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Aaron Bader Loses a Game, but the Soothing Salve of First Place Will Heal Even the Direst of Wounds

1st Aaron Bader topped a group of five players with one loss thanks to his 4-1 +515 performance. Almost half of his final spread total came as a result of a 504-274 encounter with Sue Goldstein. Aaron played a trio of eight-letter words to secure his victory: SOLENOID, ARIDNESS, and ACTINIDE. A later game against Lynda Finn was marred by the unwelcome blight of phony words; Aaron erred with DONNART (only DONNERT, DONNERD, and DONNERED in our dictionary) while Lynda got away with RULINESS. It was Aaron's win, 489-363. Finally, as the hour grew late, Aaron unleashed his largest game of the evening when he defeated Bryan Benwitz 508-430. Bryan had three bingos of OBELISE, GIRDLER, and BEACHED, the last for 98 points, but was matched every step of the way by his opponent, who found PARRIED, PATNESS, and NEEDLES.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a club-leading 464 per game en route to a 4-1 +403 finish. He managed to extend his winning streak up to twelve in a row before encountering Peter Shmiedicke in round two, a classic example of an unstoppable force encountering an immovable object. The game ended heavily in Peter's favor, 515-406, thanks to Peter's four bingos of SEDUCING, MANROPES, RATTIER, and SIRVENTE. Thomas responded to that disappointing loss by drubbing Susan Vergeront 567-300. Just like his opponent had done the previous game, Thomas deployed a total of four bingos on his nemesis: ECHIDNAS, ROTARIES, FORECAST, and the new word REMOULDS (SMOULDER and MOULDERS were previously valid). The ultimate triumph, however, was attained when Thomas beat his brother Charles 452-431. Charles got down AUROREAN, MIGRATED, and the new BRIDIES, but Thomas's nice nine-letter find of GONOCYTES paired with a lesser find of EXOTICA carried him to victory.

3rd Charles Reinke ended up at 3-1 +280, frustratingly just one rung below his brother. Things started off smoothly, with a game against Gail Salm ending 525-320. Gail played ORACIES (the new anagram of SCORIAE); but Charles had ENTHRALS, PUMMELED, and SAUNTER for a decided advantage in BPFB (bonus points from bingos). Bryan Benwitz fared slightly better, but not better enough to walk away with the win, as Charles prevailed in their matchup 435-383 despite Bryan's tri-bingoed assault of REVOTING, BONESETS, and TONNERS. Charles had VEINULET and a word-of-the-week candidate, SYNKARYA (plural of SYNKARYON, a type of cell nucleus). Charles' third win was a somewhat low-scoring contest against Aaron Bader, 403-359.

Andy Bohnsack deservedly won Word of the Week with his ridiculous, unbelievable, and mind-boggling find of SOUNDSTAGE against Peter Schmiedicke, played to the word AGE which was already on the board. Unfortunately for fans of justice and proponents of meritocracy, Andy lost the game 423-436.

Lots of new bingos were played this week: REMOULDS (Thomas), DUALLIE (Charles), BRIDIES (Charles), ORACIES (Gail), SARNIES (Gail), and DISOWNER (Dave).

Thomas Reinke Goes Streaking

1st Thomas Reinke went undefeated for the second straight week, extending his winning streak past 10 and all the way up to 11. His opening defeat of Andy Bohnsack featured a miss of NONSKIER, a word that much more aptly describes Thomas than what was actually played, EINKORNS, einkorn being a type of wheat. An unnaturally low-scoring game occured in the normally action-packed Reinke-Reinke matchup in the second round, with each of the twins playing only one bingo apiece, Charles with WINKERS and Thomas with TALESMAN (n. a person summoned to fill a vacancy on a jury, not a misspelling of TALISMAN). In his third game against Bryan Benwitz, an early successful challenge by Bryan awakened Thomas' wrath (others call it luck), which was channeled into three consecutive bingos, HYALINE, ARBORES, and CHEVRES, the last of which will be placed on the "Cheesy Bingos" list. This author has been told not to speak of his final game of the night, a win for the T-twin against Peter Schmiedicke,  because it "just kind of was a sad game all around".

2nd Aaron Bader played smothering defense on his way to 3-0 +557, holding his opponents to an average of 291, utilizing the tried and true "draw all the tiles by playing lots of bingos" Scrabble strategy. Flexing his near-perfect word-finding abilities, he played eight bingos against his victim's one, the highest scoring being a double-double EXORDIA for 112. Sensing that a matchup with Thomas was inevitable, he left before the final game, maintaining his perfect record. You can't run from your problems forever, Aaron!

3rd Charles Reinke found that if you stare unblinkingly at your tiles for long enough, sometimes words pop up out of nowhere, going 3-1 +246. Ignoring deep philopsophical questions like "What is a word really?" and "As master of my own reality, should I not be allowed to play any word I wish?", he defeated Bryan by 1 point, 426-425. ORANGIER and SERVITOR (n. a male servant) were his bingos, not quite matched by Bryan's DETOURS and OCTAVES. After falling to his brother, he picked up his winning ways by unleashing his bingo-cannon against Lynda Finn, playing four, including SLACKENS for 107. Charles saved his best for last against Helen Flores, scoring 499 and finding the triple-triple MATELOTE (n. a fish stew, not to be confused with MATELOT, a sailor) for 140 game-winning points.

Only one new bingo was played tonight, Bryan's RACINOS. The word of the week was Helen's ENSCONCE.

Thomas Reinke is Running Out of Victory Cigars

1st Thomas Reinke swept through all four of his opponents like a raging whirlwind (wordwind?), going 4-0 +327 and averaging 461 points per game. He got his big score out of the way quick by dismantling Andy Bohnsack in a lopsided 536-324 affair. Despite the large gulf between their scores, both players found two bingos: EGALITES and NARRATED for Andy, COARSEN and SEICHES for Thomas. Bryan Benwitz put up considerably more of a fight against Thomas, but the best he could muster was a high-scoring six-point loss, 466-472. This falls one point shy of Bryan's highest-scoring loss ever, an eerily similar 467-472 game against the same opponent just two months prior [cue spooky music]. Bryan got INCLINE, TIRELESS, and BRASILS, but was outdone by Thomas' four bingos of REROUTE, TETANAL, MOMENTO, and the phony GROVERS. To finish up the night, Thomas defeated another one of the club's top players, Aaron Bader, by a score of 434-376. Aaron found the cool ESTOPPEL but, at only sixty points, it could not stand up to Thomas' DECADENT, PALEWISE, and NITERIES.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke, like Thomas above him, played a tough lineup of opponents, and should be happy with his 3-1 +293 outcome. He defeated Richard Lauder by nearly a hundred points, 428-330, but the sanctity of the victory was desecrated by Peter's phony of SCLERID (CLERIDS and SCLEROID are good). Peter also found POITREL in that game, while Richard had a pair of 63-point bingos, CORNIEST and SIDEWAYS. Andy Bohnsack, who seemingly couldn't catch a break, found himself losing to Peter by more than a hundred, 331-445. Andy found KERATOSE (one of the highest-probability eight-letter words with a K in it); Peter had MORTISE and DOMAINE as his bingos. His loss came against Bryan Benwitz in a very close game, 419-425. Bryan had the related words of AIRLINES and AVIATED; Peter's two bingos of TREACLES and SEETHING could only be related by the sickest of minds.

3rd Charles Reinke also went 3-1 with a smaller +259 spread. His evening started off badly with a 320-407 loss to Peter Schmiedicke; thus, it is fitting that Peter ended up above him in the standings. Peter only bingoed once, with IRRITANT, but was able to hold on for the win despite Charles' OILIEST and CARIOCAS. Susan Vergeront put the fear of god into Charles as she played a close game with him, 392-415. FOLIAGE and HOISTING were Susan's bingos; Charles got down SURMISES and COTENANT. Richard Lauder was not given the benefit of such a tight game; his match against Charles ended at a 343-507 score. ANESTRI and THEOREM were Richard's bingos; YARDAGE, VIRIDIAN, and the low-probability SUCCOUR were Charles' rebuttals.

No new bingos were played this week. Lynda's nice play of LATAKIAS (n. LATAKIA, a type of Turkish tobacco) was Word of the Week.