Blog

1st Charles Reinke sprung back from a 1-3 record the week before to go 4-1 +152. For the second straight week, he was defeated by Sara McLaughlin, this time by a score of 380-449. Charles got the high-probability bingo of SOILAGE, but Sara found LABORING and MERRIEST. Playing in a two-on-one game, Charles managed to beat Mark Kenas 502-437 at the same time he was losing to Sara; his four bingos (PENLITE, RETSINA, VEINULES, and DURATION) certainly helped ease the pain. In the following round, Charles took down Richard Lauder, 422-346, despite losing the bingo battle 1-2 (UNWARIER vs BOATLESS* and REALLOT). Charles matched up against Bryan Benwitz in round four, and prevailed over the undefeated (at that point) Bryan in a tense contest, 437-419, finding SALVOES and IKEBANAS for his bingos.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1-1 (that last "1" being a tie) with a +300 spread total. The tie was a low-scoring 347-347 bout with Helen Flores, where Helen was responsible for the only bingo that appeared on their board, the phony FAKEOUT*. Lynda was playing two games at once when FAKEOUT* went down (she was beating Dennis Lloyd 465-300 at the time), so if she needs an excuse for letting FAKEOUT* by, it was that she was distracted. Lynda alo scored big wins against Thomas Reinke (481-368, playing UNMOORED and SKIPPED) and newcomer John (504-358, playing LODGERS, SONLIKE, HONESTER, and TIMEOUTS). Her loss was to Bryan Benwitz in a game that wasn't very close, 353-477.

3rd Bryan Benwitz scored well above 400 in all his game, averaging a nifty 443 per game while going 3-1 +279. The aforementioned 477-353 win against Lynda Finn was his best game of the night, seeing him adorn the board with GOOSIER, OPIATES, and ASEXUAL. He also won a high-scoring match against Dennis Lloyd, 454-416. Both players had a 100-point bingo in that one: Dennis' RELOOKED for 102 and Bryan's INQUIET for 105. Bryan also handed Sara McLaughlin her only loss of the night with a solid 420-285 win, buoyed by finds of ERASION (the sixth most-probable seven letter word!) and SIDINGS. Two more bingos of RECITERS and CARROMED were played against Charles Reinke, but it wasn't enough to deliver Bryan an undefeated record, as he lost 419-437.

4th Sara McLaughlin also went 3-1 but missed out on third place with her lesser +45 spread. She is now 8-1 in her last nine games!

We welcomed newcomers John and Wendy to the club. While they only won one game between them, they displayed considerable skill and we hope they come back soon!

1st Sara McLaughlin stunned the field with a flawless 4-0 +163 performance, defeating a lineup of the club's best players without so much as a single bead of sweat forming on her forehead. Her first win was 388-367 over Thomas Reinke, getting a pair of bingos, STUDIES and AMITIES. She then set her sights on Lynda Finn, and won in decisive fashion, 387-287. A phony bingo of RESTAIN* was perhaps the only notable flaw on her otherwise perfect scorecard, but there is precedent for that particular phony (three other players have gotten away with the same exact word), so she gets a pass. In round three, Sara squeaked out a win against Bryan Benwitz, 368-354. Then, in the final round, she faced Charles Reinke, an opponent whom she has never beaten, but with a perfect record on the line, she rose to the challenge and willed herself to victory, 433-405. A monster 158-point triple-triple of REHABBED was the turning point of the game, enough to overcome Charles' ECSTASY and ROASTING. And with that, Sara added her name to the illustrious list of players who played four games of Scrabble and didn't lose any of them. (A hard copy of the list, printed on the finest cardstock, will be furnished to the requestor upon receipt of a $25 check made out to the club.)

2nd Thomas Reinke made his typical appearance in the top three with a 3-1 +172 record. Aside from his first-round defeat at the hands of Sara McLaughlin, all his games were well over 400 points. His best game was a high-scoring Collins-lexicon bout against familiar foe Charles Reinke, which he won in the end, 508-482. Thomas got down a trio of showy bingos with LEVOGYRE, SONATINE, and JETFOILS; Charles had FANDOMS and AERADIOS. More crazy words were hurled violently down onto the board when Thomas vanquished Bryan Benwitz 483-436. Bryan found EMBOLUS and CORTEXES (the latter for 116 big points), while Thomas had ACHIRAL, FERRITE, and DOLMENIC.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 with a surprising -33 spread. The reason for that negative spread total will be revealed in due time. First, though, we must discuss some of the games which Dennis won. His highest score came in a 436-369 encounter with Lynda Finn, who was held bingoless while Dennis got down CHARRED, WASHERS, and IRONIES. Dennis also displayed some real Wisconsin hospitality when he defeated visiting Iowa player Mike Weepie 357-320. The combatants traded bingos in that one, with Mike finding RESTATE and Dennis getting PARTINGS. However, Dennis' match against Bryan Benwitz was considerably less successful, as Bryan scored an incredible 634 points, and Dennis was left with a respectable but insufficient 331 points. The main factor of Bryan's dominant display of Scrabble might was his triple-triple ZIPPIEST for 248 points. Since we began keeping detailed records in 2011, only one other play has scored that many points, that being Thomas' MOBILIZE back in 2016.

1st Bryan Benwitz sent his spread into the stratosphere with a 4-0 +676 record. His nine bingos and 485 per-game average were also best among all players. He started off strong in round one by getting his highest score of the year, 592 to Richard Lauder's 362. Somehow this mammoth difference in scores was achieved despite each player getting exactly three bingos: BEDDINGS, MANLIKE, and ANORETIC for Richard, INWEAVED, UPROARS, and LOGNGINGS for Bryan. Another huge score was achieved against Helen Flores, where Bryan won 539-338. Another three bingos were on order in that one: HOARSEN, ERECTING, and INCUSES. Bryan secured his undefeated record in the final round when he prevailed over Charles Reinke in a low-scoring affair, 360-336, thanks to a bingo of ACIDOSIS.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1 with an anomalous -68 spread. All of her victories were quite close, the closest being a round one upset over Thomas Reinke, 373-365. Lynda's bingo finds of SADIRON and FEASTING were clearly helpful in securing victory and snapping Thomas' five-game winning streak against her. She got down two more bingos (GUITARS and COTTAGED) in a 402-385 win against Dennis Lloyd, who got ORANGIER. Her success in finding bingos continued against Charles Reinke, where she played ADMIRAL and NAIVETE, but this proved not to be enough as Charles handed her her only loss of the night, 345-456. His bingos were DIVERGE and OUTRAVES.

3rd Thomas Reinke continued the trend of finishing well while having a negative spread, as evidenced by his 3-2 -117 record. A devastating round two loss to Mark Kenas all but guaranteed that his point spread would never again get into positive digits. The 280-609 drubbing saw Thomas get down one bingo, NARGILES, while Mark cruised with four such plays: HEATERS, ENDITED, TOILETRY, and BEVOMITS, the last of which scoring 120 points. Thomas got his revenge later in the night, besting Mark 427-354, but he would have needed to win by a lot more than that to rescue his spread. A 443-206 triumph over Sara McLaughlin, buoyed by bingos of PINIONED, ESCAPER, and SINTERED, did help Thomas' cause.

Bingo of the week was Charles Reinke's 9-letter find of SENSITIVE, awarded because even common words are hard to find when they're nine letters long.