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Charles Reinke Excels at Board Game

1st Charles Reinke uncorked a business-as-usual 3-1 +260 record to achieve the coveted "first paragraph in writeup" award. The lowest scoring of his wins also saw him get his largest winning margin in a 453-325 win over Lynda Finn. Lynda had HEISTER for 85 but Charles' SIGHLESS and NONACTOR were a plenty powerful counterpunch. The bingos truly began to flow during a game between Charles and his brother; an out-bingo of PROTOZOA resulted in a 534-448 win for the C-Twin, but Charles had three other bingos in addition to the three that Thomas contributed. Among Charles' list of bingos was the oddly high-probability phony BOTTIES. Fourth-place finisher and paragraph non-receiver Bryan Benwitz handed Charles his only loss, 457-404. Bryan's high-scoring QUARRIES, the only Q-bingo of the evening, was the third nail in the coffin for Charles: the other two nails were DIALECTS and BRAUNITE.

2nd Aaron Bader finished at 3-1 with a somewhat lesser spread of +239, a number that would undoubtedly be higher if he were allowed to use all of the fancy Collins words that inhabit his brain. Aaron's evening started off with a whimper when Charles Reinke took him down 388-487 thanks in part to a 110-point double-double of SLEAZIER. Fortune then decided to smile on Aaron, and he pummeled Gail Salm with four bingos (EPITAXY, ELUSION, LEGONGS, and DEPOSERS) en route to a massive 556-374 victory. Simultaneous to that game, Aaron was a little more restrained in his win over Andy Bohnsack, a game which ended with a subdued 414-357 final score. A 102-point BROACHED for Aaron was apparently enough points to make up for the fact that he failed to get an additional bingo.

3rd Thomas Reinke faced a murderer's row of opponents and emerged from the struggle with an impressive 3-1 +157 record, not to mention eleven bingos. Three of those eleven (PECORINO, AREOLATE, and RESITING) were unleashed in a 447-410 opening-round win against Andy Bohnsack, but at that point, nobody had any idea that Thomas' bingo output would pretty much stay constant throughout the night. Even a loss against Charles saw Thomas get down OUTSAIL, LINEAGE, and PARAMENT (sadly never hooked to make PARAMENTA). Thomas finished up his strong performance by easily cruising past Lynda Finn, 497-361. NETTIEST, NIELLOED, and HOOPSTER comprised a trio of bingos from which a victory could not be snatched away.

Charles' PROTOZOA was selected as word of the week. No bingos from the new dictionary were played, but there was a confirmed sighting of PO, so the new words aren't totally useless.

The Bryaniac Returns to Winning Ways

1st Bryan Benwitz slashed and burned his way through 4 unworthy opponents, going 4-0 +386, ending a 7-week streak of Reinke domination. He made quick work of Dennis Lloyd in his first game, helped in large part by his play of LIBRATES (rhymes with VIBRATES). He then overcame having unplayable bingos on his first rack of DEIRSTV (there are two; can you find them?) against Andy Bohnsack to win 380-373. That game featured the nice extension of STOMATE (a type of pore) to OSTOMATE (one who has had an colostomy, or any other type of OSTOMY). After soundly defeating Gail Salm in his third game on the back of three bingos, he faced Thomas Reinke, against whom he had lost 15 of the last 16, and crushed him underneath his beard, 419-360.

2nd Thomas Reinke found out that even if he is lucky enough to avoid his brother over the Scrabble board, he still remains cursed to come in second place for all eternity, going 4-1 +417. He pulled double duty in the first round, facing Dave and Adrienne, winning each contest by 62 points. Dave, in the manner of a true sportsman, kindly opened the perfect letters for Thomas' bingos: first an O for PARERGON, and then a C for LINGUICA (a type of Portuguese sausage, normally spelled LINGUIÇA, but the Ç tile was mysteriously absent from that game). He then served as a Redeye warmup for Helen Flores, who put up a good fight, losing 373-402. The game might have been different for her had Thomas not played TRUSTEED, a word that she had just played the round before and had the challenge adjudicated by none other than Thomas himself! A four-bingo contest came next, with him winning 585-262, featuring SILIQUAE for 66 points, a score which would have been 60 points higher had the Q not been a blank.

3rd Dennis Lloyd won three games, going 3-1 +51, good enough for third place. Coincidence? I think not. After losing his first game to Bryan, he resolved to never lose again for the rest of his life; I'd say he's off to a good start. The first victim in this new "Pax Dennisa" was Sue Goldstein, where he played POSTURE and STATION in a 412-288 win. He then faced the current club leader, Charles Reinke, and won, of course, because what else is he going to do, 437-428, helped by a timely bingo of INVADING. Not content with dethroning the tyrant, he decided to test his luck by phonying against the ever-skeptical Andy Bohnsack, with SELENOID* (which could mean 'a metal similar to selenium', but has the actual definition of 'N/A') in his low-scoring 354-340 win.

A bunch of new bingos were played this week: LUNATES, LORNEST, DERACINE, PIANOLA (how was that not good before?), and the extremely fancy 95-point PROPYNES by Charles, which was chosen as word of the week, and also as "Definition of the week", with the helpful "a gaseous methyl acetylene". What does that even mean?

Charles Reinke Says Hello to 2016 With Another Loss-Free Excursion

1st Charles Reinke's reign of Scrabble terror continued uninterrupted into the new year, as he went 4-0 +208. In the first game of the night, Lynda Finn had a promising start in her attempt to dethrone this tyrant, but was stymied in the endgame by Charles' bingo-like play of TEAZLE, and ended up losing 454-479. Remember that TEAZLE, TEAZEL, and TEASEL are words (and verbs), but not TEASLE*. Or don't. Dave Gilligan was next up on Charles' list of "people I want to beat at a board game", and again, Charles barely escaped with a win, 387-369, in part because he accepted the phony RERINSED*. Why would you ever be able to rinse something again? It just makes no sense. Charles attempted to justify his failure to challenge by noting the low amount of points the play scored; he was mocked anyway, much like peasants would mock a king for being so much better than themselves. The string of close games continued as he faced eternal foe Thomas Reinke, earning the win 383-364 in part due to his play of CEILIDHS, pronounced "kay-lees", which is a Gaelic social event. Tired of only winning by 20 or so points, Charles flexed his muscles against Andy Bohnsack, scoring a decisive knockout, 458-312. In that game he played PELLICLE, which was chosen as word of the week, and held Andy bingoless.

2nd Thomas Reinke had a perfect night if you discount his unwinnable game with Charles, going 3-1 +303. His first game, a 486-347 win against Bryan Benwitz, featured the nine-letter HARPOONER, which presumably means something to the effect of "one that harpoons". He followed this up with a 438-407 win versus Gail Salm despite Gail's 83-point play of the ever-useful word STOURIE. After the aforementioned beatdown at the hands of his brother, he rebounded by mercilessly and blatantly phonying against Lynda Finn, with BADGERY*, in his 499-347 win. Lynda attempted to counter the phonying with a few phonies of her own, which were removed from the board quickly, and will not be mentioned by name.

3rd Helen Flores' new year's resolution to win 75% of her games during this calendar year got off to a perfect start as she went 3-1 -67. A bingoless affair with June Scott ended in her favor, 331-325. The bingo counts increased slightly in her next game, against Susan Vergeront, with her playing ROSEOLA and Susan responding with the nice find of TRIAGING. Bryan Benwitz ruined her perfect evening in the next game, selfishly hogging both blanks in order to play JOURNEY with nary an apology. Undaunted, Helen saved her best for last, defeating Gail 389-377, helped along by her almost-a-word play of AMAROSA*. AMOROSO, a type of wine, is probably what she was thinking of, but who am I to say?

Dave's LORNEST was the sole new bingo of the week, if you could even consider it "new" since we have been using the new dictionary for almost a year now.