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New Words Not So Bad After All

1st Andy Bohnsack lengthened his winning streak to seven as he cruised through a tough lineup of opponents (Bryan, Thomas, Charles, Peter), going 4-0 +439 and averaging 465 points per game. He started off a little slowly with a "mere" 400-332 contest against Bryan Benwitz, a contest which contained nothing but low-scoring bingos: ATTAINS (66) and ISLANDER (60) for Bryan, DIVULGER (62) and STARLING (72) for Andy. After beating up on both Reinke twins, he still had energy left over to run a demolition job on Peter Schmiedicke, 554-376. That game featured SEVEN combined bingos, tied for most this year, with five of them coming from the victor's side: ABLEGATE, SAVARIN, SEAGOING, SAUTEING, and the new TAENIOID, which was chosen as word of the week. It has two anagrams that were present in the old dictionary, IDEATION and IODINATE.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 with a paradoxical -22 spread. He fought out a low-scoring win against Aaron Bader, 370-339, with just Thomas' ANTIPORN and Aaron's ANYWISE appearing on the board. The fingernails really started to get bitten when Thomas later pulled out a 405-404 victory over the formidable Peter Schmiedicke. Thomas continued the "P Bingo" theme with PASTORS and OVERPAST, but let Peter's phony WELDINGS slip through his usually confident word knowledge. Even more bingos containing P's were played by Thomas in later games: OPEROSE, TAPENADE, and TRIPTANE.

3rd Aaron Bader topped a cluster of players stuck at 3-2 with his overpowering +441 spread. Doing the opposite of Andy, Aaron lost once to each Reinke, but still commands winning records against Both. He quite handily took care of Helen Flores, holding her bingoless in a 447-281 triumph which saw him play OUTEARN and ESTUARY (maybe U's aren't so bad after all...? Actually, yeah they are). However, even less mercy was on display against Leslie Seltzer, with Aaron amassing a large portion of his cumulative spread in a 544-290 beating. Again, he thoroughly halted his opponent's efforts to bingo while getting CHOICES, SEMINAR, and PROTEIN (new anagram: REPOINT) for himself. 

Somewhat surprisingly, we had five bingos that can only be found in the new dictionary: TAENIOID (Andy), THONGIER (Bryan), NOVATES (Charles), CROTALE (Aaron), and NEMESIAS (Thomas). The editor would like to note that he had the new word SATINIER available, but opted for the higher-scoring INERTIAS instead. Other new words seen on boards included TONIFY, EJIDO, ZINCO, ZAIDY, ACAI, ERUV, ROO, PHO, TIX, AJI, and EMO. Of course, the quartet of new twos (DA, GI, PO, and TE) were all played multiple times.

Despite the large amount of new bingos, our progress on playing all the bingos in the book went from 16.3% to 15.6%. We will never reach 100% because nobody will ever play PIZZAZZ or PIZZAZZY, unless they contrive a scenario in which the bag contains two Z's or three blanks.

Thomas Reinke Bids Farewell To Old Dictionary with A Loss-Free Excursion

1st Thomas Reinke went 5-0 +402, although his average of 442 points per game actually brought his yearly average DOWN. He won big against Mary Becker, who had defeated him last week, scoring 471 to Mary's 302. Thomas was able to get BALNEAL, PENISES, and ETAGERES for fifty bonus points each. A much closer contest was fought against against fraternal nemesis Charles Reinke, with Thomas squeaking out a 410-403 victory. He played JOUSTED and NEEDIER; Charles responded with AIRINGS and HURDLING. But the most valiant challenge to Thomas' insurmountable might was fought by Bryan Benwitz, who nearly toppled the un-topplable one 467-472. This high-scoring shootout featured three bingos from each side: BARONET, OVATIONS, and POTLINE for Bryan; INERTIAS, MOLDIER, and VETERANS for Thomas.

2nd Aaron Bader ended his night at 4-1 +212, discovering that not having to play Mark Kenas all the time can have a benificial effect on winning percentage. His big win came against Gail Salm, 458-341, a game where the bingo tallies did not tell the whole story, as both players played two: CREATION and SAINTED for Gail, BASSIST and DIRECTS for Aaron. Simultaneous to that game, Aaron suffered his only loss, a 420-345 defeat at the hand of Andy Bohnsack despite bingos of BORROWED and DEVISES. This latest loss puts Aaron's record against Andy at 1-6; to ensure total fairness (because, as we all know, Scrabble is all about fairness), Andy will be playing a two-on-one next time they meet.

3rd Andy Bohnsack finished at 3-1 +259, a good first step towards crawling back into the top three in the yearly standings. In a manner befitting a schoolteacher, Andy took Helen to school, delivering a textbook 525-317 whomping that contained four bingos: OUTRIVAL, SAVOURER, DIETERS, and TOLUINES (valid anagrams: OUTLINES and ELUTIONS. Also related: TOLUENE and TOLUIDE). That huge win came immediately after a devastating loss against club leader Thomas Reinke, 305-439. Unusually for both players, each only got one bingo, with Thomas playing SNOOKERS to Andy's SNEAKIER.

For Michael Siebers, Second Time's the Charm

1st Michael Siebers, after going winless his first outing at our club, returned to go 2-2 -353. He defeated Sue Goldstein 324-278 for win number one and later took down June Scott 312-292 for win number two. In the latter victory, he got down his first bingo, BOOTIES for 64 points.

Aaron's POMFRETS was chosen for word of the week amid a dearth of deserving candidates. Andy played his fourth triple-triple this year with a 131-point IDEALIST.

New Words Go Into Effect Next Week

After getting the go-ahead from director in absentia Richard Laduer, our club will switch to the new Scrabble dictionary next week. A cheat sheet containing some important new words was available this week and will be available at future sessions. Players are welcome to reference the sheets during games for a few weeks as we get used to playing words like PO, TIZ, AIYEE, and ANODISE.

Charles Reinke Finds 1st Place Throne Very Comfortable

1st Charles Reinke went undefeated for the first time since early November, finishing at 4-0 +599. Most of his spread total came from a pair of 200-point victories. The first came against the always-amiable Dave Gilligan, with a final score of 469-263. Dave played STRIDERS, one of the four bingos he got on the night, but was outgunned by Charles' OCTANES and SIDERITE (n. a mineral, not related at all to SYBARITE). Then, in the final game of the evening, Charles crushed Andy Bohnsack 533-315. This was payback for Andy's similarly-ruthless drubbing of Thomas Reinke in the previous round. Against Charles, Andy found APPRAISE, but Charles responded with a bingo triad of his own making: ESOTERIC, RIDGELS, and ROTATES. His other two wins came against the players following him in the standings; in other words, he was responsible for the ruining of two players' perfect evenings.

2nd Bryan Benwitz again finds himself in a coveted top-3 position after a 3-1 +488 showing, his beardly presence an increasingly frightening sight for those above him in the standings. In his opening victory against Andy Bohnsack, Bryan played two seasonally-appropriate words, MITTENS and SAUNAED. For his efforts, he gets to play his next club game in a sauna while wearing a pair of mittens. A game against Charles Reinke did not end so favorably, despite a good omen in the form of CONQUERS, with Bryan losing 397-479. A final game against Betty Hasselkus saw a trio of bingos for Bryan, AEOLIAN, which sounds like something you'd play on a guitar, BIOTRON, which sounds like the name of a video game, and OUTKILL, which, well, you know.

3rd Mary Becker, going 3-1 +20, found herself in third place as a large clump of players became stranded at the 2-2 mark. She fell to Charles Reinke in her only bingoless game of the night, 337-430. Charles had the odd-looking but pleasant-tasting GUAIACOL, which is a flavorful chemical. Against Susan Vergeront, Mary sent her opponent packing with a 402-358 victory highlighted by a 90-point DEWIEST. Susan scored just a fraction of that with her play oF FRACTION for 71. However, the real highlight came against Thomas Reinke, who Mary beat for the first time since 2013. It was a true nail-biter, with both players' fingernails gnawed to bloody tatters as Mary squeaked by, 406-403. Her bingo of RUMORED is rumored to have been the cause of her triumph.

We welcomed newbie Michael Siebers to our ranks last night. Hopefully he comes back to throw around more words with us. Andy Bohnsack got word of the week with the nine-letter ABASHEDLY, played through disconnected letters. According to second-hand reports muddled by interminable layers of hearsay, the two letters were the first A and the S. Also, in other bingo-related news, Aaron played the triple-triple GORAMIES# (only a word in the British dictionary, although we do have GOURAMIS and GOURAMIES in ours). It was decided among the inner circle of club elite to give him the four dollars anyway.