Blog

Andy Bohnsack Doesn't Even Care About Snow

1st Andy Bohnsack took the frustration from his opening round loss against Aaron Bader, combined it with the simmering anger that has been building up over the course of his entire life, and unleashed to win his next three games, thus finishing 3-1 +298. Much of his fury was directed towards Thomas Reinke, with Andy meticulously dismantling his opponent 506-368. Thomas was able to get two nice finds of PANCREAS and FETERITA, but Andy had a response for every move made by Thomas, playing CALDERAS, FUNGOES, ANODISE (new word alert!) and SEIGNOIR (SEIGNIOR and PEIGNOIR are good). Helen Flores fared little better; Andy prevailed 453-301 in that contest, despite Helen's bingo of ERASABLE. Andy was able to get two low-scoring bingos for himself, ENTAILED (60) and SOOTIEST (58).

2nd Peter Schmiedicke fell short of first place by just 21 spread points, going 3-1 +277. It was none other than Andy himself who gave Peter his only loss, a 430-360 defeat. Peter's lone bingo of TRAMELS just couldn't keep up with the barrage from his opponent: SLICKED, POSTERN, and HAVERING. Peter's fortunes were drastically different during his game against Susan Vergeront; his score of 559 was the highest of the night, and he was able to get down four bingos: STANDER, IODIDES, ETAMINES, and ESTANCIA. Susan played CAPTURED, but was unable to capture victory.

3rd Charles Reinke's 3-1 +244 record slotted him comfortably in third place. His closest win came against Aaron Bader, 433-390. He proved the accuracy of the adage "more bingos = more wins" by playing three bingos (BRISANT, GIVEABLE, and OVERTAME) to Aaron's two (DIPTERAN and VIEWINGS). Peter Schmiedicke did not find himself at a bingo disadvantage when he matched up against Charles, and thus came away with a 457-396 win. His 101-point JAGGIEST certainly helped a lot, as it withstood Charles' 86-point JAVELINA (a hoofed mammal also called a PECCARY).

Of note was Dave Gilligan's 474-472 win against Thomas Reinke. Both players had three bingos in what would turn out to be Thomas' second-highest-scoring loss ever. His nine-letter, 101-point double-double INDIGENES was chosen of word of the week. We had three new bingos played: ANODISE (Andy), TAJINES (Aaron), and STEAMIES (Gail).

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.