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Andy Bohnsack: "If Only Scrabble Could be This Fun All the Time"

1st Andy Bohnsack lengthened his winning streak to seven with a perfect 4-0 +362 outing. The "1000-point combined score" was in reach against Thomas Reinke, but their combined effort fell short in a 539-457 win for Andy. Thomas had the cool find of BIVOUACS (and the less cool TURNINGS), but Andy had four bingos of his own: GOODIES, IRONWARE, AERATION, and the "I can't have made this up so it must be good" GOETHITE (also GOTHITE). The bingo spigot continued to flow unabated as Andy played PAINING, BAILERS, and GENITORS while handing Betty Hasselkus her only loss, 458-351. Betty contributed RESITED to the bingoing effort. Still more bingos were on hand against Barb Besadny: INLAYING, NAUSEATE, and PEATIER. Andy's winning score of 396 was his lowest of the evening.

2nd Charles Reinke continued to gain ground on first place in the club standings, going 3-1 +297. He squeaked out a close, low-scoring win against Aaron Bader, 384-367, a game where each player only got one bingo: LANDAUS (n. LANDAU, a type of carriage) for Charles, CHIRRING for Aaron. Charles' bout against Susan Vergeront was anything but close, with Charles barely missing the 600-point barrier: 599-293 was the final score. Five bingos were on tap for the C-Twin: CATENARY, ETAMINE, DISAGREE, LADDIES, and the word-of-the-week nine-letter ESTUARINE. Andy Bohnsack decided smartly to not allow Charles that amount of bingos, and in doing so, gave Charles his only loss, 358-449. Charles was limited to SEDIMENT (new anagram: DEMENTIS); Andy had OUTLAWED and ENSLAVER.

3rd Peter Schmiedicke missed out on a higher spot by thirty spread points, finishing 3-1 +267. His singular loss was against the very person who beat him in the session standings, Charles Reinke. That game ended at 384-449, with just RESINED going down for Peter (Charles had TILBURY and SAPREMIA). The negative spread resulting from that game was made back, and then some, when Peter defeated Mary Becker 487-273. He found TEATIMES, IGNITERS, and TINEIDS appear on his rack at opportune times. Another three bingos materialized in front of him when he matched up against Gail Salm; AGROUND, EMULATE, and TEARILY led him to a 477-384 victory.

Both Betty Hasselkus and Gail Salm also finished 3-1. Only one new bingo was played this week, Aaron's DEHAIRED against Dave Gilligan.

Charles Reinke: "Points are Good"

1st Charles Reinke had a rather productive evening in the points-scoring department, with the outcome of all those scored points being a 4-1 +665 record. The challenge of playing as the "one" in a two-on-one game proved not to be much of a challenge at all, as both games he won handily: 499-304 against Lynda Finn and 565-310 against Helen Flores. In the latter game, he slapped down four bingos: TRANSIT, BISTERS (n. a brown pigment, also BISTRE), LEGATINE, and OVERCOME (missing the new bingo EMOCORE). More bingo racks were on deck for a game against lifelong adversary Thomas Reinke, with Charles playing ENDMOST, FENCEROW, and ONSTAGE (new anagram: TANGOES) to attain a convincing 491-325 win. Thomas got down SHOALEST but otherwise was unable to do much in the scoring department. Peter Schmiedicke managed to hold Charles to just one bingo in their matchup, and the result was a 392-356 victory thanks to Peter's out-bingo of AGONIES. Charles' TRYPTICA (n. an ancient writing tablet) was dubbed Word of the Week, but even an honor as high as that cannot erase the piercing pain of the loss.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke also went 4-1, but his smaller spread of +196 left him in distant second place. He had his own four-bingo game against Gail Salm; CRAYONS, TAENIAS, DELIMING, and RESOLVE were his words of choice in the 480-378 victory (Gail played two bingos of her own, ORDAINED, and the new AIRBASE, which was also played last week). In the night's closest game, Peter turned away Aaron Bader 375-371, a pair of abnormally low scores for the normally high-scoring experts. Aaron was held to a grand total of zero bingos; Peter found GRADERS and TITRATES for just enough points to take the win. In what must be some sort of cosmic justice, Thomas Reinke handed Peter his only loss in another low-scoring game, 399-346. Thomas' VERDINS and TRIBUTES were not quite offset by Peter's REIFIES.

3rd Lynda Finn averaged 429 per game, a full forty points above her yearly average, en route to a 3-1 +302 outing. Other than the previously detailed loss to Charles, she found the bingos to be plentiful. After five straight losses against Aaron Bader, she finally one won to the tune of 426-400, utilizing a crafty phony of NOCKERS (RECKONS and CONKERS are good) to gain the upper hand. Aaron responded in kind with a phony CODENAME as well as a nice nine-letter out-bingo of HEARTLAND (played through AN). Lynda's other two wins could fairly be classified as blowouts: 490-266 against Helen Flores and 495-288 against Gail Salm. Combined, her bingos in those games were GUNFIRE, MISPART (anagrams: IMPARTS and ARMPITS), SPHERED, SNOUTIER, and VENTAIL. It remains to be determined if the useful "A" hook on VENTAIL (for AVENTAIL) was ever put into use.

After a honeymoon period wherein multiple new bingos were being played every week, only one was played this week, Gail's AIRBASE.

Aaron Bader Crushes Shortened Club Session

1st Aaron Bader, freed from the obligation of playing a fourth game through an impenetrable haze of fatigue, swept all his games for a 3-0 +351 finish. He got three bingos (BEERNUTS (new), ANODISE (also new!), and LATTICED) in a 478-342 win over Susan Vergeront. Another bingo trio was unleashed during a game against Barb Besadny that ended 493-302 in Aaron's favor. The three in that game were RECITED, YESTERN, and DERIVES. All good things must come to an end, however, and Aaron was only able to play two bingos (RIGADOON, LAZURITE) when he defeated Andy Bohnsack by a relatively small margin, 430-306. Andy's own GRAVIDAE and TARDIEST couldn't make up enough points to pull out the win.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-0 +226 and enjoyed the feeling of not having to play a fourth game to defend his undefeated record. He started things off on a high note by beating club leader Thomas Reinke 389-343, finding the high-scoring DITCHERS (101 points) and the low-scoring ETESIANS (58). Thomas played VEGETAL but was unable to break the 350 mark, a feat he accomplishes in over 90% of his games. Against Leslie Seltzer, Peter upped his point output, scoring 428 to Leslie's 290. There, Peter was able to play EASTERN, AIDLESS, and APOCRINE.

3rd Andy Bohnsack came in third but was owner of the largest spread, going 2-1 +365. He forced Charles Reinke into his seventh-lowest scoring game of the modern era (i.e. since we instituted the new stats system), scoring 430 to Charles' lowly 314. Andy played the new word AIRBASE, as well as not-new words FEEDBAGS and STENCILS. This 116-point victory did not sate the twisted desires of Andy's deranged mind, so he went into the next game against Betty Hasselkus and ran away with it, 559-286. Four bingos could be found on that board, all of them Andy's: TALLEST, OUTRIDES, ENTICERS, and BLISTER.

In other news, Thomas Reinke scored exactly 600 against Helen Flores for this year's second 600+ game (Aaron scored 631 earlier in the year).

Charles' FRUMENTY was chosen as word of the week. It can also be spelled FROMENTY, FURMENTY, FURMETY, and FURMITY. It is apparently a type of porridge.

New bingos this week were BEERNUTS (Aaron), ANODISE (Aaron), AIRBASE (Andy), PACINGS (June), and TRANNIE (Gail).