Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz was the sole undefeated player out of fourteen combatants, going 4-0 +397 and averaging an impressive 477 points per game. A first-round matchup against Richard Lauder went very well for Bryan, as he took a decisive victory, 544-365, playing bingos of INVOCATE and RIVULETS (Richard had BACTERIN and LANTERN). Lynda Finn fared slightly better, but Bryan still won by a large margin, 463-351. Bryan increased his bingo output by getting three rack-clearers: BLEATED, DERISION, and NIGGLES. His proclivity for fearsome bingoage was on full display against Charles Reinke, where four bingos (STREAKED, INTEGERS, LIAISING, and NEOTENY) led him to a 460-383 win. Bryan's flawless night of Scrabble was completed with his most closely-contested victory, 441-412 against Thomas Reinke, a game which not only gave him a shiny 4-0 record but also gave him wins against both Reinkes in a single club session, the vaunted "anti-Reinke".

2nd Lynda Finn prevailed among a cluster of 3-1 finishers (Finnishers?) with a 3-1 +163 record. Similarly to Bryan above, Lynda got her best game out of the way early when she took Sara McLaughlin to school, 450-253, a score achieved with the aid of just one bingo, TACONITE for 90 (TACONITE is a good word to know simply for the fact that it serves as a T hook for the word ACONITE). A loss to Bryan followed, but Lynda recovered with a solid 389-358 win against Dennis Lloyd, where her DARNEST withstood Dennis' WOODIEST and GRAFTERS. The bingo floodgates opened in the fourth round when both her and her opponent played three bingos, but in the end, it was Lynda's win over Charles Reinke, 447-400. Lynda had TIRELESS, DURIONS, and TALKIEST, while Charles had FATTEST, OVERALL, and MORONITY.

3rd Ron Malzer played his first session of the young club season and made a quick impact, going 3-1 +106. He have John Bialek his only loss in round one, winning 398-325 and trading high-probability bingos (Ron's DEALING against John's INSTEAD). He then squared off against Francesca Lazio and prevailed 379-313 in another game where each player had one bingo; Ron got SHOWERS for a nice score, while Francesca had the nice play of UNTRULY with two blanks. Ron stumbled a bit against Thomas Reinke, losing 347-446 and failing to bingo (Thomas had QUICKEST, SILVERN, and TANAGERS), but recovered to beat Dennis Lloyd in the final round, 379-313. CORNEAL and WIRIEST were Ron's bingo finds in that game.

4th John Bialek also went 3-1, but his smaller +31 point spread left him on the outside of the writeup, jealously looking in.

We were joined by new player Cooper, who didn't manage to win a game, but hopefully enjoyed his visit nonetheless!

Helen Flores' FRENETIC, played against Sara McLaughlin, was chosen as word of the week solely because of her own self-advocacy at the time the play was made (the term "flippin' genius" may have been uttered more than once). Note that future riggings of the word of the week selection will have to involve money to receive consideration.

1st Charles Reinke recovered from the previous week's unprecedented 0-4 outing to go 4-1 +509. This serves as a gentle reminder that his opponents should never force him to go 0-4, lest they face redoubled wrath in subsequent games. The losing streak actually reached 0-5 as Charles suffered a first-round loss to Mark Kenas, 349-415. However, the losses stopped there and Charles reeled off four straight to secure first place in the weekly standings. He beat his brother Thomas Reinke by a score of 444-370, getting down STEERED, DREARIER, and SHRIEVAL in the process. The wins kept racking up in round three when Charles played in a two-on-one and won both in convincing fashion, 537-295 against Richard Lauder and 494-318 against Mark. The redemption tour concluded with a 497-414 victory against Bryan Benwitz, where Charles' ARIETTA and TRAMROAD were matched by Bryan's INTIFADA (sadly, never extended to INTIFADAH) and EROSELY.

2nd Bryan Benwitz, journeying vast distances through bone-chilling cold to reach the playing location, made all the effort worth his while with a 3-1 +180 finish. His 448-416 win over Thomas Reinke puts him at seven wins in their last eight encounters. A 116-point bingo of QUAYSIDE was certainly valuable in that one. Another 100-point bingo was in store for Bryan, as his 101-point EXISTING (along with TITMOUSE and ZINCATE) propelled him to a comfortable 533-332 win over Richard Lauder. A 411-381 victory vs. Dennis Lloyd was a bit more closely-contested, with Bryan getting RECEIVES of SENNITS, and Dennis finding OUTDONE (which helpfully anagrams to DUOTONE). Sadly, the session culminated in a loss when Bryan was downed in the final game against Charles Reinke, 497-414, despite the aforementioned INTIFADA being played by Bryan for 98 points.

1st Richard Lauder prevailed amongst a clump of 3-1 finishers with his 3-1 +312 record. Tasked with playing 2023 club champion Bryan Benwitz in the first game of the night, Richard kept his composure (and then some) with a merciless 454-291 win. Bryan did not get down a bingo, while Richard had DEACONS, HALOGEN, and SATINET. The trend of knocking off top players continued when Richard breached the 500-point marker with a 504-355 win over Thomas Reinke. RELATION was Thomas' only bingo, while Richard again bingoed thricely with ABALONE, LAMSTER, and NUMERALS. More bingos were in store for Richard in his match against Sara McLaughlin, but his RECLINER and RELATES still led him to a 384-386 loss. That two-point defeat was neatly offset in the final round when Richard beat Dennis Lloyd by two points, 316-314.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished 3-1 +157, continuing his strong start to the club season. Two of those wins came in Collins-dictionary games against Mark Kenas. The first of those ended at a score of 415-303, with Thomas getting down the only two bingos played in the game, COURTIER and ROSEATE. Both players' scores ticked up in the second encounter, but it was still a comfortable win for Thomas, 476-403, thanks to TEENTIER#, FENITARS#, GALILEE, and CURRENTS. A 355-504 loss to Richard Lauder dashed Thomas' hopes of going undefeated for 52 straight weeks and running away with the club championship, but he got back on track by defeating Francesca Lazio 471-350, with each player getting one bingo (ELUSIVE for Thomas, RANTERS for Francesca).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +104, reversing his 1-3 record from last week. A bingoless 291-454 loss to Richard Lauder was not the start he was looking for, but things started looking up when he defeated Dennis Lloyd, 410-380, finding the straightforward SONNIES and ROADIES to score some much-sought-after fifty-point bonuses (Dennis found BROODED for 50 extra points of his own). Bryan played two more bingos, OBLIGEE and PRUINOSE, while besting Charles Reinke, 438-344. Facing off against the undefeated Sara McLaughlin in the final round, Bryan turned their game into a rout; he monopolized the bingo situation with STIPEND and RACIEST, resulting in a final score of 473-330.

4th Sara McLaughlin rounded out the 3-1 finishers with her 3-1 -15 record, including a one-point win over Sue Goldstein, 361-360.

Other tidbits include Dave Kinzer's 487 points against Sue Goldstein, which featured a 122-point non-bingo triple-triple of MIDDLING played through IN on the board. Also noteworthy was Mark Kenas' 650-point game against Charles Reinke (who scored a respectable 434). Mark played six bingos: LORDKIN#, LUTECIUM, UNBASED, CROTTLE#, OPIATING, and WATERIER. Their combined of 1084 is the second-highest at our club since modern recordkeeping was instituted in 2011.