1st Charles Reinke ran the table in the final club session of the 2021 season, going 3-0 +261. 176 of those 271 spread points came in a round one victory against Sara McLaughlin, 482-306. Sara found a bingo of STAINER in her fruitful rack of AEINRS? (43 additional words can be formed from those letters, too many to list here), while Charles had HERALDS and INBEINGS as his bingos. Charles also came away with a solid win against Bryan Benwitz, 457-375, getting down the ever-appropriate OUTDUELS as well as RETROACT.
2nd Thomas Reinke finished the club season with a 2-1 +230 record, falling short of his brother in the weekly standings but standing proudly atop the yearly standings nevertheless. He had a big win against Sue Goldstein, 448-226, thanks to bingos of RANGIEST and RELEGATE, both for 80 points. However, an unblemished win-loss record was denied when he ran into his brother in round three and lost by a hair, 359-362. Thomas had a single bingo of IODINES, but Charles' late-game STEMMERY for 92 points proved to be the difference-maker.
Special mention goes to Bryan Benwitz for his 606-point game against Helen Flores, including the triple-triple RODEOING for 140. Bryan owns the three highest scores of the 2021 club season: 606, 602, and 588.
Thus concludes the 2021 club season, with Thomas Reinke and his 70.6% win percentage being crowned club champion! Rounding out the top three were Charles Reinke (67.6% win rate) and Bryan Benwitz (61.2% win rate).
1st Thomas Reinke strengthened his position in the race for "Madison Scrabble Club 2021 Champion" with a dominant 5-1 +569 record. His total of six games played was somewhat anomalous, but unavoidable due to the immutable laws of combinatorics which were called upon to inform the pairings. The highlight of his night was a 535-332 win against Sara McLaughlin where he got down MASONED, ELYSIAN, and TRICORNE (Sara had RELATION). He played a set of games against his suspiciously identical brother Charles, and while he won the first won 471-350 (aided by bingos of THEREON, ORACIES, and FEASING), the second game proved to be the one to cut short his perfect evening, as he lost 476-363 despite playing bingos of SIBILANT and LODESTAR. Charles had the high-probability trio of PAINTIER, INFARES, and PROTEASE in his winning effort.
2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +93 as he saw his hopes of being 2021 Champion slip through his grasp like a phantom vision desperately reached out for in a dream. His small spread was due to a pair of close wins: the first was a 451-436 victory against Bryan Benwitz, getting down PESTERS, PATINATE, and RIGATONI. The second was a 398-372 triumph over the returning Dave Kinzer - Dave had the nice find of AURICLE, but Charles got down TERRAINS and prevailed in the endgame. An aforementioned 350-471 loss against Thomas Reinke was a bit of a morale breaker, but morale was restored after an infusion of sugar courtesy of cookies provided by Sue Goldstein and candy provided by Dave.
1st Bryan Benwitz averaged a hefty 493 points per game en route to a 3-1 +478 record, enabled mainly by a pair of 500-point games which each, coincidentally, had Bryan winning by 266 points. The first 266-point win was against Sara McLaughlin, 540-274. Bryan inflicted some serious damage with his bingo trio of SEEDING, BUNNIES, and UNMIXED. The second 266-point win came against Helen Flores, this time by a score of 551-285. Bryan managed to up his bingo output by getting down four such plays: CRADLER, DAUTIES, LIFESPAN, and SIGNAGES. A 430-551 loss against Charles Reinke was the only blemish on an otherwise flawless scoresheet, and even in that game, Bryan bingoed three times (OUTLANDS, PIKEMAN, and AVIATORS).
2nd Charles Reinke also went 3-1, but his "meager" +194 point spread fell well short of first place. He enjoyed a tightly-fought victory against Dennis Lloyd, 380-359, where each player got down a single bingo (PEDICLE for Charles, GADGETS for Dennis). A 551-430 win against Bryan Benwitz significantly buoyed Charles' spread, and also netted him word of the week with the two-C, two-U CADUCOUS, which means "detaching or dropping off at an early stage of development", used of plants. Charles' single loss came at the identical-looking hand of his brother, Thomas Reinke, by a score of 310-415.
Wednesday, September 30:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, October 7:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, October 14:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, October 21:
Scrabble at Misty Mountain Games
Club Results 9/23
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