Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz continued his run towards the club championship with a sparkling 4-0 +261 record. Interestingly, Bryan scored 400 of his games while all of his opponents were held below the mystical 400-point barrier. He began by handing Dave Kinzer his only loss, 419-361, with bingos of REMITTED and PAINCHES (Dave had UNLOADED). Next, he dueled against John Bialek; each player bingoed exactly one time (John's PLUNGES vs. Bryan's DEIFIES) and it ended up being Bryan's win, 409-350. Relishing the chance to spoil other players' chances at a perfect night, Bryan prevailed over the otherwise-undefeated Beth Amos, 412-339, despite getting outbingoed (a sole ESPARTOS for Bryan; CORNERED and DESTINE for Beth). The final round saw Bryan defeat his primary foe, Thomas Reinke, 440-369, this time getting three bingos: AVIATOR, STENTOR, and the phony CABESTRA*. CABRESTA, CABRESTO, and CABESTRO are all valid words, so it's easy to see how Bryan slipped up on that one.

2nd Beth Amos finished 3-1, with her +160 spread putting her slightly ahead of the third-place finisher. Fresh off yet another successfully published novel, Beth reached deep into her bag of creativity and pulled out the phony BAGLESS* in a 443-392 win over Charles Reinke, who played LEGATINE, RENATURE, and a nine-letter TREENAILS. Beth restrained herself in the following games, playing only valid words, including ENTICED and PUNIEST against Lynda Finn in a 395-357 triumph. The aforementioned loss against Bryan Benwitz was the only blemish on her scorecard, but she shook off the loss and walloped Dennis Lloyd in the final game, 428-284. It was only fair considering that their most recent encounter was a severe walloping in the other direction. Beth's bingos in that one were LISTERS, REHANGED, and TAUNTING.

3rd Sara McLaughlin reversed last week's 1-3 record to go 3-1 this week with a +106 spread. She got off to a rocky start when John Bialek defeated her 367-333 in the first round, but the next three games saw her turn back any who were foolish enough to challenge her dominance. Against Helen Flores, Sara won 385-329, thanks to a find of BOONIES. Perhaps as some misguided form of revenge for what happened in round one, Sara beat Wendy Bialek in round three, 368-315, adding SONNETS to her list of bingos. Against Lynda Finn in round four, Sara countered her opponent's EJECTOR with her own find of MEALIEST, and was victorious 388-357.

1st Thomas Reinke repeated last week's first place finish, again going 4-1 with a +237 spread. A typical Collins-fueled bingo bonanza occurred in round two as Thomas played seven bingos across two games: TORQUING, ENISLED, URBANISE, ATTICIZE, FERMENTS, BRAWNIER, and REMUAGES#. However, only one of those games was a win, a 495-387 victory over lifelong adversary Charles Reinke. The other was a 422-540 loss to Mark Kenas, who had three bingos of his own: TRINARY, OTARINE# (the highest-probability seven letter word in the Collins dictionary), and PLEXUSES for 119. Thomas got his revenge in a rematch against Mark, 504-477, again with both players getting three bingos, which will be listed here even though that amount of bingos is somewhat tedious to type out: DENTILS, RORTIEST#, and SUDARIA for Thomas; EDICTAL, GRANTED, and HIPBONES for Mark. A 527-316 win over Richard Lauder saw Thomas get down a 140-point 3x3 of RELAPSED, after which the rest of the game became a formality. Helen Flores was significantly closer to beating Thomas, losing 370-379. While it is always unethical to "accidentally" make a math error to give yourself ten extra points, in this case Helen would have been justified in attempting such a strategy.

2nd Bryan Benwitz didn't score below 400 in any of his games as he finished at 3-1 +445. Squaring off against John Bialek in round one, Bryan won handily, 484-297, assisted by a valid bingo of ESERINES and an invalid bingo of MUTATERS* (MUTATORS was the word he was going for). Similar success was found against Dennis Lloyd, although this time, both of Bryan's bingos were valid (TRIODES and YEANLING) in his 492-315 win. Another hefty, but not quite as hefty, victory was scored against Dave Kinzer, 437-335. Bryan celebrated Valentine's Day a couple months early with his single bingo of ROMANCE, while Dave got down SPOILING. Sitting at 3-0, Bryan seemed poised to put another 4-0 trophy on his trophy shelf (note: both the trophy and the trophy shelf are metaphorical), but it was not to be; Charles defeated him 427-406 thanks to finds of LINEAGES, RHEOSTAT, and the phony-but-plausible WOKENESS*. WOKER and WOKEST were recent additions to the dictionary, but apparently not WOKENESS.

3rd Dennis Lloyd recovered from his "perfect" 0-5 record last week to go 3-1 +175 this week. It was quickly apparent that his fortunes had changed on this night, as his first game was a 531-338 beatdown administered to Beth Amos, good for Dennis' second-highest scoring game this year. His bingos were HOVERED, SEXTANT, GINGERS, and BETRAYED, and that bingo total of four matches a personal best for Dennis at our club. As punishment for his success against Beth, Dennis lost to Bryan Benwitz 315-492 in the next round, but he got back on track quickly with a win over Wendy Bialek, 428-306. Wendy got down STONERS, while Dennis played ATOMISED and the phony OUTLEAN*, a word which brings to mind another phony that has been attempted out of that set of letters, TOLUANE* (please don't commit that one to memory). Dennis finished up his third-place effort with a bingoless 352-315 win against Richard Lauder.

Mark's nine-letter CANONICAL was word of the week. A valuable learning experience was had by all when an S was hooked on it and a challenge was unsuccessful. CANONICALS is a noun meaning "the official dress of the clergy".

1st Thomas Reinke averaged an obscene 517 points per game while finishing 4-1 +721. He pulled out all the stops right from the start, defeating Richard Lauder 574-343 in the first game. Richard found the high-probability BORNITE and NIDGETS, but was turned away by Thomas' ENDOSARC, MINNEOLA, CORBIES, and APPOSES. Thomas would go on to score above 500 in each of his next three games, only scoring below 500 in a final-round 458-363 win against Sara McLaughlin. A set of games against Mark Kenas yielded a high-scoring win (509-334) as well as a high-scoring loss (507-511). In the loss, Thomas was able to play MELINITE and TAURINE, but Mark bested him with THIOUREA, GENETICS, and GLOTTIC. In the most eagerly anticipated matchup of the night, Thomas faced off against Bryan Benwitz in the battle between the #1 and #2 players in the yearly standings, and the result was heavily in Thomas' favor as he won convincingly, 539-315. Bryan did get a bingo of VANISHED to drag his score above 300, while Thomas had STIBINE, DAGGLES, and word of the week PERIPETY.

2nd Charles Reinke averaged a comparatively wimpy 482 points per game en route to a 4-1 +359 final record. The session started well for him when he played two games at once and took both of them, 488-437 against Mark Kenas and 514-339 against Dennis Lloyd. His six total bingos in those games were GLEAMED, ROGUIEST#, REALTIE#, YULETIDE, EULOGIAE, and ORGIASTS. Sadly, his momentum was extinguished by Bryan Benwitz, who played four bingos (WATERLOO, SCREAMS, EINSTEIN, ATRIUMS) and, as one usually does when one plays four bingos, won the game, 496-437. Charles snagged a well-fought win from Richard Lauder, 465-443, before finishing off his second-place performance with a 505-335 rematch win over Mark Kenas, thanks to finds of GUARDED, SOUGHING, and ARTEFACT.