Blog

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.

I Hear Peter Schmiedicke Sleeps With A Dictionary Under His Pillow

1st Peter Schmiedicke went 4-0 +508 averaged 485 points per game, his highest-ever single-session average. Dave Gilligan was made to know first-hand the potency of Peter's scoring skill when thier match ended with a 465-248 final score. Peter played INFLAMED, AEROLITH, and SLOTHING to neatly slot in with his three-bingos-per-game average for the night. He followed up that win with a 526-484 victory over Charles Reinke that could only be described as a "scoring frenzy". Charles recorded three bingos (RETAINERS, ALUMINIC, and PALTERED), but Peter one-upped him with four (INOSINE, REDRAFTS, ANODIZE, and OUTGIVES). Rarely is a 1,000-point total score achieved; that combined total is the second-highest this year. Charles' score is also the third-highest losing score this year (Aaron Bader having lost with both a 485 and a 506). After that satisfying win, one would think that Peter was done crushing people's dreams, but he wasn't; in the final deciding game, he roughed up Dennis Lloyd quite badly, scoring 518 to Dennis' 346. IDEALESS and AVERSION were Dennis' bingos, but there was nothing he could do as Peter again got four such plays: ATTRITE, HANDIEST, FOREPLAY, and UNBRACED.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +393, and while he couldn't finish above Peter in the nightly standings nor beat him in their game, he did manage to average more points, at a heady 490 per game. It took him a while to get his engines running, as he barely escaped with the victory against Bryan Benwitz, 383-368. Bryan had MOONRISE and SWEATED to Charles' STIFLERS and FORMATE. Then, Charles' engines were fully operational, and he proved it by dropping a 613 on his own brother, who scored just 338. A pair of 100-point bingos (SEXTING for 123 and SHOALED for 101) were supplemented by METALED (76) and PEDOLOGY (68). That 600-point game was the seventh such game this year, however, it was not even close to the highest game score this year, which was Thomas' 658 just a few weeks ago. Charles wound down the evening with a 481-336 win against Helen Flores, playing ENDURING, TRIASSIC, and UNVARIED along the way.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +83, winning the first three before facing Peter Schmiedicke and being denied what would have been his first undefeated performance at our club. In the first game, he evened up his lifetime record against Gail Salm by winning 423-339. They now stand deadlocked at three wins apiece. Gail played the high-probability ELOINERS, but Dennis had two bingos in DIRTIEST and TRUNDLE. Two more bingos (ASSEMBLE and LUSTIER) were served up to Aaron Bader, and again, Dennis walked away with the win, 396-350. Do you sense a pattern emerging? Against Helen Flores, Dennis AGAIN found himself blessed with a duo of bingos, this time ARTISTE and INTONES, and AGAIN came away with victory clutched tightly in his fists, 400-275. If Dennis can continue to reliably get two bingos in every single game of Scrabble he plays, the phrase "club disbandment" starts to sound kind of like a portent.

Since September is right around the corner, that could only mean one thing: the club season has drawn to a close! Thomas Reinke is this year's club champion with a sweet 75.6% winning percentage. That's like going 3-1 every single night! Charles Reinke trailed behind at 73.2%, with Bryan Benwitz in third at 65.988% (Andy Bohnsack, at 65.951%, was very close to overtaking Bryan).

Helen's nice find of HABITUES was chosen as word of the week. A HABITUE is a resident or frequent customer of a place. Just two words from the new book were played: Gail's GAITERED (the third time she's played that word) and Charles' SEXTING, later extended to SEXTINGS.

Bryan Benwitz Gives Away Losses to the Less Fortunate

1st Bryan Benwitz wasn't his usual high-scoring self, but he didn't need those points anyway as he went 4-0 +205. An unusual amount of restraint was shown by both parties in a low-scoring match against Dave Gilligan, with the final score being a paltry 346-318. The bingo situation was a wash; Dave had SONNETS for 81, with Bryan adding on HEROICS for 79. Bryan regained some of his missing mojo against Susan Vergeront, snatching away her chances for an undefeated evening with a 447-380 victory. This time, Susan did most of the bingoing, playing FOUNTAIN and MATURER to Bryan's AILERON. In the final game, Bryan AGAIN trampled another player's hopes of an undefeated record, defeating the 3-0 Richard Lauder in a 373-338 contest. Richard played MISTRIAL and Bryan played HOSTILE; there's a pun in there somewhere, but a certain somebody hasn't really woken up yet.

2nd Thomas Reinke got in a bonus fifth game (amazing value on his two-dollar investment!) and put it to good use, going 4-1 +325. His two-on-one encounter happened in the first round, when he was matched against both Helen Flores and Mary Becker. Mary was the one who managed to put a few more dents in Thomas' armor, losing by a smaller margin of 83 points in a 453-370 game. Meanwhile, Helen Flores was taken down by a score of 472-323. Thomas bingos in the two games were RAINSUIT, KEGGERS, TOGATED, IGUANAS, and NEOLITHS. After those two wins, Thomas lengthened his winning streak to eleven games; however, he would face a longtime foe in the next round, and there his win streak would come to a calamitous end. The victor, Charles Reinke, played bingos of ADMIRAL and STENCIL, while Thomas found the more obscure VERRUCAE (n. VERRUCA, a plantar wart). However, obscurity doesn't award any extra points, so it was Charles' win, 411-386. Thomas would later pull out another weird word, ARRHIZAL, played in a 434-331 win over Dave Gilligan.

3rd Charles Reinke averaged 501 points per game despite a singular loss that left him at 3-1 +553. He started things off with a bang, defeating Gail Salm 556-336. Gail had the nice find of CAMPFIRE and the higher-scoring SQUARED (88), but Charles was able to respond with a trio of his own bingos: TENSITY, ANTERIOR, and BLOODIES. That score of 556 was not destined to be his highest score of the evening, though, as he scored a cool 587 against Helen Flores, who scored 249. That winning margin of 338 is his second-highest all-time. Four bingos were required for Charles to reach such heights: CONCEDE, PLANTAIN, PLANERS, and ANODISE. Even Charles' loss against Richard Lauder was a high-scoring one, 449-479. Charles had ANISOLE, AESTHETE, and MRIDANGA (n. a drum of India), but his efforts were nullified by Richard's SPAEING as well as his triple-triple of LITTERER for 122 points. That word turned out to be worth eight bucks, as it netted Richard both the triple-triple prize ($4) and the high E play (another $4).

Both Richard Lauder and Peter Schmiedicke also had 3-1 records. Sue Goldstein played the word of the week, the 101-point PALIMONY in a 401-403 loss against Betty Hasselkus. We had a few new bingos played this week: ANODISE (Charles), RAINSUIT (Thomas), and TRANNIE (Dennis).