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Andy Bohnsack Successfully Executes Plan to Score More Points than Opponents

1st Andy Bohnsack brutally trampled the winning aspirations of all four of his opponents to catapult himself solely in first place, 4-0 +305. A 390-353 victory against Charles Reinke (bingos: SOCAGER and UVEITIS) started things off well, and they only got better from there. Fast forward to the end of the fourth game, only to find that Andy had pulled off the coveted Anti-Reinke by knocking down Thomas Reinke by a score of 449-382, again with two bingos: AIGLETS and GORDITA. In between those two wins, Andy also felled Joe Horowitz, 450-337. However, that win was befouled by the shameful stench of a phony bingo, CHAIRER (CHARIER is perfectly acceptable and stenchless). Andy also played BEPAINTS and FINALES in that game, while Joe was limited to one bingo of RADIANS.

2nd Aaron Bader, coerced into playing a fourth game by dictatorial club directors, overcame his tiredness to finish 3-1 +165. Like Andy, Aaron opened the action with a solid win against strong opposition, upending Bryan Benwitz 436-353 despite being outbingoed 2-1: Bryan played THRONES and STEARIN, but Aaron's 93-point WEBSTER (n. an archaic term for a weaver) was enough to seal the deal. Aaron overcame more adversity in a 418-386 win against Charles Reinke, as Charles got down an early 149-point 3x3 of FLINGERS (the loss thus soothed by the healing salve of a five-dollar prize). Aaron's MERITING and OUTPLAYS turned out to be self-describing as Aaron fought out the win. Not all adversity is meant to be overcome, however, and Aaron was taught that lesson by Joe Horowitz in the form of a 431-379 defeat.

3rd Helen Flores crushed her yearly average by scoring 404 points per game as she finished in third place at 3-1 +37. After defeating one Reinke the previous week, she defeated the other Reinke this week, triumphing over Thomas 469-398. Thomas played LACTEAN, CYANOGEN, and ENABLERS, but Helen got down TOOTSIE as well as a punishing late-game REMIXERS for 126 points to secure victory for her own. Her 412-371 victory against Gail Salm was a little more subdued, but still a quality win, as Helen got down two more bingos, QUAKERS and DEVICES. The one blemish on her scorecard was delivered courtesy of Mr. 4-0 Andy Bohnsack, who won by a final of 466-378. Helen's ETESIAN and AITCHES did much in the way of damage prevention, but were unfortunately not quite enough to snag the win.

Aaron's SCROFULA, a type of tuberculosis, was awarded word-of-the-week honors. Both new bingos this week were played by Thomas: ARTSIES and SHITTER.

Are We Even Surprised that Thomas Reinke Went Undefeated?

1st Thomas Reinke easily toppled all opponents who dared to stand in his way, finishing with a dominant 5-0 +588 record. All of his games were successes, but the two greatest successes happened simultaneously as he defeated both Buffy Hogan and Dennis Lloyd in a two-on-one match that probably should have been expanded to four-on-one just to make things more fair. A 479-330 win over buffy saw Thomas get down MANDORLA, CRATONS, and SNAILED; that performance was echoed in a 496-274 victory against Dennis wherein Thomas played SCALENI, KERNITES, and WAGONER as his bingos. If one could find a flaw in Thomas' immaculate show of Scrabble supremacy, it would be that his eighteen-game streak of scoring over 400 was broken when he narrowly bested his brother Charles, 341-330. The unusually low-scoring game also broke Charles' streak of twelve such games. Each twin was allowed one and only one bingo: REJOICES for Charles, TONLETS for Thomas.

2nd Dave Kinzer enjoyed easily the best night of his currently short Scrabble career, playing three games without experiencing the disappointment of a loss and averaging 408 points per game while doing it. However, the entire night was almost derailed in the first round when Dave escaped with an uncomfortably close 387-386 victory versus Mary Becker. It was the only game where Dave went without a bingo, and Mary's GROWTHS for 85 points was almost too much to overcome. This close win was followed by a win with a significantly larger cushion, 423-295 against Sue Goldstein. Dave was aided by a high-scoring bingo of TALKERS for 83. To round out his night of perfection, Dave bested Susan Vergeront 415-328, thanks in part to a nice find of GENTEEL. Then, having nothing left to prove, Dave vanished into the night without giving another player a (probably futile) chance to disrupt his perfect record.

3rd Aaron Bader nudged up his roughly 66% winning percentage on the year with a 3-1 +270 record. He played the highest-scoring bingo of the night, a 116-point WASHUPS, in a 457-273 win against Gail Salm. When your bingos score that much, it's okay if that's the only one you get in the game. His most closely-fought contest (although it wasn't really all that close) came against Joe Horowitz, 451-386. Again, Aaron got only one bingo (ENCODES), but scored enough points in other ways to negate Joe's ARRESTER and GUITARS. Paradoxically, it was one of Aaron's two-bingo games that he lost: a matchup against Thomas Reinke ended unfavorably for Aaron, 486-349, despite his M-themed bingos of MORENESS and METRIST. Thomas had TADPOLE and REJOICED in response. The lifetime series between the two now stands at 13 wins for Thomas, 11 for Aaron.

Roughly a year after we started playing with the updated dictionary, three new bingos were played: TRANNIE (Charles), MANDORLA (Thomas), and RADIOES (Lynda). In the category of utterly pointless minutia, there were four bingos played containing a J after only three such bingos were played in the entire month of February.

Bryan Benwitz Outwitz His Opposition

1st Bryan Benwitz went 4-0 with an average of 462 to claim the coveted "first paragraph in the writeup" prize. His path to a perfect night was nearly obstructed in the first game, as the pairing gods decided to test his mettle with a matchup against club leader Charles. Bryan perservered, and managed to squeak out a high-scoring 460-456 win thanks in part to his double-U find of URINOUS. In the second game, Helen's duplicate-letter-laden SETTEES was no match for another nice Bryan bingo, BILOBATE (adj. having two lobes). Bryan continued along the path to a perfect night with a win against Mary, 458-322, playing the odd-looking IDONEITY (n. the state of being idoneous (suitable)). Club historians will remember when former club member and noted odd-looking word player John O'Laughlin played that word against this writer, and this writer challenged it and felt like a doofus when it came back acceptable. Bryan's perfect night came to a perfect end against Andy, with him tallying his lowest score of the evening, but still winning, 449-388. And so it was that Bryan, by virtue of being the only undefeated player, earned this first paragraph in the writeup.

2nd Charles Reinke somehow saw his club-leading 80% winning percentage on the year decrease with a vaguely disappointing 3-1 record. The aforementioned close lose to Bryan could have easily sent Charles on a downward spiral culminating in an 0-4 record; however, he pulled himself together to win his next three games to salvage the night. A close contest during the second game this time ended in his favor, 429-420, with his three bingos of LANEWAYS, REALIZED, and VASTIEST overcoming Peter's BELADIES (v. BELADY, to apply the title of lady to), COENURI, and ERGATES. Emboldened by vicotry, he followed up these two tight games with two comfortable wins, 537-331 against Gail and 458-283 against Mary.

3rd Andy Bohnsack overcame his tardiness to go 3-1 +216. A 456-354 first round game against Buffy saw him play OATCAKE (n. probably some sort of ambrosial combination of oatmeal and a pancake), STRIPPER, and GASOLINE. His bingo-cannon continued warming up against Barb, with him playing STEROID and ANISOLES. Fully primed, his bingo-cannon went off, bombarding Thomas in the form of four bingos, OUTREAD, SAXATILE (adj. living among rocks), REDDISH, and ACRIDEST. Though the bulk of its power was used up, his bingo-cannon managed to weakly lob two more bingos in the general direction of Bryan, DISCRETE and BANDITS.

Two new bingos were played this week: LETOUTS by Thomas and LENDINGS by Peter. Mary played the word of the week, DAMASKS.