomas getting down a pair of bingos but doing little else, while Gail managed to get DEVOICES as an outplay to cut the spread a bit, the final result being 366-330. Thomas then tried out both ends of the bingo-score continuum against Aaron, playing TERATOMA for 57 and the triple-triple CASEATES for 140 in his 433-350 win. While facing eternal foe Charles in the battle for first place, they started out the game with three straight bingos, then failed to bingo again for the rest of the game. Talk about disappointment! I'm pretty sure they were thinking they were going to bingo every turn until the tiles ran out. Thomas won that game, 389-359.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +246, averaging a session-high 445 points. His AGONIZES and WANDERED again Charles in the first match were met with ORDINAL, CANITIES (n. the greying of the hair, singular and plural, so no CANITY*), and an un-overcome-able QUAERES, and Bryan came up short 407-446. His fortunes changed somewhat against Andy, as he won 473-369. Sadly, his fancy play of BEKNIGHT through an E was blocked, but, to his credit, he showed admirable restraint by not immediately punching Andy in the face, instead waiting until after the game to dole out the required physical punishment. Physical punishment was not needed in his game against Dennis, where he won 415-357 using only Scrabble-based punishment. He saved his best for last against Lynda, winning 483-360, playing ENEMIES and PEONIES.

3rd Charles Reinke avoided second place by a mere 6 spread points, going 3-1 +240. Remember to recount your plays! Every point counts! After beating Bryan in the opener, he turned his attention towards Helen, winning 414-310. Helen erred by challenging the odd-looking DUGS (n. DUG, a teat or udder), but who can blame her? Charles pushed his winning-streak to 3 against Lynda, where he won 467-340, playing LABIATES and WACKIEST, before falling to his brother. The club will, sadly, have to wait another three weeks before paying out his next 10-game streak.

Andy played the word-of-the-week, DRUNKARD, a common term that is very uncommon on a Scrabble board.

Don't Pass Up 200-Point Triple-Triples Unless You Have a Very Good Strategic Reason

1st Charles Reinke came out on top with a 4-1 +671 record. A large portion of his spread came from his opening 2-on-1 match against Helen and Sue, where he won by a combined 485 points. He then faced Andy and Andy's invisible friend, winning 464-411. Charles played COLLETED, PERVADE, and SPIERING that game, but passed up the 200+ point triple-triple BRIQUETS (next time you see BRIQUET on the board, remember that you can extend it to SOBRIQUET). Lynda was the only person to get the best of the bingo machine, winning their matchup in the third round 382-431. She played EPIGENE and ENDITES against Charles' RARITIES and ROSTELLA. In the last game, Charles handily defeated Bryan, 497-315, playing the word-of-the-week PIASAVA (also spelled PIASABA or PIASSAVA, a coarse fiber). Sometimes drawing three A's to go along with your blank isn't so bad!

2nd Aaron Bader came in second with his undeafeated 3-0 +263, failing to come in first because the website orders the results by wins first (don't want someone going 1-0 to win, do we?). He outbingoed Thomas 3-0 in the first game, playing DUSTRAG, OUTTHROB (v. to surpass in throbbing, duh), and EQUITES (plural of EQUES). His bingoing cooled off in the second game, playing only GRATERS against Betty's SHAKIER in a 425-357 win. Against Bryan, he played the nifty nine-letter PYRIDINES, but phonied with the Collins-only DAMASKIN*, an alternate spelling of the acceptable verbs DAMASKEEN and DAMASCENE.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +183, good for third place. She lost a close one against Bryan to open the night, 394-404, with Bryan's TOXINES for 115 being the deciding factor. Done with losing for the session, she rattled off three straight wins after that, the first against Gail, 475-393, where she played BARNIEST, TRANSOM, and YEASTIER. You already heard about her win against Charles, so following that she dropped 5 Benjamins and a Washington on Andy, winning 501-439. She played KNEEPAD and the always-appropriate WORDAGE, but phonied with UNDRIES* (valid anagram INSURED).

4th Helen Flores went 3-1 +15, proving that it's sometimes worth it to not curl up in a little ball and cry after one of the Reinkes beats you by 200 points.

Two triple-triples were played and paid, RETURNER for Helen and MERCHANT for Andy, both against Thomas.

Aaron is Bad-er

1st Aaron Bader  went 3-0 +442 before disappearing into the rainy night, leaving all to wonder if he had really been there at all, if he was just an apparition... either way, we have his scorecard here, so we're going to treat his results as a real thing that actually happened. Against Sue in the first game, he got down the fancy EUSTELES (n. a plant part, or for something more detailed: "a stele typical of dicotyledonous plants that consists of vascular bundles of xylem and phloem strands with parenchymal cells between the bundles"). He earned a big win against Bryan in second game, 508-264, playing NEGATION, CHAFERS, and SAVOURED while Bryan struggled with clunky racks. Aaron saved his best for last against Charles R., overcoming an early 120-point deficit to win 472-380. He countered Charles' early EXPLODED for 107 with DOUBLOON for 86, then got down CISTERN and READIES to complete the effort. And then... where did he go?

2nd Andy Bohnsack narrowly edged out Charles Reinke by 3 spread points for 2nd place. We demand a recount! To start his night he won a close one against Richard, 418-400, playing ORIENTAL, SENOPIA, and IDEATES against Richard's FRONTES and EXTRADO* (INTRADOS and EXTRADOS are the inner and outer curves of an arch, respectively, both pluralize with -ES). After beating Mary 403-362, he turned his attention to Thomas, winning 364-303 in a defensive battle that was fun for exactly 1 of the participants (participants being defined as both players, all 100 tiles, the board, both racks, the clock, and the table). Sadly, Andy's perfect run came to an end in his final-round match against Charles R., where he lost 417-419. Andy did get down the triple-triple TRUMPETS for 149 in the losing effort, disproving the age-old adage "If you triple-triple you win". Actually, I just made that one up right now. Still counts as an adage though, I check the definition and it doesn't say anything about them not being only a minute old.

3rd Charles Reinke narrowly edged out Andy by 3 spread points for the much greater coveted 3rd place. Despite getting outbingoed 3-1, only playing the out-bingo LUSTRAL, he easily defeated his brother 523-402. He picked up the bingoing slightly against Helen, winning 400-316 by playing SAMLETS (n. a young salmon) and GARRISON. Then the bingos dried up, and he played only one apiece against Aaron and Andy, both with X's; EXPLODED and SIXTEENS. His five-bingo total is one of his lowest in the modern era of club stats, but he'll take the 3-1 record over gaudy bingo totals any day! Actually I think he would rather bingo than win. Who wouldn't? Winning is fun, but bingoing is funner.

Thomas played the word of the week, NEWWAVER (n. a member of a new-wave movement), the most likely word with two W's in a row. Others include QAWWALI and POWWOW.