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Thomas Reinke Harnesses Newly-Acquired Beard Power to Supplement his Scrabble Talents

1st Thomas Reinke was one of three player who finished 3-1, with his superior spread of +426 being the deciding factor in netting him first place.  A large portion of his cumulative came with a pair of 500-point games.  The first was 512-321 against Andy Bohnsack, with three bingos: ELAPIDS, GOLIARDS (n. GOLIARD, a medieval-age wandering student), and DURIONS.  Andy, as his sole bingo, played LOOMING, as in "looming sense of dread at the coming Scrabble onslaught".  The second was a 520-335 win against Bryan Benwitz, this time with FOUR bingos: INTERNES, SATIABLE, DILLIES, and word-of-the-week candidate VERMOUTH.  Thomas was bingo king with 12 such plays.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke finished 4-1 +337, coming in second place.  He was truly the anti-Reinke, defeating both twins to secure two of his wins.  Charles Reinke was vanquished first, losing 401-440 in the face of three bingos: STEADIED, ANTIAIR, and the winning out bingo of BEARING (Charles himself got down BIOFUELS and SORNING).  Then, at the end of the night, Peter struck again, felling Thomas Reinke 390-357, again winning the bingo battle with FELDSPAR (another word-of-the-week candidate) and SALIENT (Thomas played STRANGE).  The unlikely Helen Flores was the only opponent of Peter's that found the secret formula of success, holding him bingoless and winning 330-307 with the help of her bingo DROWSING.

3rd Andy Bohnsack's 4-1 +204 record easily beat out other challengers for the third place spot, although his eleven bingos was only good enough for runner-up bingo king honors.  Andy methodically dismantled Mary Becker 462-337 through his tri-bingo attack of LEPROSY, CASEATE (adj. to become like cheese, used of diseased tissue), and RAPISTS; Mary played CLEANING, which was later extended to the phony CLEANINGS.  He again enlisted a trio of bingos to get his highest score of the night and a revengeful victory over Charles Reinke, 465-369.  Those three bingos were STARLIT, JENNIES, and COULEES.  Charles got the 106-point CAKINESS after phonying the previous turn with SACKIES (the valid word SEASICK having nowhere to play).

Charles also got the word of the week with his play of IONICITY, the state of existing as an ion.

Peter Schmiedicke Rules Benevolently, Yet Sternly

1st Peter Schmiedicke finished a perfect 4-0 +287 and has now won 11 of his last 12 games.  He started his night off strong with a 496-332 victory against Betty Hasselkus, much of his sizable scoring total coming from his triple-triple of ARMAMENT for 140 points (there's probably a military-related pun in there, but I'm not seeing it).  Andy Bohnsack was also served an unwelcome taste of Peter's unique brand of justice, losing 367-388 despite an even two bingos apiece: IDOLIZER and TIMEOUS for Andy, URINARY and UNEASES for Peter.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished a not-so-perfect (but still pretty good) 3-1 +386.  Only Peter Schmiedicke found the strength within to beat the behemoth, winning 422-331 and holding Thomas bingoless.  Other than that, Thomas had an excellent night, winning his other three games by some ridiculous margins: 136, 158, and 183.  The largest was against Helen Flores, whom Thomas beat 490-307 with a trio of bingos: AVERTED, VEDALIA, and CULTRATE (adj. sharp-edged and pointed).

3rd Bryan Benwitz won three close games to end up at 3-1 +108.  The checkmark marking his singular loss was courtesy of Peter Schmiedicke, which shouldn't come as a surprise if you read the above two paragraphs.  That game ended 343-354, with Peter pulling out the win despite getting outbingoed 0 to 2 (Bryan had AZOTISE [v. to treat with nitrogen] and CONIFERS).  He took down club-leader Charles Reinke the game previous, 410-373, using words like LEALTIES and UNBOXING to establish a lead that was barely dented by Charles' SERIFED (adj. having serifs).

Speaking of Charles, he played the bingo of the week, NONOILY, which has a creative definition: "not oily".  Thanks to some internet research, this word seems to be used most often in reference to lotions or moisturizers, but is almost always spelled with a hyphen.  Other stupid NON- words include NONLEAFY, NONFATTY, NONCOLA, NONPAGAN and NONMETRO.

Peter was the big winner at 4-1 +412. Brian had high game at 575 with 4 bingos. Peter played two bingos that got challenged NACREOUS and PRESIFT.