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Peter Schmiedicke Should Start Charging for the Scrabble Lessons He Gives to People

1st Peter Schmiedicke snagged the first place spot despite a blemished 3-1 +414 record, beating out four other players who had the same win-loss record. To do this, he had to rally out of a 90-point hole dug for him by Lynda Finn, who beat him in the first game 463-370. Lynda won the ever-important bingo battle, playing RAMBLED, PTERINS, and RETINOLS, while Peter got WINTERS and COOTIES. Peter followed up that disappointing loss with a pair of 200-point victories, 471-257 against Helen Flores and 531-278 against a certain Dave Gilligan who had just set a new high-water mark for himself with a 544 game. Against Helen, Peter had INSTARS and AILERON, while Dave was forced to spectate as Peter laid down ODORANT, LIPREAD, and MAUNDERS against him. As the 2-1 player with the highest point spread, Peter was matched against the undefeated Thomas Reinke in the last round, and he rose to the challenge, winning a close one, 444-424. Thomas played SPRITZED for 110, but Peter was able to bingo consistently throughout the game, getting down GRODIEST, DREARIES, and COMBINES.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +397, but, in averaging just 445 points per game, he allowed his yearly game average to fall below 500, perhaps never to return. He took down the always-tough Bryan Benwitz with relative ease, winning 469-345. Bryan found the odd-looking KEENERS, but Charles outdid that with POINTED, FIREHOSE, and the Word of the Week, SCABLAND. Lynda Finn, fresh from kicking butts in Portland, had similar luck or worse against Charles, losing 269-523. While she was forced to stare at unworkable letters the whole game, Charles got down ANNULET and MEDDLES. Not in every game could the tiles be so favorable for Charles; a matchup against archfoe Thomas Reinke ended 404-346 in Thomas' favor. Thomas' sole bingo of MURALIST (anagrams: ULTRAISM and ALTRUISM) was enough to overcome Charles' STRIPED and HANGOUT.

3rd Aaron Bader finished at 3-1 +321, beating out fourth-place finisher Thomas Reinke by seventeen spread points. Aaron started out the evening having somehow secured the favor of the tile gods, as he walloped Gail Salm 627-293. In tribute to those same gods, he played four bingos: VIBRATOR, VERITIES, POUNCES and the phony ORCHELLA (ORCHILLA is new in our dictionary; the one Aaron played is Collins-only). Gail, for her part, played AWAITER and STAINERS. The rest of Aaron's games were not quite as impressive as the first, leading one to wonder what transgression he had committed in order to anger the gods. He did take down Andy Bohnsack, 391-309, thanks to finds of ALANINES and INDITES. Andy managed just a single bingo of BEATINGS [Ed. Note: there has to be way to fit that word into the narrative...nah]. Aaron's loss came against, who else, Thomas Reinke, who showed no mercy in delivering a sound 484-365 defeat.

We had a fair amount of new bingos played this week: FIREHOSE (Charles), LORNEST (Charles again), SUETIER (Gail), DREADER (Barb), and CODINGS (Sue).

Take the Top Three from Last Week, Scramble it Up, then Skip the Following Three Paragraphs

1st Thomas Reinke went an undefeated 4-0 +362 in the season's second week, putting him in a temporary tie with his brother for first place in the club standings. His nine-letter WITHDRAWS (played through AW on the board) was chosen as Word of the Week, played against Richard Lauder in the first game. Thanks to an additional bingo of LISTENER, Thomas came away with the victory, 435-414, despite Richard's counter-bingos of PRENTICE and ACTIVATE. In the third round, Thomas was matched against fellow undefeated Betty Hasselkus, and again laid down two bingos (RALLIER and CONINES) on the way to a win, 473-360. Still undefeated, Thomas and Bryan Benwitz were pitted against each other in what would be the final, culminating battle for untold glory and renown. Thomas' STEAMIE and EGYPTIAN (n. a typeface with squared serifs) glared angrily at Bryan's OLEINES and ANTEROOM, and in the end, it was Thomas who was able to put a checkbox in the win column, with the final score being 452-422. Thomas has now won 26 of his last 30 games; his four losses in that span have all been to the player who appears below him in this week's standings.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +428 and averaged 481 points per game, a disappointing mark after his 524 average last week. Charles got his singular loss out of the way quickly, dropping to Bryan Benwitz 371-433. Each player was limited to just one bingo apiece: INBOARD for Bryan, WACKIEST for Charles. Interesting trivia: in Charles' last twenty games, he has scored below 400 only three times, all of them while playing against Bryan. The beard must have defensive powers. In any case, Charles was fully recovered by the final two games, scoring well over 500 in both. He laid down four bingos (PELORIAN, OPAQUELY, INTARSIA, and TEENERS) in the course of a 552-375 victory over Dennis Lloyd, who got down READIED. That level of scoring was not enough for Charles, so he kicked it up a notch for his final game against Richard Lauder and won decisively, 586-299. Richard managed REMOVED and FANTAIL, but Charles was again smiled upon by the tile gods, and got four bingos of his own: ANISOLE, BETAINE, MOOTNESS, and the phony POSTROCK (PREROCK and POSTPUNK are both good).

3rd Aaron Bader again benefited from the absence of a certain Collins expert in going 3-1 +316. He used up all his mojo early with a dominating 549-291 triumph over Gail Salm, reaching that high total despite two relatively small bingos, HORSIES (73) and LAMBERTS (77). Unfortunately, neither player managed to extend LAMBERTS to FOOTLAMBERTS. Both are units of luminance. Aaron also added an entry to the "beat up on Richard" category with a 468-395 win against our esteemed director. Richard sneakily got by the phony of ASTOMAL (ASTOMOUS is acceptable, and AMATOLS is the real word in those letters) as well as the perfectly valid COLONIST, but Aaron's three bingos of AZURITE, AVENGING, and SHITTIER (gasp) were more than enough for the victory. Just like Charles above, Aaron's only loss was to Bryan Benwitz, 324-384. The bingo well ran temporarily dry for Aaron, although it did produce a little something for Bryan, who got HARTALS and RECODES.

We saw three new bingos played this week: STEAMIE (Thomas), HORSIES (Aaron), and WRISTING (Dennis).

With the Slate Wiped Clean, Charles Reinke Immedately Writes his Name on It Again

1st Charles Reinke couldn't have asked for a better way to start the new club season; he averaged 524 over his four games and played ten bingos. Probability and math say he won't keep it up, but the indomitable nature of his will says he can. Of all Charles' opponents, Bryan Benwitz came nearest to breaking Charles' will, losing by a mere 41 points, 393-434. PRICKED and FEASTED were Bryan's bingos, while Charles got down OMERTAS and ANTIARIN. Charles followed up that game with a pair of 570-point outbursts against Gail Salm (578-250) and Peter Schmiedicke (571-448). However, both were marred by phonies; Charles played EENIEST (confusion with EENSIEST?) against Gail and a 185-point triple-triple of REACCESS against Peter. The game against Peter was the second in a row between these two players that ended with a combined score of over 1000; last week, Peter beat Charles by a score of 526-484. When do they start drug testing in Scrabble, anyway? Only a 20% phony average can mar what is otherwise a very strong start to the year.

2nd Aaron Bader had a fairly consistent evening, scoring in the 400s in each of his games while going 3-1 +351. The new club season didn't begin the way Aaron envisioned, as he was paired with (and lost to) the formidable Thomas Reinke, 428-443. Both players had a pair of bingos; OUTLYING and LACTOSE for Thomas, VAUNTER and BOREENS for Aaron. His bingo fortunes would remain the same for the rest of the night (he played two in each game), but his scoring output did see a significant uptick in the final two games, allowing him to average 452 on the night. A game against Betty Hasselkus ended strongly in Aaron's favor, 467-306. Aaron played SIGNORE and FANTAIL (TAILFAN is also good), with Betty getting down LOANERS. Peter Schmiedicke did not fare any better, with his match against Aaron also being close to a blowout in the wrong direction, 330-496. After struggling with clunky racks for the first half of the game, Peter finally got down SEATLESS and OUTLINES, but Aaron's higher-scoring TANNERY and DOWDIER, plus a bevy of other high-scoring plays, were enough for a comfortable win.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 with a rather diminutive +80 cumulative. The perpetrator was a 132-point loss to his brother, 379-511. Thomas played TELLIES and VOYAGES, the latter for 96 points, but Charles' trio of ARGENTUM, NONAGONS, and word-of-the-week WIZARDER (adj. WIZARD meaning fine or superb) built up a fortress of points that proved impossible to breach. Fun fact: WIZARDER was deemed such a stupid word that the new Collins dictionary refused to include it! Thomas did manage to win two games in which he only bingoed one time: 436-404 over Bryan Benwitz (playing GAINSAID) and 422-257 over Dave Gilligan (playing VENDORS). Thomas' current 1.5-per-game bingo average will need to be improved if he wants to reach last year's 2.18-per-game average. Luckily, there are still 51 weeks to do so.

Both of the new words this week were played by Charles: OMERTAS (a useful anagram for MAESTRO) and WIZARDER.