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Andy Bohnsack Continues Winning Ways

1st Andy Bohnsack went 4-0 +176 after going 4-1 and 4-0 in the previous two weeks, launching him into the top spot on the yearly club standings with a 76.7% win rate. If he continues to build on this momentum we can expect maybe one or two more losses for the rest of this calendar year. However, his wins were not by huge margins; his first game against Susan Vergeront could very easily have been a loss, as he needed an out-bingo of LANCERS to secure a 433-418 win. Also played in that game were REBOOTED and STAYING; Susan got down TUNDRAS and GENERIC. Another close game, this time against Mary Becker, ended with the same score for Andy (433) but a slightly lower score for Mary (412). Andy again had three bingos (SNORTERS, CARATES, and GLISTEN) but was unable to turn those plays into a commanding lead. In his other two games, he ruined the undefeated aspirations of two players who went 3-1; their sad stories will be told in the following paragraphs.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished at 3-1 with a sizable +464 spread total, thanks to his hefty 469 per-game average. He pulled off the always-impressive Anti-Reinke, holding the twins combined to just one bingo while Bryan played eight total in the two games. A win against Thomas was the most impressive, 510-313. Bryan didn't allow Thomas to play any bingos (always a sound strategy), but played five of them himself: TOWLINES, ISOLATE, APHIDES, FUSIONS, and SARDINED. A 463-381 victory over Charles saw the twin at least get down a bingo (the nine-letter PAGINATES), but Bryan's three bingos of SCORNER, TOMENTA, and BUSTLERS made easy work of last year's club champion. Carrying an undefeated record into the final game, Bryan ran into the indomitable Scrabble might of Andy Bohnsack, who easily claimed victory for his own, 443-351.

3rd Aaron Bader also ended up with three wins at 3-1 +174. He encountered the undefeated and undefeatable Andy Bohnsack in the second game of the night and lost 386-434, but did play the word of the week, SOFTCORE, as one of his bingos (the other bingo, GAUDIEST, was not even in contention for word of the week). After that loss, he, like Bryan, executed a flawless Anti-Reinke in his final two games. Rarely do two players beat both Reinkes on the same night! Aaron took down Thomas by a score of 462-386, then achieved a similar result against Charles, 460-397. His bingo list in the two games was not as large as Bryan's, but was still respectable: GRILLED, REDENIES, FARRAGO, CONDEMNS, and STROBILI.

Thomas Reinke got the second 600-point game of this club season when he scored 623 against Richard Lauder. The 248 points Thomas got for his triple-triple of MOBILIZE were almost enough to win the game by themselves.

Thomas Reinke Wins and Stuff

1st Thomas Reinke outlasted some tough opponents to go 4-0 +317. There weren't many bingos to be had in a close 409-385 victory over Lynda Finn (Thomas' GROUNDER vs. Lynda's TONSURE) but the final result was certainly to Thomas' liking. The bingo spigot then got turned on to full blast as Thomas defeated Dave Gilligan in a high-scoring 509-425 game. Dave bingoed on his first two turns with ORBIEST and ENTWINED, but Thomas eventually pulled away thanks to bingo finds of REFENCES, PARDNERS, GOETHITE, and TEXTURED. Thomas then secured his first-place performance with another close victory, this time over Bryan Benwitz, 414-402. Thomas two bingos of WINTLES and FEATLIER only scored eight more points combined than Bryan's pair of bonuses (FOOTAGE and INDENTER), so the missing four spread points must have been acrrued at some other point during the game.

2nd Andy Bohnsack averaged a club-leading 452 per game on his way to a 4-1 +400 performance. With a 460-427 victory against Aaron Bader, he has now won three out of four against that particular opponent, after previously losing twelve in a row to him. Aaron got away with FEATURER (not even good in Collins) but added HURDIES and GAUDIEST as valid bingos; Andy played CLOGGED, ANSERINE, and TIMELINE (anagrams: ILMENITE and MELINITE). As part of a two-on-one game, Andy notched his first 500-point game of the year (????), and did so in most furious fashion, scoring 569 against Helen Flores' 304. Helen did manage to play TORSADE, but Andy was able to get down CAUSING, ANERGIA, and LECTIONS. Andy's sole loss came against Dave Gilligan, 336-421, a game which again proves the old adage: to beat Andy, prevent him from bingoing. Dave monopolized the bingos on the board with AGNIZES and OVERLAIN.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +152 and somehow was the only person to finish with that record. He was the picture of consistency with two bingos in each of his four games, although that consistency was made to seem a mirage thanks to a 356-434 loss disrupting a scoresheet otherwise decorated with checkmarks in the "win" column. In that game, Bryan got down a 90-point ANETHOL; Charles played TAVERNA and word-of-the-week PEACENIK. Another high-scoring bingo was played against Charles when he faced off against Gail Salm; her 101-point CRINGES, to go along with a later bingo of SPRAINED, pushed her over the 400 mark in a 465-406 win for the Second Twin, who played BULLIONS and the nine-letter BALDPATES. Dave Gilligan again makes an appearance in the writeup for losing to Charles in the final round, 365-472, despite bingos of STATINS and RUMINATE (Charles had VOYAGER and LARDIEST).

Andy Bohnsack Will Beat You Up for Your Blanks

1st Andy Bohnsack was the proverbial rolling stone with the proverbial moss being losses, as he went 4-0 +327 and beat both players directly below him in the night's standings. His evening started off well with a 436-259 win over Dave Gilligan wherein bingos of ACTINIAE, STERLING, and REANOINT were played. Peter Schmiedicke was able to wisely rein in Andy's bingo production, but his success on that front proved wasted, as Andy won that game as well, 417-343. It's safe to assume that Andy's sole EUPHORIA for 104 points was a deciding factor in a way that Peter's REALLOTS and STRINGER weren't. In the final game of the night, the two 3-0's butted heads, but Aaron Bader fell just short, losing a high-scoring 459-470 match that ended with five bingos on the board (BILAYER, RIOTERS, and NOTICES for Andy; WATERIER and VERMIAN for Aaron).

2nd Thomas Reinke put together a solid 4-1 +299 record to make some early headway towards the top spot in the yearly standings. His confrontation with Andy Bohnsack was the only one that did not end in Thomas' favor, 359-414. Thomas rebounded nicely against grizzled Scrabble vet Richard Lauder, defeating our club director 518-332. Richard got down FEATHERS and REPLICON (the latter showing off his years of accumulated word knowledge), but Thomas outbingoed his opponent as he so often does, playing TRIMNESS, IGNITORS, and IRATELY (anagrams: REALITY and TEARILY). Peter turned those tables on Thomas in their fourth-round matchup, playing three bingos to Thomas' two, but Thomas prevailed neverthless by a score of 435-415. Maybe this proves that bingoing isn't everything. Gasp.

3rd Aaron Bader finished at 3-1 +168, beating Gail Salm by twenty-some spread points for third place. His raucous final-round scuffle with Andy Bohnsack is chronicled above, but the rest of his games resulted in a more favorable outcome. He unleashed the full power of his bingo knowledge against the similarly-knowledged Charles Reinke, winning by "just" a score of of 430-383 despite outbingoing Charles 4-1. Those bingos were FINAGLES, FAINTER, LAMENTER, and HUISACHE, the last of which being selected as word of the week (it's apparently a type of tree or bush found in Texas). Mary Becker was also able to put up a brave fight in the face of Aaron's bingoeyness, playing two of them herself (SPEARING and INWARDS) in a 372-468 loss. Aaron had EATABLE, INTRIGUE, and EATERIES, making everybody in the vicinity hungry.

Two triple-triples were played: Gail's 149-point RANDIEST and Bryan's 122-point OTALGIES.