Blog

1st Peter Schmiedicke shook off an accumulated five years of rust in his long-awaited return to club play, going 4-1 -8. After being warmly welcomed in a 322-479 loss to Charles Reinke, the intricacies of playing winning Scrabble started to trickle back into his brain, and he won his next four games. Along the way he scored a one-point win against the tougher-than-he-was-in-2017 Bryan Benwitz by a score of 372-371. A phony BESETTED* along with a valid ARTERIAL propelled Peter to the win in that one. His best game was another nailbiter, 434-421 against Helen Flores. Peter's long-disused bingoing skill came back in full force with plays ouf DOUBTER, ADVENTS, and AERIEST.

2nd Charles Reinke played an even two bingos in each of his five games as he finished with a 3-2 +347 record. His two losses came simultaneously, as he battled vainly against both Thomas Reinke and Bryan Benwitz in a two-on-one. He did come close to beating his brother, as their game ended with a final score of 469-471. Thomas' four bingoes of ANTIGENE, PRECLUDE, GLISTENS, and OUTEDGED* (not even good in Collins) were each crucial in securing the two-point win. Charles would later get his revenge in the final round, defeating his brother by a more comfortable margin, 440-389 thanks to a pair of high-probability bingos, ETALONS and TOLIDINE.

Of note was Sara McLaughlin's 502-423 win over Thomas Reinke, her first 500 game at our club. Of even more notable note, her opening bingo of SMARTED in that game (with a blank S) was exactly duplicated by Peter Schmiedicke when the two of them faced off in round four. A team of expert astronomers are currently analyzing exactly which stars had to be in alignment for that to happen.

1st Charles Reinke achieved the coveted undefeated record with a 4-0 +466 performance. A quick look at his winning scores (458, 470, 481, 517) plainly reveals an ascending pattern which would have continued unchecked had more games been played. Thus, for the dignity of all his challengers, it is a blessing that a typical club session consists of just four games, and Charles' streak of destruction was mercifully brought to a close. The most destructive of Charles' wins was a 470-299 win over Dennis Lloyd; Dennis had VARIANTS (something we hope we don't see any more of), while Charles had BEELINE, ENHALOED, and REIMPORT. Charles also enjoyed a solid 517-405 win against Thomas Reinke, where he flexed his newfound Collins knowledge with the Collins-only PERVIATE#. Thomas, meanwhile, flexed his knowledge of high-probability seven-letter words with OBESITY and DELATOR.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 with a stratospheric spread of +463 and a total of eleven bingos played in his four games. A 402-446 loss against Thomas Reinke in the first round put him in the losers' bracket early, and from there he wreaked havoc. A 455-280 win against Sara McLaughlin (playing bingos of INJURIES, FENNIEST, and UNIFORMS) quickly put his spread back into positive territory. The spread points were gratuitously piled on by the final round, when Bryan brought out the heavy artillery for a 513-312 win over Helen Flores. Bingos of MUNTINS, SLATTERN, DICROTAL, and LEAKINGS* were grimly laid down for, in the opinion of this writer and certainly all club attendees, entirely too many points. Bryan is now averaging an obscene 456 points per game through the first ten games of his club season.

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.