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Barb Besadny Besads her opponents

1st Barb Besadny went 3-0 +144, her first undefeated evening since 2014 and her first top-place finish since 2012. She won her opening game versus Sue easily, 382-289, scoring at will without the help of any bingos. She did manage to get one down in her 347-313 against Dave, SOOTIEST, to complement her opponent's BILLIOUS* (BILIOUS is the correct spelling). Those turned out to be the only bingos in any of the games she played, as both she and Helen went bingoless in Barb's 342-325 win. Remember folks: bingos are fun, but they aren't the be-all and end-all of Scrabble success. A steady diet of 25 or 30 point plays can often be just as good. Until your opponent bingos 4 times in a row and you're stuck staring at CFIIIVV. (quick quiz: find the bingo in that rack)

2nd Lynda Finn came in second with a 3-1 record and a huge +543 spread. Her night got off to a shaky start, as even though she scored 412 with two bingos, ELOIGNER and ANIMATES Susan topped that by scoring 461 with three rack-clearers, EXTERNAL, DARTING, and SUPPOSE. What was that I said about bingos not being a big deal? Forget about all that. I lied. The proof is in the pudding: after Susan's three bingos, Lynda's opponents combined for a measly one bingo the rest of the night, while she herself played 8: PEWTERS, UNGLUED (not to be confused with UNGULED), and DEGASSED (at first glance adj. possessing or displaying paintings by Edgar Degas, actually v. to remove gas from) against Betty, MISHIRED* and SCOPING against David, and RENNASE, MELTONS, and EMPIRES against Thomas. Lynda's shocking 513-294 demolition of Thomas makes it two wins in a row for her; there should probably be a prize if she can get the streak up to 5.

3rd Thomas Reinke unleashed raging bingo fury in his first three games before crashing hard in the final, ending up at 3-1 +500. 13 bingos were played against the trio of Richard, Dennis, and Charles, leading to a ludicrous average score of 565 in those games. Most of the bingos were not very notable; he did, however play BULLSEYE, a common word which for some reason was only included in the most recent dictionary update. Thomas' score of 294 in the final round sent his average plummeting below 500 for the night and the resulting 200 point loss sent him to third place. A good job indeed by Lynda: she had 400 spread points to make up, and she did it!

Andy played the word of the week BIGFEET, which is a somewhat odd plural of BIGFOOT (n. an influential person). The answer to the CFIIIVV rack is VIVIFIC (adj. imparting spirit or vivacity). Even if you were to find it during a game, good luck fitting it on the board!

The Cake is Not a Lie

1st Thomas Reinke, fresh off a victory at this weekend's Madison tournament, continued his winning ways by going 4-0 +269. Always the model of consistency, he bingoed exactly twice in each game, an amount of bingoes that experts have quantified as being "absolutely the most perfect amount without a doubt" per game. In the first round, against the soon-to-depart Joe, he got down ANLASES (n. ANLAS, a medieval dagger, also ANLACE) and DEISTIC to counter his opponent's CTENOID (adj. comblike) and ALERTING. He followed those up with MAIDANS and STOMODEA against Gail, HAGDONS and the word-of-the-week DEJEUNER (French for "lunch", but English for "a breakfast", funny how that works out sometimes) against Aaron, and NONLIFE and SOLATED against his recurring foe Charles. For those curious, the head-to-head record for those two is 78 wins for Thomas, 73 wins for Charles, and 1 tie... only 1 tie? Shouldn't it be all ties?

2nd Aaron Bader shook off the mental rust accumulated from attending a tournament but not playing (thanks for doing the data entry!) by going 3-1 +291. A bingo-sparse 410-329 first-round matchup against Betty gave way to a slightly more bingo-laden matchup against Charles, where he won, 500-420. OVERLATE, FRETTING, and STEAMIER where Aaron's rack-clearers; Charles played the status-lowering DECLASSE as well as RENEGADO. Do not be fooled by his "close" 340-360 loss against Thomas. Scores can be deceiving. Only a foolish bag-emptying play by Thomas followed by an out-bingo allowed  a seeming blowout to become close. In the final game, he defeated Bryan 459-314, aided by his opening HEMITIC*, a presumed misspelling of HEMATIC. It is hard to blame Aaron, or anyone else who plays a phony; there are a whole lot of words in the dictionary. Like, a LOT. Hundreds, or even thousands of them. How is one supposed to keep them all straight?

3rd Richard Lauder went 3-1, the only person to do so on this night, so his -79 spread mattered not. The progress accomplished with a trio of close-ish wins by 84, 17, and 24 was wiped out by a 309-513 loss to Charles. Perhaps it is not well known to club members, but Richard, as the venerable director/founder of the club, has powers granted to him by the club charter that should make players leery of defeating him by too much. Charles, and others, should be thankful that Richard does not often exercise those powers.

In other news, it is time to update your mental list of "famous phonies", including such words as LIST REDACTED, to remove GUILTED, which, as Lynda sadly found out against Betty, is now acceptable. Also, big thanks to Lynda for directing last weekend's tournament, the many Madison-based winners of which were honored with a delicious cake.

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!