Blog

1st Charles Reinke made some early-season headway in the club standings with his flawless (literally without flaws of any kind whatsoever) 5-0 +701 performance. He made quick work of his closest rival in last year's final standings, Thomas Reinke, winning their encounter by a lopsided score of 580 to 382. Thomas found OVERTAX for a nice 99 points, but Charles bingoed four times (DAILIES, ENDEMIAL, SURBASE, ROTENONE) to render Thomas' bingo moot. That 580 score was almost equalled in the final round when Charles score 575 point against Mark Kenas, who scored 365. Again, Charles outbingoed his opponent four to one: HOLIEST, ANOOPSIA, TZIGANE, and a 185-point triple-triple PREAMBLE were Charles' bonus plays, while Mark had CENSURED but nothing else.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +414, beating Thomas Reinke by ~230 spread points to snag second place. He got off to a fantastic start by defeating Renato Umali, who was playing in his first club game in over nine years, 527-299. Bingos of TUBBIER, POISONER, BONEHEAD, and URALITE served as a somewhat excessive "welcome back!" for the returning Renato. Bryan crested the 500-point mark again in round four when he vanquished Dennis Lloyd by a score of 505-236, propelled by three bingos: CARVERS, GURNETS, and CRUISERS. However, Bryan received a taste of his own bitter medicine when he found himself sitting across the table from the fearsome Thomas Reinke and was solidly defeated, 337-543.

1st Richard Lauder bounced back from last week's 1-3 performance to finish with an immaculate 4-0 record and a +280 spread. By the end of the first round he had already recorded two wins, as his two-on-one against Dennis Lloyd and Helen Flores was a successful venture. He beat Dennis 364-326 without playing a bingo, and beat Helen Flores 401-333 with bingos of ELITISTS and DOCKING. Richard's major success came in the following round as he easily wiped the floor with Charles Reinke, winning 446-357 and playing three bingos: EULOGIA, OUTHEARS, and STILLED. After another solid win in round three (396-311 vs. Dave Kinzer), Richard wisely decided to sit on his undefeated record and not play the fourth round.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +324, continuing his strong start to the new club season. He incrementally improved his chances of repeating as club champion by defeating his closest opposition, Charles Reinke, by a score of 490-354 in the third round. He found bingos of DISRATE, COLLAGED, and REBASED to carry him to a comfortable victory. However, round three saw Thomas suffer his only loss, a 408-467 scuffle with Mark Kenas. It was Mark's turn to bingo thricely as he slapped down HETAIRA, REINVADE, and CORACLES, while Thomas had a single bingo of INSANELY. Thomas finished his evening with a 413-339 win over Helen Flores in a game where he was outbingoed zero to two - Helen's antonymic bingos of UNSEXIER and AROUSER were just not enough.

Of note was Dennis' 149-point triple-triple of MANACLES, played against Dave in the final round.

1st Thomas Reinke started the new club season in the same way he ended the last one, in first place, this time with a 3-1 +376 final tally and a 478 average game score. His high score of the night was against Helen Flores, 512-275, thanks to bingo finds of ANISETTE and SILVEXES (SILVEX is a type of herbicide, so has the conventional -ES plural, not the -ICES plural seen in words like INDEX->INDICES or SCOLEX->SCOLICES). Helen found RESITES in her losing effort. Thomas' only loss of the evening came against Mark Kenas, a high-scoring affair (typical of the international Collins dictionary) which ended in a score of 474-516. A nice nine-letter bingo of IMITATIVE was the jewel in Thomas' crown, but Mark was on a bingo spree of his own with SCROUGES, FRENULAR, and a 111-point DOWNSIZE.

2nd Mark Kenas achieved a 3-1 +221 record, those three wins being a somewhat rare feat given that his choice of dictionary dooms him to playing the Reinkes and nobody else. Spreading bingos across the board like a majestic peacock, Mark easily handled Charles Reinke in round one, winning 553-411. Seven total bingos were played in the game, five of them Mark's: BORNITE, SIENNAS, TRAGICAL, LAKESIDE, and NAEVOID. Charles got down SPURTED and FORESAW. A second matchup against Charles ended in much the same result: Mark's win, 432-343, with Collins-only bingos of BEDRITE# and PORLOCK#. Mark's loss came against Thomas Reinke, 431-483. Thomas played the snazzy double-Z bingo of SNAZZIER in that one, but failed to invoke the little-known rule that any play made with two Z's automatically scores 500 points and instantly ends the game. (That was a joke and there is no such rule, but your friends and family don't know that if you want to try it out on them.)