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Gail Salm Sets All Kinds of Personal Bests

1st Gail Salm waltzed through four games of Scrabble combat without so much as a scratch to show for it, finishing 4-0 +189 for her first-ever undefeated performance in the expert ranks. Her eleven bingos through four games and her 426 average were both personal bests. She took down Lynda Finn by a score of 416-381, playing GRITTIER, BRUISED, and NEEDIER to great effect. She repeated that three-bingo performance with another trio of bingos in a clean 448-348 win over Helen Flores. In that one, her bingos were INGRATES, INQUESTS, and VIOLATE. Showcasing nerves of steel, she did not waver in her final game against the similarly undefeated Andy Bohnsack, and notched the upset victory, 409-381. The normally bingo-happy Andy was denied any chance to bingo as Gail, yet again, had three of them: DENIALS, ROASTING, and RIVETERS.

2nd Andy Bohnsack enjoyed a 3-1 +247 record that was rendered slightly less enjoyable when he lost the "championship" game against Gail Salm. He defeated Oshkosh club regular Terry Hope, 434-355, proving once again that good old-fashioned Midwestern hospitality has no place in Scrabble. Andy played bingos of ATONIES and AGNOSTIC in the win; Terry, meanwhile, got down INVADES. Andy's defensive side was displayed in a bout with Bryan Benwitz which Andy won, 391-332. No bingos were to be had for Bryan, while Andy got down two low-scoring bonus plays: ENROOTS for 63 and MANAGERS for 59, the latter of which must have had at least one blank in it.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +182. His singular loss came courtesy of Andy Bohnsack, who cleaned Thomas' clocks quite thoroughly, 305-442. Thomas managed the sole VENENATE as a bingo, while Andy had EGOISTS and SUNDIAL. However, Thomas did enjoy some big wins of his own, the biggest being a 493-316 victory over Mary Becker. TEARERS and VEINOUS were Thomas' bingos in that contest. A 490-371 win over lifelong nemesis Charles Reinke may have been Thomas' most enjoyable win of the evening, as the tile gods saw fit to bestow upon him bingos three: VENTAILS (later hooked to make AVENTAILS), TURFSKI, and LIPREAD. Charles did manage to get the nine-letter AERATIONS down, played through the second A and the N.

Richard Lauder's VAQUEROS was chosen as word of the week, played in a loss to Helen Flores. Richard also receives the "bingoing in the face of adversity" award for playing a bingo with a V and a Q in it. Any bingo with a U in it is also eligible for this award, which pays $0 to its winner.

The only new bingo played this week was Thomas' VEINOUS. It has two anagrams, ENVIOUS and NIVEOUS.

Thomas Reinke, Havoc-Wreaker

1st Thomas Reinke made short work of every opponent he faced, finishing a perfect 4-0 with a sizable +609 spread. He downed Gail Salm 475-335 thanks to a trio of high-probability sevens: AUNTIES, DIOXANE, and POETISE. Gail also got down a high-probably seven of her own, RETOTAL. A game against Peter Schmiedicke was somewhat closer, but still a solid win for Thomas, 420-341. In that one, both players had two bingos: FRONTAL and PONGIEST for Peter, THRONED and YPERITE for Thomas. Most of Thomas' damage was done in his game against Barb Besadny, which he dominated utterly from start to finish, 579-227. That one saw Thomas lay down four bingos, two of which scored over ninety points: NECTARY (97), SUBTILE (92), JIHADIS (86), and EARPHONE (66).

2nd Lynda Finn took the "defense first" route to the top three, finishing 3-1 +275 while allowing only 315 points per game for her opponents. This new strategy was exemplified in a 394-288 victory over Dennis Lloyd. Dennis got down FINESSE a decent score, but otherwise failed to gain any momentum at all; Lynda's INCENTS may have had something to do with that. Another one-bingo-apiece battle was fought against Susan Vergeront, with Lynda again winning in convincing fashion, 433-322. Some more high-probability bingos were played; Susan had AUSTERE, with Lynda contributing NEATEST. Her loss was a low-scoring match against Barb Besadny which ended 333-319 and was lost despite Lynda having played the only bingo on the board, SOOTIER.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +213, and, like his brother, scored above 400 in all of his games. Speaking of his brother, Thomas was the one responsible for Charles' sole loss; their game ended with a final score of 444-406. Thomas bingoed out with ANESTRI to steal the win, having played BARTERED and MODELERS earlier in the contest. Meanwhile, Charles had "just" two bingos of SHOVELS and HAVENED. He fared better against Aaron Bader in a game which he won 494-410, playing the double-double PARTIZAN (same as a PARTISAN) for 114 points as well as the lower-scoring LOWLIFE for 80 (unfortunately never extended to LOWLIFER). Aaron found bingos of RETITLE and PETITES in the losing effort. A 457-324 triumph over Peter Schmiedicke featured yet more high-probability bingos, with Peter getting down FORESIDE and TONEMES to Charles' IMAGOES and NITROSO.

There were a few new bingos to report on this week: JIHADIS (Thomas, also word of the week), LAIRAGE (Bryan), and PONGIEST (Peter).

Dave Gilligan is Not to be Stopped

1st Dave Gilligan shocked the Scrabble world by going 4-0 +440 and eclipsing his yearly average by some seventy points, averaging 417 per game. Meanwhile, he held his opponents to a stingy 307, proving once again that strong offensive game + strong defensive game = plentiful wins. Dave started his enchanted evening by trouncing Sue Goldstein, 484-315, playing the plausible DEAFENER as well as a perfectly-valid TREATING. A matchup against Andy Bohnsack didn't quite reach "trouncing" territory, but Dave still earned a solid win, 369-300, playing MESSAGES to Andy's NUTRIENT. To secure his undefeated record, Dave was paired with the similarly-undefeated Charles Reinke in the last round; after much bingoing on Dave's part (LINEATE, UNDERPAY, and ERASION), and no bingoing on the part of Charles, Dave emerged victorious, 407-313.

2nd Aaron Bader finished up at 3-1 +299 for second place. He used up most of his luck in the first game (because luck is a finite resource which can be depleted) when he roughed up Bryan Benwitz, 544-377. Bryan got down DEBONER and ENACTORS to make the score respectable, but he truly had little chance against Aaron's quad-bingo onslaught of UPRATED, ANSWERS, AUTOMEN, and word-of-the-week CYLICES (plural of CYLIX). Andy Bohnsack fared little better, falling 385-456 to the Aaronator. Andy found the only word in EEIORTT? (answer at the bottom), as well as RELEASER, but again, Aaron outbingoed his opponent with INFERIOR, STOPING, and ACCRETE. Aaron's third win was a 397-271 victory over Richard Lauder, with his UBIETIES and LAMINAE outscoring Richard's BONEFISH.

3rd Charles Reinke also went 3-1, but fell slightly short of second place with a +272 cumulative. He made progress in evening up the lifetime series against his brother when he rudely hogged all the good tiles in a 533-322 victory. Thomas had the double-Z GRIZZLES, but Charles had four bingos in response: LEANEST, UNDERLIE, INFERIOR, and INSECTAN. Aaron Bader didn't face such lopsided tile distribution, but still had to place a checkmark in the loss column when Charles downed him 473-408. Aaron had OGREISM and AIRSIDE, with Charles getting BANTENG, CREASES, and ROTATIVE. A rundown of Charles' singular loss against Dave can be found above.

New bingos this week were AIRSIDE (Aaron) and UNTONED (Helen).