1st Charles Reinke once again took first place, this time with a 4-0 +344 final record. Two of wins were against Mark Kenas, 498-403 and 452-391. Charles' expansive bingo list contained words like DISTEND, BILANDER, ANTERIOR, FAINTERS, COURSES, and the Collins-only RINGMAN#. Charles' big game came against Richard Lauder, where Richard's bingo of NEPETAS fell short of Charles' DISCOLOR and FIERILY, resulting in a lopsided 518-345 tally when all was said and done. Bingo-prone tiles continued to find their way onto Charles' racks as he deployed three more bonus plays (SWOTTER, GELATINE, and PURIFIES) in a clinching fourth-round victory over Bryan Benwitz, 436-421.
2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +215, which seems good until you realize that this 75% winning percentage for the night actually lowered his yearly winning percentage, which had stood at 75.6%. He started things off in explosive fashion when he played a personal-best five bingos in a 465-383 win over Thomas Reinke. Those bingos were ROOTLIKE, TOASTIER, RAVENEST, AVIATORS, and PIROGUES. The bingo output dropped severely in his next game, but the result was the same as Bryan beat Dennis Lloyd 373-312. His single bingo of CLINCHES did score 98 points, so he got a lot of mileage out of not many bingos. The pattern repeated itself in round three as Bryan's sole DOWELLED scored a cool 92 points and delivered him a 419-332 win against Lynda Finn, who found TSARDOM (not a typo of STARDOM, although it could be). Bryan's night ended with a 421-436 loss to Charles Reinke, despite plays of ANAEMIAS and ODONATE.
3rd Mark Kenas went 2-2 +212. His typical Reinkes-only bloodbath was just as bloody as it always is, with Mark dropping two games to Charles but taking both games againast Thomas. The first of those wins was a gargantuan 607-377 beatdown, fueled by Mark's OARAGES#, SERIATE, PILEWORT, and DIACONAL. That 607 score became the 10th 600 game of the year. Mark almost had 600 a second time against Thomas, but fell a few points short, 589-451. In that one, Mark had ONEYERS#, AMBITION, DEVOTING, and RELIQUE (for 114!), while Thomas had DOORMATS, AIDANTS#, and FRAISING#.
Thomas, for his part, did add and 11th 600 game in round three by defeating Helen Flores 604-294, playing five bingos: SPIKIER, NICOTINE, UNHEROIC, STEARATE, and SAUTEING. Richard's PRECAVAE was word of the week.
1st Charles Reinke enjoyed his lofty view from the top of the heap with a 4-1 +361 record. Most of his damage, by far, was done against Mark Kenas, where their two-game series went strongly in Charles' favor, 502-372 in game one and 541-417 in game two. That second game saw Charles get down four bingos (BEDEMAN, HARVEST, CERESINS, OLOGOAN#) while Mark had two (STAMNOI#, COLUMNEA). Charles was held to somewhat lower scores in his other three games, but still saw success, beating Lynda Finn 445-380 (with VITIATES and OPTIONEE) as well as Sara McLaughlin 425-373 (getting SKINNERS and CERMETS). His single loss was a closely-fought 396-406 loss to Bryan Benwitz where a significant bingo advantage for Charles (RESMELT, EUPNOEAS, and OVERRATE vs. a single STAGGERY for Bryan) didn't quite convert into a win.
2nd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 +225 and had an impressive-but-somewhat-commonplace-at-this-point average of 469 points per game. Game one against Richard Lauder was a barnburner, but Bryan held on for a comfortable win, 515-422, thanks to CREOLIZE, TREENAIL, and HORNBEAM (this writer will not mention the phony he always sees when trying to unscramble ABEHMNOR, for fear of sowing more confusion with that difficult set of letters). Bryan's single loss came in round two as he lost a close one to Sara McLaughlin, 441-448. Sara had not won a game against Bryan for a few months, so this is surely the start of an extended period of revenge. Sara had ERASION and SINFULLY (helpfully anagrams to SULFINYL) in her win, while Bryan had ATROPINE, OUTRIDE, and SERMONIC. Bryan recovered in the next round by getting three more bingos (ATONIES, MISDOUBT, SEAMOUNT) to vanquish Lynda Finn 513-384, then wrapped things up with the aforementioned 406-396 win over Charles Reinke.
3rd Thomas Reinke went 2-2 +110 to prevail over the other 2-2 finishers. He lost two games against Mark Kenas, 378-439 and 423-442, which accounted for the entirety of his losses for the evening. In those two games he had "just" three bingos, which is rare in the Collins lexicon: AVENUES, MATINEE, and ALERIONS#. A 486-442 win against Richard Lauder was more Thomas' style, as he found three bingos there: CITHERN, ROSOLIO, and TURNABLE. A low-scoring 378-331 victory over Ron Malzer, with ORATORS and the high-probability IDEATES providing much-needed scoring, ensured that Thomas didn't slip into sub-.500 territory.
1st Bryan Benwitz trampled everyone in his path with a 4-0 +511 record. Bryan got off to a strong start when he defeated Sara McLaughlin 505-304 in round one, finding AVERRED, ANNOUNCE, and OUREBIS in the process. What followed was the closest thing to a contested game that Bryan encountered all night, but it was still a comfortable win against Charles Reinke, 457-418. He added three more bingos (OVERRATE, FRAGGED, TOLUENES) to his sizable list of eleven such plays; meanwhile, Charles took solace in his word-of-the-week find of SOFTCORE. In round three, Bryan vanquished Thomas Reinke 506-405 in a game which contained seven bingos, three for Bryan (ENTICER, VERMOUTH, ONERIEST) and four for Thomas (VOLUMED, RADIATOR, ISOGRAFT, ANISEED). A 451-281 win against Richard Lauder at the end of the night gave Bryan his fourth win and a perfect evening.
2nd Charles Reinke's 3-2 +128 record was good for second place on a night where nobody managed to go 3-1. His first-round two-on-one match saw mixed success; a game against Dennis Lloyd was a 404-358 win, but this was offset by a 399-463 loss to Mark Kenas, despite Charles' 107-point EXPORTS. Losing to Bryan Benwitz 418-457 put Charles even deeper in the hole, but he crawled out of that hole (and then some) with a hefty 456-331 rematch victory over Mark. Mark got down STRINGER, while Charles had EATERIE# and RIFLIPS. If you want to add to your mental list of words with weird origins, RIFLIP is the same thing as RFLP, which is an acronym used in the field of genetics. Charles closed things out with a 432-372 win vs. Sara McLaughlin, finding two currencies, DENARIUS and LISENTE, to propel him to victory.
3rd Richard Lauder arrived late but made good use of his three games, finishing 3-1 +16. He showed off his bingo-finding ability, and also his phony-finding ability, in a 437-372 win over Dennis Lloyd where he played FETTERS, DULCIAN, and BEERMAN* (which is just like a MILKMAN but for beer). Richard had another good game against Lynda Finn, winning 422-301 thanks to BREATHER and INLACES. But it all came to a sad end when Richard got smooshed by Bryan Benwitz 281-451, ending the night on a significant downward note.
Wednesday, August 5:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, August 12:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, August 19:
Scrabble at Misty Mountain Games
Wednesday, August 26:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Club Results 7/29
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