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Scrabble is Hard, But Bryan Makes it Look Easy

1st Bryan Benwitz made it 6 straight weeks placing in the top 3, coming in first at 4-0 +322. Those present all agree that Bryan's first-round win against Dave was very impressive; however, that accomplishment was quickly surpassed by his achieving of the "Double Reinke Perfecto", beating both Reinke brothers in back to back games. He first defeated Thomas 530-326 by playing RANDIEST, TAUNTERS, and ADAMSITE (n. a lung-irritating gas), compared to his opponents' DESTRESS (a word which anagrams to the palindromic pair of STRESSED DESSERTS). Charles fared a little better against him, but a late-game post-bingo seven-consonant draw guaranteed the Bryaniac's 383-377 win. His perfect night was concluded with a 392-343 win over newcomer Darcy, spoiling her own perfect (albeit shortened) night in the process.

2nd Charles Reinke bingoed (editor's note: only BOINGED is good) a lot, finding 13 rack-clearing plays en route to a 3-1 +472 night. When typed out, it really is quite an impressive list: DEXTERS, SLICERS, AKINETIC, UNITIES, HEXANES, ARRAYED, LINGERIE, ARGININE, ASSERTER, EDITION, LISTERS, RADIUSED, and HOSTAGE. How are people even supposed to compete against such bingo prowess? The club should probably consider a limit of 2 such plays per player per game to level the playing field a little bit.

3rd Lynda Finn "Finnished" off her competition, going 3-1 +250. A lesser competitor than she would have crumbled after an opening loss, letting their despair carry them to a winless night. But Lynda, showing indomitable strength of will, took the loss and used it as fuel for the next three games, winning them all. Such impressive resolve will certainly be useful as she attempts to corral and direct 40-ish rowdy Scrabblers at this weekend's tournament. Good luck to all participants, and a big thanks to Lynda for bringing multi-day Scrabble to Madison!

"TILES FOR THE TILE GOD"

1st Thomas Reinke unloaded an impressive fourteen bingos in five games, with the plethora of bonus plays leading him to a 4-1 +627 record. His low game of 446 is a good indicator of how well his night went. That 446 came against Helen Flores as part of a two-on-one match; the other half of that two-on-one was a 495-280 victory against Barb Besadny where Thomas got down four bingos: LAVATERA, DETRITAL, ATTACKED, and PENSION. Somehow this winning margin was improved upon in the following game versus Bryan Benwitz, a game which was being played for all the marbles (not just some of them or even a majority of them). Thomas squelched the hopes of the usually high-scoring Bryan, forcing him to score a lowly 280 (sound familiar?) compared to Thomas' lofty 498 (reached with the aid of BOGARTS, COEDITOR, and EUGENIAS). Even Thomas' loss was high-scoring; so high-scoring, in fact, that it tied with two other games for highest loss of the year at 481. Aaron Bader, the winning party, scored 497. Both players had three bingos: DEMONIST, TOWERING, and IDEATIVE for Aaron, INWARDS, PLUMULE, and the triple-triple AUSPICES for Thomas.

2nd Lynda Finn also had a successful night in regards to bingos, filling up her scorecard with twelve such plays on her way to a 4-1 +372 record. Like Thomas, she was involved in a barn-burner with Aaron Bader, but, unlike Thomas, she prevailed, 497-436. The tiny little box in which to write her bingos was barely large enough to fit them all, but in the end they were all recorded: LIBRATED, NAIVETE, SECTION, and FOAMERS. Aaron contributed MARLIEST, HANSELED, and ANDROGEN to the bingo party. Lynda then cooled down slightly, playing only three bingos (TIERCEL, DIASTOLE, and RETUNES) and scoring only 483 points in a win against Peter Schmiedicke. Her 311-409 loss against Charles Reinke was the only game in which she didn't score 400 or higher, as well as the only game where she failed to bingo multiple times (PEERIES was her lone bingo in that game).

3rd Bryan Benwitz continued his recent run of strong play (no finish less than 3-1 in over a month), going, you guessed it, 3-1 with a spread of +40. His spread after three games was a more-impressive +268, but the previously-described loss to Thomas undid much of that good work. A 477-288 win over Betty Hasselkus was Bryan's high score of the evening. Bryan had a double-double DISLIKES and a nine-letter INSTARRED (v. INSTAR, to adorn with stars) as his bingos in that one, but those two bingos disappointingly accounted for half of his bingo output for the night. In a matchup against newcomer John Wedgewood, Bryan had a slightly tougher time, but came out of the fray with a 413-376 victory firmly in hand. Each combatant had just one bingo: John's POISONER and Bryan's VERSION. John honed his Scrabble chops at the club in Winnipeg and even played a few tourneys, so his final record of 2-2 -119 should come as no surprise!

Aaron Demonstrates That Knowing All the Nine-Letter Words Can Be Useful

1st Aaron Bader put together a dominant evening despite the swirl of British-dictionary words clouding his mind, going 4-0 with a huge 760 spread. After gaining 361 points of that spread in one fell swoop against Barb, he faced the tough trio of Thomas, Bryan, and Charles, easily beating each in turn. In his 433-372 victory against Thomas, he played the beautiful word-of-the-week 9-letter double-double CREPITANT (adj. having or making a crackling sound) for 104 points. In his next game, a 467-294 win against Bryan, he played another (though slightly more prosaic) nine, TOLLGATES, as well as another double-double, ONCOGENE (n. a gene that causes a cell to become cancerous). For his final act, he dominated club-leader Charles 513-348, playing the nice ACARIDAN (anagram ARCADIAN).

2nd Bryan Benwitz, after coming in first the last two weeks, had to settle for second, going 3-1 +291. Like Aaron, he opened with a huge win, 537-236 against Helen, playing INTERNED, AORISTS, SEPALOID, and the excellent HEMPSEED (n. the seed of hemp, what, you were expecting something else?). All that bingoing must have tired him out, as he only bingoed three more times the whole evening: twice against Mary, and once in a final-round 387-370 win over Andy. Reminder to club members: when you bingo four times in a game, it is expected that you bingo AT LEAST 6 times in your next game.

3rd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-1 +232, successfully keeping either twin from the top three for the third consecutive week. A bingo-sparse 370-414 to the T-Twin gave way to three straight wins, the first against Andy, 466-420. Unlike his game with Thomas, this one was satisfactory to bingo-lovers everywhere: Peter played ADROITLY, TRENCHER, SOUPIEST, and LATRINES, while Andy played OILCANS and the phony VEXATES* (only VEXATION is good). He followed this up with a win against Richard 451-316, and a win against Gail, 434-339. Hopefully this streak of good play follows him to Elmhurst, Illinois, where he and a few other club members are playing the Arden Cup this weekend.

The bingo-king/queen title was hotly contested with Aaron, Andy, and Gail all notching 10 bingos. If only we had a three-sided coin to settle this dispute.