Blog

1st Thomas Reinke marched ever forward in his incipient quest to repeat as club champion, going 3-1 +279 and coming in first place. Defeating Charles Reinke in both their encounters certainly was helpful in reaching that far-off goal. In the final round, a 498-368 victory was emphatic in putting the (temporarily) lesser Reinke in his place. That game saw Thomas get down bingos of ENDORSER, VALUATOR, and UNSEATS, while Charles got down just one: PERIBLEM. But a round-two loss to Helen Flores, 399-408, was a setback to Thomas' secondary goal of going undefeated for the night. Thomas struck with KILTERS and OUTLIERS, but Helen struck right back with DEAFENS and FANNIES. Helen is now two and two in her last four games against Thomas, an admirable feat indeed.

2nd Helen Flores went 3-1 with an anomalous spread total of -258, but no amount of negative spread could dislodge her from her rightfully earned second-place finish. Her evening stared out with a skin-of-her-teeth 336-334 win against Sue Goldstein, where Sue's SUBMITS for 90 points was nearly enough to get her over the cusp. A 408-399 win against Thomas Reinke, discussed in more detail above, was ego-boosting even if it wasn't really spread-boosting. However, a 290-563 loss to a vengeful Charles Reinke was a spread setback that couldn't be recovered from. Helen rounded out her strong performance with another close win, this time 346-342 against Sara McLaughlin.

1st Thomas Reinke was tops again in a reduced field of three players, going 3-1 +580. Utilizing the near-total lack of external distractions to achieve a state of "Scrabble Zen", he played four bingos (OUTRATE, REGRINDS, ANOXIAS, and HEREUPON) in a win against Sara McLaughlin where the final score was an oustanding [undisclosed] to [redacted]. However, his state of Scrabble Zen was sadly turned into a state of Scrabble Despair when he was taken down by Charles Reinke, 432-460, despite Thomas' bingos of NAUTILI, ELECTRUM, and INTEGRAL. The winning side got down EXTRUDES and ENFORCES. A subsequent 431-358 win over that same opponent restored much-needed balance to the world.

1st Thomas Reinke topped a hardy cohort of three players with his unblemished 4-0 +166 record. The closest he came to experiencing the agony of defeat was a closely-fought 434-428 win over Charles Reinke. Thomas hit bingos of SENITIS and SHEAVING, but Charles fought back with URBANELY and POTSHARD. The high point of his evening came in the final round, when he vanquished Helen Flores 468-387. Helen played DUMPERS for 88 points en route to her highest loss of the year, but Thomas enjoyed a bounty of good tiles, as evidenced by his tripartite bingo assault of RELICTS, LARIATED, and BORACITE.