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Aaron Bader 100% On Year - Can He Keep It Up?

1st Aaron Bader found that his winning percentage goes up when he doesn't have to play Mark all the time, going 4-0 +169.  Things got off to a great start as he beat last year's champ, Charles Reinke, 448-386.  Aaron's three bingos of DIALYSE, REVENGED, and MONGOOSE proved that extensive Collins knowledge doesn't have to stop you from bingoing.  To complete the "anti-Reinke", he also defeated Thomas Reinke by a score of 466-428, this time with just two bingos: RERAISE and MOORAGE.  His opponent likewise bingoed twice, with SLANDER and OLIGOMER (n. a type of polymer).  Not every game was as high-scoring, however: against Peter Schmiedicke, a final of 376-358 told a sad tale of not-quite-synergistic tiles, although OLESTRA and FRENETIC (both for 76 points) were well-received on Aaron's rack.

2nd Andy Bohnsack's 4-1 +202 performance easily slotted him into second place, but at only two bingos per game, he's going to have to up his bingo output if he wants to surpass last year's 2.23 per game.  His most impressive score was a 475-368 victory over Leslie Seltzer, whose higher-scoring INSPECT for 83 nevertheless was outdone by Andy's FEDORAS (75) and EPILATOR (74).  The two-bingo theme continued with ANGELUS and PERSONAL against Peter Schmiedicke, a usually high-scoring matchup that ended up "only" 415-341.  The singular loss blemishing Andy's scoresheet was provided courtesy of Thomas Reinke, who took advantage of the back-to-work schoolteacher's overtaxed brain to prevail 486-363.  Andy had ULTERIOR and TRELLIS, but Thomas pulled out the big guns with ELYTRUM for 110 points and the Word of the Week, CHIGETAI (n. a wild ass).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +364 to top the other 3-1 finisher, Thomas Reinke.  While many players started off the new club season with a victory, not did it in quite the fashion that Bryan did: a 569-251 win against Jordan Parker was easily the most dominating performance of the evening.  FIVE bingos found their way from Bryan's rack to the board: DENOTES, BONEHEAD, ADMIRE, SALLIER, and OVERAWED, the last one for 98 points.  A much closer game was played against Dave Gilligan, who put up a respectable 345 to Bryan's 382.  Dave had the unlikely three-S DISCUSS, but Bryan's more common PRINTED and INHALER (anagrams to HERNIAL) proved to be too much.  Andy Bohnsack took it upon himself to give Bryan his only loss, a 433-342 affair whose lopsided bingo counts in favor of Andy probably don't give Jordan much solace.

June Scott Starts New Year Off Right

1st June Scott has already achieved a feat that was not accomplished all of last season, going undefeated at 3-0 +92.  After two uneventful games with the Miuras that ended in her favor, June ramped up the intensity and piled on 378 points against Sue Goldstein's 325.  Of note was the high-scoring bingo of DIALERS for 92 points, leaving June with an average bingo score of...92 points!  Sadly, Jordan Parker's sole bingo of WANIEST scored 94, so June will have to be content with second place in that category.

2nd Sue Goldstein's scoresheet was a scene of purest equilibrium, with a 1-1-1 +72 record.  A 324-324 tie against Aki Miura ended without a bingo for either player, nor a real winner.  However, Sue's match with Sharlie Miura ended somewhat more convincingly with a 347-222 final.

Undefeated is Undefeated, Even If You Only Play Three Games

1st Andy Bohnsack showed up late, but his lateness did not faze him, as he finished 3-0 +238.  There was no shortage of bingos for Andy, with nine of them finding their way from his rack to the board.  Against Leslie Seltzer,  he bent the will of the tiles to match his own will, and as a result of this sorcery, won 466-369 with four bingos: NOTICER, SABRING, RELATES, and UNWASTED.  Leslie, not having such control of the tiles, only got to play REDOING.  A streaking Peter Schmiedicke was Andy's next target, with Peter's nine wins in a row proving not to be the intimidating force that he had hoped.  Their match ended 457-418 in Andy's favor despite a 2-3 bingo disadvantage: Andy had DRAGNETS and VARIATE; Peter, SEMOLINA, ENROOTS, and EVENTFUL.  Andy finishes the year with a strong 428 per-game average, his highest yearly average yet.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +418, a 75% winning percentage that is suspiciously close to his yearly mark of 75.6%.  He had a four-bingo game of his own when he turned away the grizzled Richard Lauder, 480-376.  Richard put up a good fight considering that he was unable to procure bingo-friendly tiles for the entire game; such tiles were monopolized by Charles, who used them to play RADICES, TOLANES, TOWNWEAR (n. apparel that is suitable for wearing in the city), and CRAYONER.  Charles achieved his seventh-highest score at club when he totaled a jaw-dropping 585 points against Bryan Benwitz, who was limited to 283.  Bryan had the nice find of GEOTAXIS (n. the movement of an organism in response to gravity, plural GEOTAXES), but it was simply not enough to counteract Charles' RISTRAS and his huge triple-triple of DIRIMENT (adj. nullifying) for 176 points.  Bryan would later get a twisted sort of revenge when he played his own 3x3 of COMMONER against Betty Hasselkus.  Predictably, Thomas Reinke was the player who was able to disrupt Charles' winning ways, with their bout ending 375-419.

Charles' total win-loss record of 160-51 easily snagged the club championship for the second year running, and his average of 447 looks to be the highest in club history.  Next week begins a new chapter in the Madison Scrabble Club's illustrious record book.

3rd Lynda Finn had a 3-1 +221 record, beating out Peter Schmiedicke for third place by a mere 15 points of spread.  She scored exactly 442 points in two separate games, once against Barb Besadny (who scored 326) and Mary Becker (who scored 322).  With that many points, she also had plenty of bingos, with ECTASIS (n. the lengthening of a usually short syllable), UNWOOED, AVERTED, TISSUES, and TRIENES coming down.  The normally high-scoring Thomas Reinke was held to a lowly 322 points by Lynda's strict defensive principles; she scored 407 herself, with the aid of her bingo, IDEALIZE.  The undefeated Andy Bohnsack ended Lynda's mini-streak at just three wins,  375-475.

Sue Goldstein Also Goes For Hat Trick

1st Sue Goldstein averaged 348 points per game on her way to a perfect 3-0 +157 performance.  A 345-286 win over Aki Miura proved to be a good way to start the evening, and a 324-281 victory against June Scott proved to be a good way to end it.  Sue finishes the year first in the Intermediate division, having needed to win all three of her games to overtake Harwinder Dowd by just two-tenths of a percent, 54.4% to 54.2%.

2nd Sharlie Miura split her two games but bingoed in each, finishing 1-1 +40.  She scored her second-highest score this year when she took down June Scott 378-283, using her bingo of LAUDING to take an insurmountable lead.  Sharlie then played SEATING against Sue Goldstein's DENTING, but lost the match 319-374.

Barb Besadny had the great find of UPTOWNS (with a blank U) for word of the week.  It's the opposite of a DOWNTOWN and somewhat removed from a MIDTOWN.

Peter goes 5-0 +460, and plays the word of the day, VOMITORY. A web search on VOMITORY reveals it to be a Sweedish Death Metal Band. Lynda misses the triple-triple DOLCETTO and Peter misses the triple-triple UNGARBED.