Blog

1st Andy Bohnsack went undefeated (kinda) with a 3.5-0.5 +284 record (the half win indicates a tie), continuing his recent run up the yearly standings. He started with a solid win over Charles Reinke, 418-364, finding DAPSONE and STANDEES to Charles' rare find of DIARCHIC. In round two, facing another strong player in Bryan Benwitz, Andy was rightfully unintimidated, and won a high-scoring contest, 466-411, thanks to finds of DICROTAL and THIEVES. Andy's half-win came in the next round when he fought Steve Hartsman to a draw, 401-401, good for the first tie game of the year (and hopefully last, since ties disrupt the delicate dichotomy of the concept of wins and losses). Andy put the finishing touches on his undefeated (kinda) evening by taking Dennis Lloyd to (proverbial) school with a 472-297 win, flaunting his bingo knowledge with ENDPLAY, NOTATING, and ISOLATOR.

2nd Bryan Benwitz assembled a 3-1 record for the second straight week, although last week's +493 spread was better than his +274 spread this week (it also netted him first rather than second place). A 415-303 win against Helen Flores in round one was revenge for Helen's win in their previous encounter; Bryan got down FORGETS and AUXESIS to make sure his revenge was extra vengeful. Revenge was decidedly not exacted upon Bryan's next opponent, Andy Bohnsack, as Bryan was felled 411-466. Bryan got back on track with a pair of high-probability bingos (LIERNES, LARDIEST) in a 426-368 win over Lynda Finn. Saving his best for last, Bryan broke through the 500-point barrier in his final game, beating Steve Hartsman 507-348 despite Steve's nice find of CHANTEYS. Bryan played EROTICA, FOISTING, and the hard-to-challenge NONFUELS; NONFUEL is a word, but it's one of those NON- words that's only an adjective. Meanwhile, stuff like NONCOLAS is a word.

Steve Hartsman went 2.5-1.5 +45, using his tie game to beat out a bunch of players with 2-2 records. He showed admirable consistency by bingoing exactly once in each of his games, although next time he should show even more consistency by bingoing five times in each of his games. He got a big win in round one when he bested Sara McLaughlin 442-310, getting AORISTS to Sara's LITTERS. In round two, Steve deployed his bingo of LISTENS to defeat the bingoless Lynda Finn, 364-292. The aforementioned tie against Andy Bohnsack, 401-401 all but guaranteed that Steve would end with a .5 on his final record - if he had tied his fourth game as well, all would have been made right, but that didn't happen. Instead, Steve lost to Bryan Benwitz 348-507, leaving Steve still looking for his first win against the Bryaniac.

In other news, Sara McLaughlin set a personal best when she bingoed four times (CREWING, BONNIEST, SAURIES, OUREBIS) in a 468-359 win against Thomas Reinke.

1st Bryan Benwitz prevailed over a hardy crowd of a dozen players with his 3-1 +493 record, breaking out of a recent streak of 2-2 performances. Bryan got his singular loss out of the way early as he lost a close one to Jame Rollins, 382-399. A bingo of MOANERS was outdone by James' STHENIC and SLASHED (no word on if STHENIC was ever turned into ASTHENIC). Bryan got back on track with a 427-277 win against the visiting Lesley Salas, getting down INVITER and ALLOSAUR (there are a few eight-letter words ending in -SAUR, but the only other one played at club to this point is the common DINOSAUR). Another spread-padding victory was scored against Richard Lauder when Bryan won handily with a 468-279 final score, this time playing PANFORTE and TESTATE. Facing off against the undefeated Dennis Lloyd in the final round, Bryan extended his streak of 100+ margin games with a 497-326 win. Dennis was able to get down SUASION and TEAZLES, but Bryan responded with INTRADOS, PREELECT, and UNBURNED.

2nd Steve Hartsman went 3-1 for the second straight week, with a spread of +428. A first-round encounter with Helen Flores ended largely in Steve's favor as he prevailed 452-327, getting bingos of RIDGILS and the nearly-eponymous STEEVING. A match against fellow 3-1 finisher Dennis Lloyd didn't work out quite as well, with Steve suffering the loss, 375-409. Steve's sole ALIENORS was bested by Dennis' GOONIES and RETAINED. Round three saw Steve square off against club standings leader Charles Reinke, and it was Steve's win, 415-396. Charles is likely wishing he had challenged off Steve's 82-point phony of HOGGIER*. Steve wrapped up his night with a merciless 544-226 steamrollering (Steverollering?) of Lynda Finn, where another phony of STILTIER* (only SLITTIER) was supplemented by the valid PADRONI and KELOIDS.

3rd James Rollins continued his ascent with a 3-1 +48 record. He got a big confidence boost early with a win against last year's club champion, Bryan Benwitz, by a score of 399 to 382. His 101-point STHENIC was also the highest-scoring bingo of the evening. In the second round, James won big against Sara McLaughlin, 372-283; Sara was held bingoless while James had INFLATER and BASTION. In the following round, it was James' turn to be held bingoless, as he lost to Dennis Lloyd 333-392; Dennis had TARNISH and DAINTIER in his winning effort. But the real highlight came in the final game as James bested Charles Reinke by a single point, 468-467, to take a 2-0 record in their lifetime series. James' DELTOID, MARINATE and OUTSWEPT (the latter for 90 and 92 points) were not quite matched by Charles' NOTEPADS and TRAGICAL. Sadly, DELTOID was never extended to DELTOIDEI (the plural of DELTOIDEUS).

4th Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +25, thus receiving accolades in the rarely-awarded fourth writeup paragraph.

Charles' FURCRAEA, a tropical plant, was word of the week. Charles also played the bingo TRAGICAL twice, one for 83 points and one for 61, putting his lifetime total for that word at three.

1st Thomas Reinke topped a field where nobody went undefeated, but four players went 3-1, with his 3-1 +264 record. That +264 spread put him a whopping nine spread points ahead of second place and nineteen spread points ahead of third. Thomas started strong by beating Helen Flores 472-272, despite "only" bingoing once with VERTISOL. His scoring potency wore off in the next game as he was bested by Andy Bohnsack 347-402; his bingo of INDURATE failed to stand up to Andy's DONATES and POSTMAN. The bingos flowed more freely in a Collins-lexicon matchup against Charles Reinke; Thomas deployed AGOUTIES, PACIFIED, EMBROWN, and AVENIRS# en route to a 558-444 win. Thomas finished with a low-scoring 338-333 win against Steve Hartsman, where Thomas' three-O OVERTOOK was the only bingo played by either player.

2nd Steve Hartsman reversed the previous week's 1-3 record with a 3-1 +255 showing. His first game was a hard-fought 378-336 win over Sara McLaughlin, where Sara's RECRUIT was matched by Steve's INSIDES. Round two saw Steve and his 20+ years of tournament experience go against the upstart James Rollins, and experience prevailed as Steve played PARITIES and CONTORTS on his way to a 431-253 victory. Matching up against Andy Bohnsack in the next game, Steve played two more bingos (ADMIRING, SIRENIAN) for a 442-402 win. Sadly, a potentially perfect night was disrupted by Thomas Reinke, as their fourth-round contest ended with both players well below their yearly averages, 333-338.

3rd Lynda Finn made her third writeup appearance in four attempts with a 3-1 +245 record. A 368-410 loss to Charles Reinke in round one was perhaps not Lynda's preferred way to start a relaxing (?) evening of Scrabble, but things quickly turned around with a big 488-263 win against Sara McLaughlin. Lynda got down STOLLEN, INTONERS, and CAESIUM in that one. Things were a bit closer against James Rollins, but Lynda found the game's only bingo (HETAIRA) and it was her win, 370-334. She finished her relaxing (?) evening of Scrabble with a 434-408 victory versus Andy Bohnsack, playing MISINTER, ENDEMIC, and GEARING to Andy's SHIVERED. That win makes her the winner of six of the last eight games in the Lynda-Andy matchup, although the lifetime series still belongs comfortably to Andy.

4th Helen Flores went 3-1 -35, recovering from a big loss in round one to win her next three. Among those wins was a 384-379 victory against Bryan Benwitz, snapping a 26-game losing streak against Bryan.

Bryan Benwitz got the first 600-point game of the year when he scored exactly 600 against Sara McLaughlin. His 212-point SPEEDWAY accounted for over a third of his final score, and is the highest-scoring bingo so far this year by a significant margin (Mark Kenas' SLABBERY for 176 is the next highest). 212 points is also tied for the fourth-highest scoring bingo since modern statkeeping began in 2011.