Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz continued his strong 2023 campaign with a 3-1 +397 record. He had the highest score of the session when he dropped a hefty total of 553 points right on top of Richard Lauder, who scored decently enough with a 368 score but still fell way short of victory. GALLEON, CULTURED, SNOUTIER, and the plausible-but-phony IMPASTI* were the bingos played by Bryan, who will probably remember going forward that IMPASTO pluralizes with an S despite being an Italian word. Richard got NESTABLE and OVERWISE to bring the total number of bingos in the game to six. A subsequent game against John Bialek was quite a bit closer, but Bryan emerged with a 428-345 win thanks to his monster 112-point play of QUAFFERS, which made John's bingo of INROADS for 64 points look quite timid in comparison. 3-0 going into the final round, Bryan was eyeing an undefeated record, but as so often happens at our club, his hopes were dashed right at the end, as he fell to Charles Reinke, 416-496. Bryan got down MANEGES and VETERANS in the loss, while Charles got HEARTENS, DOUBTING, and SAINFOIN.

2nd Mark Kenas, long burdened with the unenviable task of playing Reinkes night after night after night, shook off the shackles of tedium to go 3-1 +244. Being a competitor in the international Collins lexicon, his bingo list is usually riddled with words which are invalid in the North American list, but fear not, dear reader, all his bingos this night are good in NWL. He opened the night with a 500-315 win against Thomas Reinke, playing LORGNON, BIENNIAL, and TENORITE while Thomas struggled to a single bingo of TRENISE#. A solid pair of wins against Charles Reinke followed, 430-356 and 455-438. Again, Mark had three bingos in each: VARMENTS, ASSOILED, and AROINTS in the first, UNDULATE, KELOIDS, and TERRIERS in the second. The fourth round saw Mark suffer a similar fate to Bryan, sitting at 3-0 and then losing the final game, this one to Thomas, 484-516.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +65, beating a similarly-monikered foe by just three spread points to take third place. A two-on-one outing in the first round went quite poorly for Thomas, as he lost 315-500 to Mark Kenas and 458-499 to the similarly-monikered foe Charles Reinke. As usual, the brothers bingoed relentlessly on each other; Thomas had ENARGITE#, RATIFIER, and SWOOPER vs. Charles' LIVIDER#, QUEEREST, and RELANDS. Thomas rebounded from his rough start to win the next three, starting with a 476-289 win against Ron Malzer, thanks to bonuses of SERVANT and RATTIER. Sara McLaughlin put up a good fight but also lost to Thomas, 403-331, her find of MUTTONS matched by Thomas' OPIATES. The final round saw Thomas get his revenge on Mark in a very bingoey way, playing COESITE, TATTLERS, ENORMITY, and DOUANES# for the 516-484 win.

Helen Flores' CHEDDARS was chosen as word of the week because this is Wisconsin.

1st Thomas Reinke bolstered his campaign for 2023 club champion with another fine outing, going 4-1 +533 and averaging 477 points per game. He racked up a huge amount of spread in the first round when he had the good fortune of being the "one" in a two-on-one match against Mark Kenas and Richard Lauder. He cleanly dispatched Richard with a 570-334 victory, but saved most of his scoring power for his game against Mark, where he won 575-437. Against Mark he played five bingos: FEATOUS#, TURNHALL, CONSUME, STIRRER, and DARTING. Mark got his revenge a little bit later in the night, as a rematch did not go Thomas' way, the final score being 385-429 in Mark's favor. A quite relevant bingo of BULLYING as played by Mark, in addition to BERLINES and REGRATED; Thomas found VALIDATE but was not able to get a second bingo which he dearly needed. The bingo mojo returned for Thomas in the final game as he played four bonus plays (TURNABLE, UNHAIRED, STOPGAPS, DELTOIDS) in a 475-324 victory versus Dennis Lloyd.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished at 3-1 +305, and his impressive 438-points-per-game average in the four games actually LOWERED his yearly average, which stood at 440 before Wednesday's slate of games. Bryan got off to a hot start in the very first game when his three bingos of IGNORER, EXTOLLS, and RADIUSES launched him to a 426-338 win against Charles Reinke. Reinke honor was upheld in the next game when Bryan suffered his only defeat, a 330-482 loss to Thomas Reinke. However, that Reinke honor was partially squandered thanks to Thomas' 102-point phony of FORESAY*, which is acceptable in the international Collins lexicon but not the American lexicon. Bryan finished strong with a 505-305 win over newcomer Margie Van Handel, as well as a 492-323 win against Richard Lauder, who, as the founder of the club, is the exact opposite of a newcomer. Bryan's bingo list in those two games was CANDIDA, MANSION, RELETTER, EVERSION, and MARCHESI. MARCHESI is a good word to know simply because it serves as an I hook onto the word MARCHES (MARCHESE and MARCHESA are also valid).

As alluded to earlier, we welcomed Margie Van Handel as she bravely made her first trip to our club. She displayed considerable skill in defeating Sara McLaughlin 400-398 in her first game, playing STINTER for 72 points in her winning effort. Welcome Margie!

1st Bryan Benwitz emerged from a frantic evening of intense word-based battle with a perfect 4-0 +529 record. The closest he came to losing a game was in game one, where he escaped with a low-scoring win against John Bialek, 358-337. Bryan's only bingo there was the odd-looking but useful ONLIEST, while John got down PUTTIES. In the third round, Bryan faced off against Richard Lauder; both players displayed a dogged insistence to score as many points as humanly possible, resulting in a 629-409 win for Bryan. Those doing the math at home will note their combined score of 1038, which is the fourth-highest combined score this year, and the only one that did not occur in a Collins-lexicon game. Bryan played BATSMEN for 98, WARISON for 78, and the triple-triple GRIDDLED for 158. Richard had ENACTED (82) and SHINERS (90) in his effort to halt Bryan's indomitable scoring prowess. Bryan secured his first-place finish when he faced off against another 3-0 player, Ron Malzer, in the last round. It was a comfortable win for Bryan, 458-253, thanks to finds of SAUTERNE and WAITRON.

2nd Lynda Finn averaged 440 points per game while going 3-1 +358. She played three bingos in each of her victories, with an opening-round loss to Ron Malzer, 361-381, being the stark outlier. She was held bingoless there while Ron played REALISED. Lynda's highest-scoring game of the night was a 489-253 romp against Wendy Bialek where the victor's bingo list included such words as FLATTEN, UNDERLIT, and COLORISE. The bingoing frenzy continued when Lynda played UPENDING, APOSTLES, and ENTREAT in a 466-333 win over Sara McLaughlin. Lynda then wrapped up the session with a closely-contested 444-435 victory against Thomas Reinke, whose triple-triple of LEVIRATE for 149 points was, in the end, negated by Lynda's ASCRIBES, ENDNOTE, and DEFENDS.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 with a minimal positive spread of +9, just enough to keep him in third place. He started the night off strong when he defeated Charles Reinke, 402-382. Charles found INJURER and BIENNIAL, but Dennis was able to make it work with his single bingo of IMPOSTS. Later in the night, he won another close game, this one against Richard Lauder, 394-381. Dennis' monster bingo of MAILING for 97 was certainly an important one, accounting for nearly a fourth of his total game score. Richard still owns the lifetime series by a significant margin against Dennis, having 26 wins to Dennis' 16. Dennis' only loss was to, who else, Bryan Benwitz, 338-421, despite a nice find of MANDORLA.

4th Ron Malzer went 3-1 -37, prevented from a perfect record by the aforementioned loss in the final round to Bryan Benwitz, who was spoiling everybody's nights (except his own). For his efforts he gets a bonus fourth paragraph in a writeup that is conspicuously Reinke-less...