Blog

1st Michael David played an abbreviated schedule of just three games, but made the most of his limited opportunities with a perfect 3-0 +178 record! Accusations of leaving one game early in order to preserve an undefeated night will not be levied at this time. Michael had his best game of the evening in round one, where he took down Gail Salm 424-356, playing Word of the Week candidate FASTBALL in the process (Gail played STIRRED as her single bingo). In the second game, Michael defeated Dennis Lloyd 390-356, this time getting two bingos (RESINED and LIGHTERS) while again holding his opponent to just one bingo (DEAFENS). The stingy bingo defest continued in what would end up being Michael's final game as he easily toppled one of the club's top players, Thomas Reinke, by a score of 393-317. Michael played NESTING in that one, while Thomas got down SABULOSE.

2nd Charles Reinke put together a strong 3-1 +377 performance, but was punished in the standings by having played four games (oh wait, we weren't going to levy those accusations). He wasted no time in building up his spread total as he whomped Bryan Benwitz in the first game, 500-340, unleashing a trio of bingos: TOILERS, ENVELOPS, and NEBULAE. Round two saw Charles lose a close one to Thomas Reinke (no relation), 410-415. Again, Charles had three bingos (ROPIEST, OUTLIES, and OREODONT), while Thomas sole bingo of WISEACRE (for just sixty points) was combined with some damaging power tile plays to take the victory. Charles got back on track by cleanly defeating Gail Salm 510-332, playing three bingos for the third game in a row (GUENONS, GHERAOES, and RATTLIER). Gail, for her part, had LEARNING and REIFIES. The seemingly infinite well of bingos was depleted by round four, but Charles triumphed over Dennis Lloyd 409-365 despite getting out-bingoed two to nothing (Dennis played AUTHORS and ELASTINE*).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +204 for third place among a larger-than-usual crowd of fourteen players. After a disappointing first-game performance against Charles Reinke, where bingos of RESTRUCK and SEDITION were the only things to really go right for Bryan, he stormed back to win his next three. Against Helen Flores, Bryan played READIEST and TRISOMES on his way to a comfortable 428-291 win. Dennis Lloyd fared only slightly better against the Bryaniac, with the final tally in that one being 453-377. While the scores weren't equitable, the bingos were, as each player had two of them (FROWNED and RESURGE for Bryan, COPIERS and TEACHES for Dennis). Bryan completed his convincing comeback by trouncing Thomas Reinke 497-346. Alas, the win was despoiled by a phony GEARLIKE* to go with the valid PANTIES and EXILERS.

Aaron's EMBIGGEN was word of the week. Somebody's been watching too much of The Simpsons (or reading too much of the dictionary).

1st Gail Salm braved the threat of snow and journeyed to the west side to play some Scrabble. It was worth her while, as she came in first with a 3-1 +298 record. In the first round, she went up against Helen. Helen, occupied with another game at the same time, failed to bingo, while Gail bingoed twice with VASELINE (replace the V with a B for a fun surprise!) and STIRRED, winning 402-348. The second round saw her again bingo twice, POUTIER and DENIERS. This time, it was not enough to get the win, as she lost to Dave K. in a close one, 394-400. Dave, fittingly, played OUTLAST as his sole bingo. She then faced Dennis, and saw her bingo count drop to one. It didn't end up making much of a difference, as she won handily, 433-258. She saved her best for last in the final round, beating Bryan 448-373. Bryan bingoed with COLINEAR (anagrams to ACROLEIN and LONICERA), but that's never going to be enough when Gail plays three of her own: LEARIER, OUTRIDE, and BEAUTIES.

2nd Charles Reinke missed out on first place by about 40 spread points (if you simply gave yourself an extra point on every turn over all four games you could make up that amount, just saying...), finishing at 3-1 +257. His big game came in the opener, as he scored 530 against Dennis with bingoes of BEASTIE, OVARIES, and DETRITAL (adj. pertaining to detritus). Not content with a mere three bingoes, he bingoed four times in the next round against Bryan: SUNRISE to open, and then REGIMENS, TAENIAE, and PLICATE. Bryan did have the nice find of REGICIDE, but nice finds only count for nice points if you hit two triples at the same time with them. In the third round, he played Helen and won 393-313. Helen bingoed with NURSING, while Charles, well, he did stuff that game, apparently, because he scored 393, but whatever it was, it wasn't bingoes. Charles saved his worst for last, losing to Thomas in the final game 372-423. Not the highest scoring game ever between those two, especially with five combined bingoes, but not every game can end 500-501.

3rd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +42 in his Collins matchup with Mark, good for third place. He took a big loss in the first round, with the final score being 534-342 in Mark's favor. Mark's triple-triple of LAIRIEST (formerly Collins-only, but now happily included in the humble American dictionary) for 122 was the difference maker. He won the next game 470-393, playing as one of his bingoes NARTJIES*. NARTJIE* would be a convenient word for the RETINA stem, as J is one of the few tiles that does not go with the letters in RETINA to form a bingo. In the third game, he won again, this one a little closer, 440-421. Mark bingoed with CHIDERS for 106 as well as TENSITY, while Aaron played SEROTINE and DANELAW* (which in the humble opinion of this editor should be capitalized). Having sped far ahead of the rest of the group (it's easy to go quick when you don't have to wait for pairings), Aaron won 504-366 in the last game. He bingoed with normal stuff this time: DELICTS, RAPINES, and ABORTIVE. And now for his quiz: what word is in the letters of ABORTIVE plus an A and an R?

1st Charles Reinke played a nearly unprecedent 6 games thanks to a pair of two-on-ones, and finished 5-1 +384. In the first round, he faced off against Dave and Andy. Against Dave, Charles recorded his only loss of the night, 376-412. Dave played READIES and LOANERS, and was aided by Charles challenging his valid FRIGS (FRIG is both a verb and a noun, the noun form pluralizes as FRIGES). In his other game, Andy struck first with ASTHENY, and later added TONSURE, but Charles played MONGEESE and EMPORIA and won 447-420. His game against Bryan went a lot smoother, with him winning handily 447-305 while playing ESPANOL (Bryan later put an S on that, but ESPANOLES is the only plural) and CORTINS. In the third round, he was part of the "two" in the two-on-one, facing Thomas. He had his best bingoing performance, playing PUNDITS, SOILAGES, and the nine-letter EMBODIERS. Thomas got a nine-letter bingo of his own, ITERATION, but it was still Charles' win 492-362. He once again played two in the final round, this time Helen and Andy (again). He beat Helen 398-295 with a sole bingo of DOGTAILS (DOGSTAIL is also acceptable). In his rematch with Andy, he again came out on top in a close one, 406-388. Andy bingoed with DETAINEE one short of a triple word score, allowing Charles to play WEBS for 75, which helped him earn the win.

2nd Thomas Reinke came in second at 3-2 +136, the only other player with a winning record. He played Mark in all four rounds, starting off with a loss, 378-495. Mark played HOLSTERS, PLAINED, and DRAFTIER while Thomas only bingoed with the Collins-only LITEROSE*. Things swung wildly in Thomas' direction in the next game, as he held Mark bingo-less and played four of his own: INTIMAE, LETHALS (n. LETHAL, a death-causing genetic defect), BANGERS, and STURDIER in a 499-287 win. In the third round, he attempted to play in two dictionaries at once, British with Mark and Good Old Normal American English against Charles. He was reasonably successful; despite his 362-492 loss against Charles, he didn't play any British-only words. He won against Mark 495-418, with Mark playing AMATIVE (adj. amorous) and TREPANS, and Thomas playing VIZIERS, REACTORS, and BROILED. Freed from the shackles of dictionary-confusion in the last round, he won once again, 474-380. His best play that games was CATFACES for 95, which also won word-of-the-week. A CATFACE is a deformity of some fruit, which is a lot less cute than I was imagining.