Blog

Charles Reinke Pulls Further Away From Experts

1st Charles Reinke ended up at 4-0 +598. Charles started off slow with an uncharacteristically low-scoring 345-331 win over Gail Salm, a contest in which he was held bingoless.  He then regained his bingoing mojo, playing a total of eleven in his next three games and breaking the 500 mark twice: 513-396 against brother Thomas (playing MAYBIRD, TOTABLE, HAVERELS, and NUDNIKS) and 576-322 against Andy Bohnsack (finding ANDIRON, READIES, ERRATICS, and PETTABLE).  It should be noted that, in the writer's opinion, TOTABLE (and its alternating spelling, TOTEABLE) is the stupidest word in the entire Scrabble dictionary.  However, PETTABLE is totally reasonable, since any cat owner would know that pettability is one of the essential qualities of a cat.

(don't play PETTABILITY, that's phony obviously)

2nd Mark Kenas also had four wins, but his singular loss held him to second place on the evening.  His best win was a 453-418 victory over club-standings-runner-upper Thomas Reinke.  Some expert-level word-knowledge was flaunted in that game: Mark played TROPHIED, ENTICERS, and word of the week EREMURUS (N. a perennial herb, plural EREMURI or EREMURUSES) while Thomas got down the somewhat more common words NEONATE and PASSOVER.  Mark also unfairly got to play the two-V bingo EVINCIVE when he beat Gail Salm 410-353.

3rd Andy Bohnsack finished at 3-1 with an unfortunate -96 cume.  He had two three-bingo games that both ended up as wins: 469-381 against Peter Schmiedicke and 478-418 against esteemed director Richard Lauder.  Then the bingo well ran dry as he only got one bingo, GURNETS (alt. spelling of gurnard, a marine fish), in his spread-annihilating loss against Charles Reinke.

Sue Goldstein: "All I Do is Win"

1st Sue Goldstein made easy work of the intermediate group, finishing an undefeated 3-0 +197.  However, the evening was not stress-free: she barely pulled out a win against June Scott, 317-313. 

2nd Sharlie Miura went 1-1 -75, good for second in the intermediates.  She dispatched June Scott 311-279 before falling to Sue Goldstein.

Andy tops HyVee club with with 2-1 + 348, High Game of 514 , High Average of 474, Lowest Opponent Average of 334, Best word of the night LAZURITE (honorable mention to Peter's GEARHEAD) and 2.33 bingos per game. 

Peter's 3-2 -24 was good enough for second, despite the ordering below.

Thomas Reinke Unstoppable, Unbeatable, and Several Other Un- Words

1st Thomas Reinke was the only player who finished the night with zero losses, ending at 4-0 +350.  He squeaked out a win versus Lynda Finn, 411-404, scoring enough points in the endgame to withstand getting stuck with the hated Q tile.  He had the bingos of TRACKING and GLORIOUS to Lynda's sole ALIBIES.  He was the only player able to take down Andy Bohnsack, arriving to that word battle armed to the hilt with words like OESTRONE, PTERINS, and FIZGIG, and willing to play phonies like ESPANOLS (ESPANOL pluralizes with ES). 

2nd Charles Reinke finished 3-1 with a whopping 804 spread total.  After losing to Andy Bohnsack 401-460 (playing the phony EVOCABLY along the way), he reeled off three straight 500 games, including his highest club game ever, a 626 against Gail Salm.  His bingos of MASSIER, LETTING, DROWSIER, and ULCERATE, along with a bevy of other high-scoring plays, allowed him to reach such dizzying heights of scoring.  Charles had a devastating 185-point triple-triple of WEIGHMEN (N. weighman, one whose occupation is weighing goods) against Richard Lauder, one of three known triple-triples played during the session.  The other two were Richard's EBONISES (Adj. ebonise, to stain black in imitation of ebony) against Lynda Finn and Shayla Dunn's UNWELDED (adj. not welded) against Peter Schmiedicke. 

3rd Mark Kenas went 3-1 +321 and was also Bingo King with 13 bingos.  Among his finds: SIGNORY (the power of a feudal lord), CANTONED (divided into districts), and ETIOLOGY (the study of causes of diseases).  Like Charles above, his loss came against Andy Bohnsack, 397-409, his bingos of SHINNEY, CAROLER, and STAYING not enough against Andy's TOADLIKE and DINNERS. 

Sue Goldstein Scraps Her Way to First in Intermediates

1st Sue Goldstein finished just above even at 2- +8.  Her two losses can be attributed to experts Thomas Reinke and Mary Becker, while her two wins came against Aki Miura (402-262) and June Scott (318-270).  She put down three bingos over the course of the evening, but only two were valid: MUTTERS, SNOWING, and RESWIPE.

2nd Aki Miura went 1-1 -103, losing to eventual first-place finisher Sue Goldstein before taking down June Scott 310-273.