Blog

1st Thomas Reinke fully demonstrated his tile-slinging mastery with a dominant 5-0 +585 performance. His best game was a 516-313 beating applied to Bryan Benwitz, which occurred simultaneously to a 430-313 win against Helen Flores. The lesson to be learned here is that 313 points is not usually enough to beat Thomas. Thomas' only score below 400 came in the final round against fraternal foe Charles Reinke, but it was still a win for Thomas, 371-354. Thomas bingoed improbably out of a rack of BDLLRT? with DIRTBALL, and also added TUNNAGES, while Charles played ECTASIS.

2nd Sara McLaughlin fittingly came in second place at her second visit to our club with a 3-1 +96 record. She started off with a five-point loss to the winning-streak-possessing Bryan Benwitz, 330-325, but after that it was smooth sailing for Sara. She took down Dennis Lloyd by a score of 388-368 thanks to a bingo of RELEASED - Dennis' bingos of IRONIES and ROCKETED (the latter for a cool 100 points) weren't quite enough to keep pace. Sara also played her inaugural phony in a 350-311 win against Sue Goldstein. LITONES* is phony, but ENTOILS and ONLIEST are good words to keep in mind for when those high-probability letters show up again.

1st Bryan Benwitz didn't quite make it to ten straight wins, but he did bring his "not-loss" streak to thirteen games by recording a 3.5-.5 +295 record. The .5 in Bryan's record came from a high-scoring 466-466 tie against Charles Reinke in the first game. Bryan had four bingos (SEDUCERS, ALIENERS, RAILROAD, and REUNITER) in that one, but wasn't quite able to get past Charles and his two bingos (DEMINERS and GIGATONS). Thus, the winning streak was technically broken, meaning that Bryan's personal record-longest streak of 11 wins (set in 2018) remains untouched. Work on the next winning streak began immediately after that disappointment, with Bryan reeling off scores of 486, 486 (again), and 444 in his remaining three games, all victories.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 with a hefty +489 point spread. Most of his spread came in his first two games, a 502-282 win over Michael David and a severe 556-215 beating administered to Dennis Lloyd. Thomas' five bingos across those two games were RATTIER, HORSILY, POSTMEN, ENDASHES, and a triple-triple CORONATE. The margin of victory was significantly less comfortable for Thomas in round three as he barely escaped with the win against his brother Charles, 457-451. Things went south in round four when he was soundly defeated by Bryan Benwitz, 366-444.

We welcomed newcomer Sara McLaughlin who is a new transplant to the Madison area. She put up a fight in all her games, played six total bingos, and notched a big win against longtime Scrabbler Sue Goldstein, 468-262.

1st Bryan Benwitz continued his ongoing rampage through the field of inferior Scrabble players by going 3-0 +187 and lengthening his winning streak to nine games. His big win came against Dennis Lloyd, 400-287. Since both players played one bingo for exactly 74 points (CORDAGES for Bryan, TREMBLES for Dennis), the considerable point differential in the game must have come from somewhere else. Bryan also displayed his endgame prowess by snatching a 409-400 win from Michael David, who was stuck with an unplayable V while Bryan nickel-and-dimed him to his eventual downfall. A round three win against Charles Reinke, 438-373, brought Bryan within one game of a ten-game streak and, with it, a nifty $5 prize (plus $1 for each game past 10).

2nd Charles Reinke went 2-1 +116, beating out Dennis Lloyd (2-1 -39) for second place by virtue of point spread. He generously gave Michael David a "welcome back" gift by beating him 408-326 in round one. Charles played BIRIANI and RETINUE as his bingos, while Michael got down word-of-the-week BEGORRAH, an Irish interjection which means "by God". Against his brother (and eternal archnemesis) Thomas Reinke, Charles notched the highest score of the session in his 485-386 triumph. Bingos of PARDONS, GASTRAEA, and POSTTEEN were played by the winning side; the losing side had DIGERATI. Several punches (of the brotherly love variety) were duly thrown after the game.