Blog

Peter Schmiedicke Lives Up To "Defeater" Nickname

1st Peter Schmiedicke steamrollered his way to a flawless 4-0 +387 record, easily snagging first place in the process.  It was not an anxiety-free journey, though; in the closest game of the night, Peter just barely squeaked out a win against Richard Lauder, 385-382.  Peter desperately needed every point that his three bingos provided him: THEREIN, TANNERS, and EXTRADOS (n. the outer curve of an arch).  The rest of Peter's contests were not as closely-fought, culminating in a near-200-point drubbing of Barb Besadny, 481-285.  Three of Peter's nine total bingos were played in that game: AIGRETS, RETAINER, and TROUPIAL.

2nd Charles Reinke scored over 400 in each of his games en route to a 4-1 +355 performance.  Things got off to a good start when he played two-on-one for the first game and won both: 463-399 against Lynda Finn (with bingos of BANDIED, CREDITOR, and PENDULAR) and 449-290 against Chris Vergeront (GRIEVOUS and AMENTIA).  His win against eternal nemesis Thomas Reinke was less convincing, ending 422-413 with just one bingo, SOARING (anagrams ORIGANS and SIGNORA) for the victor.  Meanwhile, the loser played three bingos, somewhat lessening the pain of his loss: ANTEING on the first play of the game, EQUALLED on the second, and later, DIARIES.

3rd Mark Kenas went 3-1 +201, continuing his run of solid play that has pushed him up to second place on the yearly standings.  To make a statement, Mark thoroughly crushed the former second-place leader, Thomas Reinke, by a score of 564-411, one of the highest combined scores of the year.  Thomas played MASSIER and PLATONIC, but even that goodly amount of bingos was rendered impotent by Mark's four: TAILWIND, CATHODE, LAPIDATE, and SQUINTER.  Fittingly, Mark's only loss was to Charles Reinke, who prevailed 495-356.  Mark would have been awarded bingo of the week for playing SHIPHAND in the course of his 417-340 win versus Susan Vergeront, but it turns out that SHIPHAND is phony.  Better luck next time, Mark!

Super-special 4th place goes to Barb Besadny, who won her first three games before running up against the immovable Scrabble juggernaut otherwise known as Peter Schmiedicke.  Barb pulled off an upset win against Charles Reinke, 426-410, by bingoing out with the find of VASTIER.  Charles played NONRATED and COTHURNI for some style points but not many of the other kind of points (the kind that matter).

June Scott Tops Intermediates For Second Straight Week...Who Can Stop Her?

1st June Scott finished 2-1 +32, her second straight 2-1 performance.  She defeated both Miuras, one after the other, for her two wins.  Against Aki, she bingoed with SORTING to propel her to a 330-288 win.

2nd Sue Goldstein ended up with a 2-1 +27 record, a mere five spread points behind rival June Scott.  She had the chance to take first place for herself when playing June in the third game, but didn't quite win by enough; the game finished at a score of 335-319. 

Bryan leads the HyVee pack with 3 wins. He had the high game (484), high average (406) and the most bingos (8).  Richard came in second with 3 wins as well. The most closely related bingos were Bryan's DIGITATE and Richard's FINGERER.

Dave Gilligan Finds that Phonies are Just as Good as Regular Bingos if Nobody's Going to Challenge You

1st Dave Gilligan went 3-0 +141 for his first-ever undefeated night of Scrabble.  He also averaged 393 points per game, over forty points better than his yearly average.  His improving word knowledge must have had a serious indimidation effect on his opponents; out of the four bingos he played, three of them were phony.  In his 415-390 defeat of Richard Lauder, Dave played his only valid bingo, FEINTED, while also playing the phony ANODISE (later pluralized by Dave for another 60 points).  Richard, despite his own uncomfortably-high phony percentage, managed not to get swept up in the phonying phrenzy, playing the perfectly acceptable MOANERS.  In the course of Dave's victory over Betty Hasselkus, 387-334, Dave played the oddly-familiar phony MEANISH.  It is familiar because Richard Lauder played the same phony two weeks ago.  The valid word in those letters is HAEMINS.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished 3-1, with his obscene +591 spread easily putting him on top of three other players with the same record.  Recent returnee Gail Salm was not shown any mercy in her first game back, with Thomas emerging victorious, 556-298 on the back of his three bingos: COENURI (n. COENURUS, a tapeworm larva), PORTIERE, and ISOLINE.  Three bingos were again in order against Betty Hasselkus, with ROARING, ATTAINS, and SONNETS propelling Thomas unhindered to a 560-285 win.  For wins that weren't blowouts, one simply has to look to Thomas' battle against twin Charles; that game ended with a tame 67-point victory for Thomas, 425-358.  The lesser twin played IMPOSTER; the greater twin got down HYMENIAL (the HYMENIUM is a tissue layer in fungi) and ARSENATE.

3rd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-1 +319, placing him ahead of Bryan Benwitz and Richard Lauder for third place.  His application of smack upon Bryan was the largest contributor to Peter's spread; that game ended with the lopsided score of 418-225.  Peter held a monopoly on bingos in that contest, playing three (PINBONES, DIESTER, MOURNER) to Bryan's zero.  In less high-scoring news, Peter attained his lowest winning score ever when he beat Thomas Reinke 310-301.  Peter's TARSIER was the only bingo played, a far cry from the roughly four a game that are played when those two players meet.  Richard Lauder was the sole impediment to Peter's quest for perfection, with the former squeaking out a win, 405-395.

June Scott Takes Intermediates in Convincing Fashion

1st June Scott went 2-1 with a paradoxic spread of -74.  Her highest scoring game was a bingoless 334-262 affair versus Harwinder Dowd.  Despite having beaten Sue Goldstein in the first game of the night, the rematch didn't go as well, with Sue scoring a personal-best 462 (to June's 264).