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The King is Dead, Long Live The King

1st Bryan Benwitz seized the first place crown for the second week in a row, going 4-0 +255. His first game against David was low-scoring, 361-342, with his finds of PEAVIES and TREASON barely getting the job done against his opponent's bingoless assault. (In dorky bingo news, the word TREASON has now been played a measly four times, compared to 13 for its anagram, ATONERS. This proves what we already all knew: -ERS bingos are the best!) An incorrect challenge of Charles' ETHINYL in the next round, while a grievous and wholly inexcusable error, ended up mattering little as he won that game against the club leader, 435-418, playing the bingos RERAISES, PULLEYS, and INTAKES for 101 big points. His string of close-ish wins continued against Dennis, 424-389, despite being outbingoed 3 to 1. His string of close-ish wins then ended with a total shellacking of Thomas, 513-300, featuring  EDIFICES, SPARRING, and a somewhat embarrassing phony of ENSTATE*. The only consolation for Thomas is that this is not his worst defeat ever at the hands of a Madison club member.

2nd Richard Lauder's 3-1 +321 record earned him a place on the podium for the first time in a few weeks. His first-round loss to Andy gave way to three consecutive wins, the first against Susan, 401-348. He followed that up with a solid victory over Dave, 460-279, his power-tile bingo of EXPORTS for 122 overcoming Dave's power-tile bingo of QUINTES (n. the fifth of eight fencing positions. The other seven are also acceptable in Scrabble: PRIME, SECONDE, TIERCE, QUARTE, SIXTE, SEPTIME, and OCTAVE). His bloodlust, however, was not sated by this big win, and so he decided to tally another one, this time 476-305 against Lynda. Lynda's crude drawing of a sad face in her bingo column on the scorecard told the whole, tragic, story.

3rd Andy Bohnsack came in third with a 3-1 +245 record. His first game against Richard proved, ultimately, to be his downfall: if he had won by only 40 more points, he would have come in second instead of third! Keep that in mind next time you lazily play the end of an already won game! Despite only a 2-1 bingo edge, he soundly defeated Barb in his second game, 477-273, playing TOURNEYS and ANTIARS (n. an arrow poison). In the third game, his bingos of HERNIAS and FINGERS were not nearly enough against Thomas' V-bingo assault of THRIVEN, INACTIVE, and INVOICE. He did manage to win against Dennis 435-325, but, again, because of his unneeded compassion against his first opponent, has to settle for third on the night.

David played the word of the week, TEETOTAL. In other bingo news, everyone who came to club had at least two bingos, likely a first for the club! Good work everyone!

Bryan Benwitz is neither Benevolent nor Merciful

1st Bryan Benwitz had a 3-1 +373 record, but, in the absence of any undefeated players, this was more than good enough for first place. He came out of the gates running by trampling Charles Reinke in the first-round matchup, 449-366. The key to beating a Reinke often is to limit their bingoing; Bryan executed this plan to perfection by limiting Charles to just INGESTS while himself playing ADULATE, BOYCOTTS (word of the week!), and VOCALIST. He implemented a similar tactic against Andy Bohnsack at the end of the evening, with even more drastically successful results: BEELINE was Andy's only bingo, and his hopes of victory were forefcully crushed by the indomitable might of Bryan's four-bingo onslaught of AROYNTED (also can be spelled AROINTED), DIVIDERS, COMFIEST, and STEADING. Needless to say, it was Bryan's win, 526-312. However, cracks appeared in the facade of Bryan's Scrabbling excellence when he took on archfoe Aaron Bader; Bryan's record against Aaron before the match was four wins, eleven losses. The total now stands at four wins, twelve losses thanks to a low-scoring 316-351 game where the only bingo played was Bryan's STOCKER. Aaron and Bryan have now played three games in a row where neither player has broken 400.

2nd Aaron Bader was second out of four 3-1 players thanks to his +176 spread. Like Bryan, he sat down against his first opponent ready to play some serious Scrabble, and serious Scrabble he played, overthrowing Dennis Lloyd by a score of 477 to 344. His bingo list was lengthy: AGONISES, MODULATE, PENITENT, and HADRONIC. Andy Bohnsack once again got uncomplimentary mentions in the writeup when Aaron took him down 426-341. Sorry Andy. Aaron won the ever-important bingo battle by getting two (PARTIAL, GRODIEST) to Andy's one (RESOLED), proving once again that bingos are a good thing and that you should always try to play them when you have them except in certain far-fetched circumstances. Aaron's perfect night came screeching to a halt when he ran up against Peter Schmiedicke and promptly lost, 335-412. This time, it was Aaron who only had one bingo (EFTSOON [anagram: FESTOON]), whereas Peter enjoyed a wealth of bonus plays (CITRATE, HANDIEST, and INNARDS).

3rd Peter Schmiedicke's 3-1 +146 record left him thirty spread points shy of second, but 160 points away from fourth-place Dennis Lloyd, who also went 3-1. Unfortunately, Peter's four-game total of nine bingos, while impressive on the surface, actually lowered his yearly bingo average. Unlike the top two finishers, Peter endured a tough first game, narrowly beating Joe Horowitz 375-350. Joe did not manage to get a bingo down, but only lost by 25 despite Peter's RINGTOSS and COEDITED. The scoring picked up a little when Peter next found himself paired against Thomas Reinke, a game he won 467-392. A gnarly double-double of ETAMINES for 110 essentially sealed the game for Peter, who also got down ROULETTE for 74 (Thomas had RESOLUTE and INCLINES, neither of which even approached 110 points). Andy Bohnsack finally gets a positive mention here by defeating Peter 394-363 for Peter's only loss of the evening.

Charles got some sweet cash for playing a triple-triple of BURBLING for 167. He now owns the three highest-scoring bingos of the year.

Andy Played Five Games and Does That Seem Weird To Anybody Else?

1st Andy Bohnsack played five games of the board game called "Scrabble" and won all of them. Wait. five? I thought the Madison club only played four games per night. Huh. His scorecard says that he played two games the first round, and those things are pretty factual... anyway. That mysterious first round resulted in wins over both Joe and Betty, getting the night off to a good start with five combined bingos, including EMERSION (n. basically the opposite of IMMERSION) against Joe. Next up in Andy's docket was Gail, whose nice find of TAJINES (n. a Moroccan earthenware pot, or the food cooked in such a pot) was not enough to overcome Andy's AVOIDER and ATHIRST (adj. thirsty). While those first three wins were pretty good, the real star in Andy's crown was his streak-busting defeat of Thomas, 400-363. For his efforts in ending the 11-game run, he will receive 5 greenish-gray rectangles. Riding high on the wings of victory, Andy then came out on top in a 7-bingo bonanza against Bryan. Bryan played RIFLEMEN, REGICIDE, and MONSTERS, while Andy played FONDANT, HUSKIER, ANTERIOR, and, finally, QUARTER for 104 points. Despite that high-scoring Q play, the Q tile remains one of the worst tiles in the game. Do not be fooled by its false promises of bountiful points!

2nd Lynda Finn also played five games, but unlike Andy,  at least allowed one of her opponents to taste the rich ambrosia of victory, going 4-1 +51. Her night got off to a slow start, as she was held bingoless against Bryan, but she recovered in time to beat both Barb and Susan in round two. Against Susan, she played the bingo of the week, NETIZENS (n. a frequent user of the Internet). For her final act, she achieved the elusive "Double Reinke Perfecto", taking down Charles and then Thomas by a combined 24 points. A rematch of the two games is happening in three weeks and will be available on Pay-Per-View for the low cost of $39.99. Don't miss out as the twins seek revenge!

3rd Charles Reinke amassed a lot of spread, but not enough wins, and ended up in third with his 3-1 +520 record. His first round 399-360 win over Dave was marked by his low-probability find of SHIVAHS (n. a seven-day period of mourning in Judaism). He picked up a bunch of spread against Mary, aided by his plays of FACTORS and KAISERS (n. a German emperor, also KAISERIN, his wife). Though he was defeated by Lynda in the third game, he still found it within himself to play one more game, and, paired against Dennis, he made it count, winning 573-283. If there was a prize for "largest margin of victory", he would have won it, but there isn't, so he doesn't. Sorry. Better luck next time!