Blog

1st Thomas Reinke finished with a 3-1 +293 record, good for first place among a hardy group of five players on the east side. His opening salvo was a 470-412 win against frequent opponent Charles Reinke, where bingos of LOGWOODS, BUNTLINE, and INTEGRAL were integral to the win. A later win against Dennis Lloyd seemed comfortable enough for Thomas, with the final score being 409-354 in his favor, but Dennis led the game from start to finish; Dennis only relinquished the lead when Thomas bingoed out with COMPLOTS, which paired nicely with his earlier bingo of CLIQUES. Meanwhile, Dennis had ISATINE and LEERING.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 2-1 +51. He beat first-place finisher Thomas Reinke in their encounter, 446-432, despite Thomas' playing not one but TWO triple-I bingos, ILEITIS and SILICIUM. Bryan countered with the more straightforward PREACHED and FEASTED. However, success against one Reinke did not translate into success against the other, and Bryan was downed by Charles Reinke, 416-523, in the final game. Bryan got HANDIEST and MORDANTS, but wouldn't withstand four bingos from his opponent: BONEMEAL, PRANGED, SODALIST, and PINAFORE.

1st Charles Reinke averaged a nifty 498 points per game across a reduced slate of three games, going 3-0 +487 in the process and securing undisputed first place. He got his highest score of the year in round one when he pummeled Helen Flores by a score of 568-341. Helen found ANEMONES, but was overwhelmed by Charles' fourfold bingo assault of COURTESY, RESTRAIN, TOADIED, and VENTURED. More bingo supremacy was on display against Dennis Lloyd, who fell to Charles, 444-253. In that one, Charles got DANGEST, TERRANE, and SALICINS.

2nd Thomas Reinke retained his first-place position in the yearly standings, but just barely, with a 2-1 +167 finish. With two bingos apiece, Thomas fought Peter Schmiedicke punch-for-punch, but emerged the victor when all was said and done, 438-276. Peter dredged up bingos of TURGITE and ORDINALS from his long-disused memory bank of seven-letter words, while Thomas had BANNERS and PIEHOLES. Thomas' quest for an undefeated record, however, was brought to a swift end when he encountered Charles Reinke in the third and final round. The final score of that game was 482-413, and among the plays was a showoffish nine-letter find of ADVERTIZE, played by Charles.

Peter's three-O find of ODOROUS was word of the week, but that is not an invitiation to actually BE odorous while at Scrabble club.

1st Thomas Reinke lengthened his ongoing winning streak to nine games with his second-straight first-place finish, this time going 4-0 +301. While Thomas wasn't able to match the dizzying pinnacle of last week's 667-point game, he still scored comfortably above 400 in all his games, and broke 500 once in a 501-445 Collins-lexicon slugfest against Charles Reinke. A Collins-only triple-triple of ARGEMONE# for 176 points helped Thomas outrun his brother's SLANTED, VIPERISH, and SEELING. More high-powered bingoage was on display with a 446-371 win over Bryan Benwitz, where Thomas' plays included a 98-point JASMINE. Bryan's two bingos of FLEECES and LENTOIDS, while nice in their own right, didn't quite compare from a "points scored" perspective.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +352 and averaged a tidy three bingos per game thanks to his twelve bonus plays. A 499-248 win over Helen Flores, featuring bingos of ACQUIRED, TURMOILS, and SEDIMENT, supplied most of Charles' substantial spread total. Four more bingos (AESTHETE, BANDEROL, STARRIER, and EQUISETA) propelled Charles to a 494-403 win over Dennis Lloyd, who played REBOUND and ADOPTING. Of note: BANDEROL takes an E to make BANDEROLE, and if somehow you have those letters but can't play BANDEROLE, maybe you could rearrange the letters to find BANDOLEER.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 2-2 +196 and well exceeded his season average by averaging 431 points per game. His success can almost solely be attributed to his staggering 571-254 win against Sue Goldstein, a game which not only set a personal record for Dennis at our club, but also tied Dennis' record for bingos in a game with four (THUMPER, BEDTIME, ANORAKS, and LINSEED). In addition, 571 is the highest game played at our club so far this year if you exclude games played in the Collins lexicon.

Congratulations to Sara McLaughlin for her own contribution to the history books, as her triple-triple of SQUATTER for 212 points (played in a 464-418 win over Peter Schmiedicke) places at third in the list of highest-scoring bingos ever played at club (at least since modern record-keeping began in 2011). Sara also notched a high-scoring 490-473 win over Bryan Benwitz; that 473 losing score is the highest losing score of the club season.