Blog

1st Thomas Reinke bounced back from a 1-3 record the previous week to go 1-3 +141. He saw the most success in a two-on-one game where he defeated Charles Reinke 484-396 and Peter Schmiedicke 488-426. Against Charles, Thomas had the Collins-only bingo of TRENISE#, in addition to TRAVELED and the nine-letter ARRESTIVE. Meanwhile, against Peter, Thomas got down PLEDGOR and MUTATION. Thomas' single loss was another matchup against his brother, where he disappointingly failed to crest the 300-point mark, losing 295-442. And I thought people said Collins was the higher-scoring dictionary?

2nd Sara McLaughlin went 2-1 +156, good enough to clinch a much-sought-after writeup appearance. Her two victories both came against Sue Goldstein: the first was won by a score of 389-282, despite Sue's find of SWABBED, while the second was unquestionably in the "rout" category, with Sara winning 488-245. Sara bingoed three times in that latter win: VAULTED, LOANING, and BROWSING. A 279-473 loss to Peter Schmiedicke, sandwiched by those two wins, wasn't as much fun, but may have been necessary to prevent Sara's ego from expanding unchecked.

1st Peter Schmiedicke notched his first undefeated record since 2016 with a dominant 4-0 +381 performance. His first game was a good omen as he defeated the fearsome Charles Reinke by a score of 434-403, playing TERTIAL and RENAILED. The good omens continued in their ominousness as he was able to prevent the equally fearsome Thomas Reinke from reaching the much-sought-after 300-point mark, winning their match 445-290. Thomas had the nice find of PTERYGIA but learned the hard way that making a nice find does not entitle one to scoring above 300. After defeating Sara McLaughlin 433-308, Peter sealed the deal by handily defeating Bryan Benwitz, 453-383. Peter's bingo-finding prowess was on display as he deployed bonus plays of BARONAGE, NOTATES, and LAMENTER.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +88, with his final encounter against Peter putting to rest his dreams of a perfect night of Scrabble (although he has had an undefeated night as recently as November 2021, so maybe Peter wanted it a bit more). Bryan equalled Peter's feat of beating both Reinke brothers in a single session by downing Charles 450-424 and then immediately defeating Thomas, 488-391. Bryan's combined bingos in those games were NUTSIER, ARENITE, GISARME, ESTRINS, and TEAZLING. Bryan also got word of the week when he played SCUNGILE against Dennis Lloyd in a tightly-fought 455-420 win. Word to the wise: SCUNGILE does not take an S, as its plural is SCUNGILI.

Also of note was Dennis Lloyd achieving the same feat that Peter and Bryan did, that is, defeating both Reinkes in a single night of Scrabble. Both games were won by comfortable margins: 455-392 against Charles, and 429-355 against Thomas. The Reinkes are currently exploring legal remedies to address this most unfortunate situation.

1st Charles Reinke played ten bingos in his three games, and was rewarded for his high rate of bingoage with a 3-0 +342 record. Four of those bingos could be found in a 531-372 smackdown of his brother Thomas Reinke: RIVALED, BRANNED, MYOMATA, and SOVIETS. Thomas played RETOOLED and the ever-useful ENATION. Charles wrapped up his perfect evening with a high-scoring battle against Dennis Lloyd, whom he eventually prevailed against, 496-472, getting down NAVARINS, OPERATIC, and OVERMINE in the process. The losing score of 472 is Dennis' highest losing score ever at our club, so at least his three bingos of SWITCHED, TUNDRAS, and BLENDERS didn't completely go to waste.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished at 2-1 +183, held back from perfection by his pesky brother, as detailed above. He got off to a strong start by taking advantage of Peter Schmiedicke's painkiller-addled state to score a monstrous victory, 576-295. The odd-looking VIZIRATE for 124 was just one of Thomas' four bingos. Thomas' bingo volume dropped off precipitously, however, and by the time he lined up against Helen Flores, he could only muster a single bingo of CLEAREST, but was still able to overcome Helen's 89-point PROMISE and win, 393-332.