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Lessons Learned: If You're Playing Andy Bohnsack, You Might As Well Just Give Up

1st Andy Bohnsack was the only player not to experience the crushing, chest-constricting agony of loss, going 4-0 +396.  Three of his winning scores were rather pedestrian by his standards: 442, 442, and 408.  The fourth was anything but pedestrian, a 574-329 bomb dropped on the unwitting Bryan Benwitz.  Bryan actually outbingoed Andy, playing three bingos (AERATION, AMNIOTE, and CALORIES) to Andy's two (GREEDIER and ATTRITS).  The vast gulf in scores can be chalked up to a) Multiple 60+ point power-tile plays and b) the fact that GREEDIER was a triple-triple.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +428, a spread large enough to beat out three others who also went 3-1.  He had three bingos in each of his three wins, but only got two in his 405-442 loss versus gold-medal-winner Andy Bohnsack.  Two of his wins could be classified as blowouts: 483-309 against Lynda Finn and 509-287 against Matt Rust.   INSIDERS, PATINAE, and ENDOSTEA were played in the former while COINFER (v. to infer jointly, or a noun meaning "a misspelling of CONIFER"), BEELINES, and EPHORAL (adj. pertaining to an ephor, an ancient Greek magistrate) were played in the latter.

3rd Richard Lauder's 3-1 +306 record was impressive enough to garner third place honors.  In a shrewd move that only a veteran Scrabbler could pull off, Richard cleverly conserved all of his luck for the last game of the night: his first three games were all under the 400-point threshhold, but his last game was a whopping 569 against Helen Flores.  In that game, Richard played a dizzying five bingos, showing off decades of word study: SATINETS, EPIDOTES, GENEROUS, BROODER, and CEILAGE.  Helen got down INSULTER, bringing the total amount of bingos in the game to six.

The two other 3-1 players were Chris Vergeront and Thomas Reinke.  Chris and Charles shared bingo king honors with 11 each, while Thomas played the word of the week, VOLPLANE (v. to glide in an airplane). 

Harwinder Dowd Learns the Importance of Spread

1st Harwinder Dowd claimed first place by only 26 spread points, going 1-1 +12.  Her win came against June Scott, 371-313.

2nd Dave Gilligan also learned the importance of spread, finishing with a final record of 1-1 -14.  He earned his first win at club by beating Harwinder Dowd 373-327, playing the word SPOOLER along the way.  SPOOLER has three anagrams: LOOPERS, POOLERS, and RESPOOL.

For the second straight week, a new player made an appearance at our club.  Abhishek Anurag played in the expert division, and while he didn't win a game, he got two nice bingos: NUTTERS and SLOVENLY. 

Bryan and Ruth Ann met up for a triple-header at Hy-Vee on Sunday.  Bryan won the series 2-1, displaying his bingo-finding prowess with a four-bingo, 478-295 in the first game.

Thomas Reinke On Top...Again!

1st Thomas Reinke suffered through lower scores than he is accustomed to, averaging only 412 on the night, but still finished with a perfect 4-0 +172.  Always the picture of consistency, Thomas' high game was a middling 422, and his low game was a sparkling 391.  In his high-powered matchup against Andy Bohnsack, Thomas prevailed 418-370 thanks to his bingos of DESERVE and TONTINE.  Andy played the odd-looking but very useful ENDOSTEA (n. endosteum, a bone membrane) in his attempt to unseat the club's second-place player.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke began the process of working his way back up the yearly standings, going 3-1 +322.  The highlight of his night was demolishing Charles Reinke 512-308, outbingoing him four to nothing in the process: REBUFFED, STROYED, INVOICE, and AERATES.  He also had a three-bingo game against Matt Rust, but that one turned out a lot closer, with the final score being 442-412 in favor of Peter.  Matt got down REVALUED; Peter played QUINOLS, SHEENIE, and FINGERS.

3rd Charles Reinke also went 3-1, but his depressing spread of -1 relegated him to third place.  The cause of that lowly spread total can be found in the above paragraph.  Charles did manage to gain back some of that spread in a 473-352 win versus Betty Hasselkus.  Betty struck first with UNCOILS, but was held bingoless after that point as Charles played QUAVERER and STARING. 

Andy Bohnsack gets a mention here as he achieved the coveted five-bingo game against Helen Flores.  He played SAMOYED (anagram SOMEDAY), TOLIDINE, INDORSEE, SENARII, and TREELAWN.  561, Andy's final score, was the highest game score of the session.

Sue Goldstein Bulldozes Intermediates

1st Sue Goldstein, always working for that elusive ten-game winning streak, got a good start with her 3-0 +191 record.  Sharlie Miura tried valiantly to nip the streak in the bud, but fell to the Sue-inator 364-292.

2nd Harwinder Dowd went 2-1 +123, with a convincing victory against Matt Rust, 364-305, being her best game of the night.  She got down two bingos in that one, ASSAULT and RANGERS.

3rd Matt Rust, sometimes expert and sometimes intermediate, finished at 2-2 +133.  He showed off his "expert" side by walloping June Scott 370-284, a game which included his find of ROUTERS.

Word of the Week as ULTRAISM, played by Richard Lauder.  it anagrams to ALTRUISM and MURALIST, the latter of which would have been a very appropriate bingo in the same way that a Reinke playing TWINSET would be appropiate.

We welcomed new player Dave Gilligan.  He didn't manage to win a game, but he did put up a good fight, and played two bingos: EARLIEST and ALIENED.