Blog

Maybe Somebody Will Beat Charles Reinke Eventually

1st Charles Reinke is on a thirteen-game winning streak after going 4-0 +298, thus making the next person who beats him five dollars richer.  However, given Charles' ever-increasing momentum, the chances of anyone managing to score a win against Charles grow more minute with each passing day.  Andy Bohnsack came closest of Charles' four opponents, losing 409-445 in a contest that saw each player get down three bingos.  When Charles matched up against club second-placer and brother Thomas Reinke, the result was significantly less close, with a final score of 494-351 telling a tale of domination.  Thomas was barred from bingoing as Charles got down two: DRESSAGE and LACTEAN (adj. resembling milk).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +387 to improve on his strong ~70% yearly winning percentage.  The grisly details of his singular loss can be found above, but aside from that blemish, Thomas sailed smoothly through the rest of his games.  Total carnage ensued when Thomas met up against Barb Besadny in the first round: 505-293 was the final, and Thomas walked away with four bingos to his name (PLATINIC, LODGERS, SWOONER, and AGMINATE [adj. clustered together]).  Michael David gave him more of a run, but still fell short 407-453, this despite Michael's bingos of INCLINE and (word-of-the-week) ATWITTER. 

3rd Peter Schmiedicke finished another night of strong Scrabble play at 3-1 +51.  He narrowly defeated Susan Vergeront 459-456, the only consolation for Susan being that her score of 456 is her highest losing score this year.  Actually, it was probably also a nice change of pace for her to out-bingo Peter, AKA "The Notorious Bingoer".  She got ICKIEST, INTERNED, and URINOSE to Peter's RUSTLER and DELATION.  Peter followed up that close win with a 420-394 victory over Andy Bohnsack, against whom he has won seven of the last eight.  In that game, Peter was the one doing the bingoing, as he got down three (MESSING, STRAWED, and SORBATE) to Andy's one (THYREOID). 

Charles Reinke Runs Amok

1st Charles Reinke extended his current winning streak to nine with his 4-0 +559 performance.  He has not scored below 400 during his ongoing reign of terror, and he averaged 472 points per game on this night.  His 537 (to Shayla Dunn's 399), the highest individual game score of the evening, was attained through bingos of CLAVIERS (n. CLAVIER, a keyboard instrument), MELANGES, and OARFISH.  Shayla made an attempt to stay competitive with BALLOTED and the creative nine-letter phony INQUESTED.  Charles also took out his latent and misplaced anger on Gail Salm, 495-248.  Gail appropriately played NASTIER as Charles got FURANOSE (n. a type of sugar) and TWINIER. 

2nd Thomas Reinke finished 3-1 +268 and built upon a streak of his own: he has now scored above 400 in 14 straight games.  He barely escaped a game against Bryan Benwitz, winning by a razor-thin margin of three points, 410-407.  Both combatants had two bingos: STUIVERS (n. STUIVER, a former Dutch coin) and OUTSAIL for Bryan, PERINEA and RESOFTEN for Thomas.  His victory against Jordan Parker was substantially less stressful, with the final score being 446-269 despite a bingo of RATTENS for Jordan (Thomas had EVENSONG).  Andy Bohnsack proved to be Thomas' downfall, soundly defeating him 502-437 in a high-scoring contest.

3rd Betty Hasselkus overcame a first-round defeat at the hands of Charles Reinke, 383-419, to win the next three and finish 3-1 +205. She averaged 415 points over her four games, more than 70 points better than her on-the-year average.  Of the three opponents against whom Betty was victorious, the most formidable proved to be Lynda Finn, who went down swinging, 408-414.  Betty got down a high-scoring REFACING to overcome Lynda's SOUTANE and RENTIER.  After that, Betty grew tired of letting her opponents stay competitive, and easily defeated both Helen Flores and Shayla Dunn (with scores of 440 and 421, respectively).  In doing that, she got down two Q bingos, REQUEST and SQUARED, proving that the Q isn't all bad.  Actually, yes it is.

Andy Bohnsack, Aaron Bader, and Gail Salm also finished with 3-1 records, but space considerations prevent us from detailing their notable accomplishments. 

Brian and Lynda each won 2/3 of their games, but Brian was 2/1 over Lynda making him the session dominator. Lynda missed SURVEIL and played the silly phony RIVULES for about the 20th time if you include cardbox attempts. Peter was missed.