Blog

1st Thomas Reinke bingoed 15 times on his way to a first-place-earning 4-1 +706 record. He got the losing out of the way early, falling to James 412-456. He did bingo three times, with DAMSELS, AIRDATE, and AUTISTS, but James had two bingos of his own, DECIARE and NOTABLES, as well as a bevy of other high-scoring plays. Concurrently, he faced Helen and won 451-300, playing STEARIC and RESHOES (passing up the more stylish SHEROES (n. SHERO, a woman regarded as a hero)). He faced Barb in the second round, and was delighted to see that bingos kept magically appearing on his rack. He ended up playing five of them, FIGTREES, LISTERIA, COTHURNI, TALLIES, and AIRSOME on his way to 572 points. His good fortune continued against Lynda as he got an opening bingo of TENFOLD. For reference, only TWOFOLD and TENFOLD take an S; all the other number-FOLD words do not. For more reference, ELEVENFOLD, TWELVEFOLD, TWENTYFOLD, and THIRTYFOLD were just added to the dictionary in the last update. FORTYFOLD, FIFTYFOLD, and SIXTYFOLD were already good. But back to Scrabble: Thomas won that game 505-289, once again preventing his opponent from bingoing. In the final round, he faced a distracted Charles (who was also playing Lynda at the same time), and used his opponent's distractednesses to his advantage, winning 457-342. He played two lame bingos in that game; so lame that they will not be typed out here so as to not infect this writeup with their lameness.

2nd Charles Reinke also went 4-1, but his +67 spread was way, WAY lower than his brother's, so he came in second. In the first round, he was paired up against Bryan and won 463-412. Bryan bingoed with CRAFTER, while Charles got down SEALING, GUNITES, and GONIDIA. In the next game, he beat James 371-293. He only got one bingo, ENSUITE, but also challenged off James' phony bingo attempt. That was a strategically sound move, because James never ended up bingoing. He then went up against Helen, who put up a valiant fight but lost 384-427. She played SCAMMER and PRESORTS, and Charles played HOLYTIDE (n. a time of religious observance) and TAILRACE. In the final game, he played two, Thomas and Lynda. He wasn't able to take down Thomas, receiving his only defeat of the night, and was only barely able to squeak by Lynda, 440-430. Lynda had bingos of INERTIA and DOORMAT, while Charles had TRESSEL and a tight-fitting late-game LEUCONS that scored just enough to earn him the victory.

3rd Mary Becker went 3-2 -8, beating out Lynda by 80 spread points to capture the coveted third paragraph. She started off with a 355-390 loss to Lynda, but the game was not without excitement: she played the word-of-the-week 9-letter double-double DIAPERING through an IN already on the board for 102 points. If she could do that every turn, she'd score 1000 in no time! That 35-point margin would be her largest of the night, win or lose. In the next round, she lost 344-368 to Bryan, her bingo of BARMIER not being enough to counter Bryan's INVADERS and CONDUITS. Knowing that her place in the writeup was on the line, she then won her next three games. It helps when you can play two at the same time, and that's what she did in the third round, facing Dave and Barb. Barb got out to an early lead in their game, opening with RELINED and later playing JUNKIEST, but Mary played a high-scoring OUTDATE for 99 and won 425-398. In her close 385-376 win against Dave, she challenged his valid TINSELED (to be fair, TINSELLED does look a little better), but bingoed with BEAUTIES and SHIRTED for 101. Club veterans will remember the dark times before the fifth dictionary update when SHIRTED was phony and if you had those letters you had to play DITHERS instead. Her third win came against James, 372-357. James bingoed first with FROWNING, but that gave her a perfect place to play OPTIONS, and she was able to squeak out the win.

1st Charles Reinke put in another dominating performance, going 5-0 +592 and coming in first place. He won his opener against Richard 449-311, though the sweet taste of victory was cut with the cloying flavors of a phony bingo, as he played OCHREOID*. OCHEROID is good, as well as OCHREOUS and OCHEROUS. In the second round, he opened with BOINKED against Bryan and never looked back, winning 517-390. These two wins earned him the privilege of playing two games at once in the third round. Against Mary, he repeated his performance from the previous round by scoring 517, with bingos of WEEDIER, TACRINE, and TIPSIER. Despite that high score, he had brain power left over to use on the other game, beating James in a close one 386-383. That game came down to the wire, and in the end James couldn't get enough with his Q to pull it out. In the last game, he faced Thomas and won 453-362. Thomas played the appropriate WORDIES (n. WORDIE, a word lover), one of the words just added to the dictionary, but Charles had AETATIS (adj. of the age of), STRAYING, and QUIETENS.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged a cool 449 on his way to a second-place-earning, 3-1 +357 record. In the first game, he not-so-warmly welcomed Gail back to the club, winning 484-328 with bingos of TORSADE (n. a twisted cord) and TRIMMED. He came up short against Charles, but he did score a minor victory (that wasn't reflected in his final win total) by blocking Charles' potential fourth bingo with his DOMINOS. In the third game, he won a low-scoring game against Helen 376-315. Helen bingoed with ABLUTION (anagram: ABUTILON), while Bryan played INHUMES (n. the opposite of EXHUMES). He must have been saving his bingo cannon (you know, the one he brings to club every week with BRYAN stamped on the side in big letters) for the final game, because in that one, he fired it off four times, resulting in a 546-279 win against James. His bingos in that game: STANING, SMILEYS, REWARDS, and EMULATOR.

3rd Thomas Reinke notched yet another 3-and-Charles night, going 3-1 +252. Dave struck first in their first-round match, bingoing with TINDERS, but Thomas fired back with OVERGILT, INFINITE, and ABLEIST and won 496-328. In the second game, he bingoed four times against Mary: MINNEOLA (n. a reddish tangelo (n. a citrus fruit (n. an edible reproductive body of a seed plant))), VAINEST, SWATTER, and ETIOLATE (which takes a P in front for PETIOLATE). The bingoing abruptly stopped for him in the next game against Richard, but he still came out on top, 435-399 despite getting outbingoed 3-1. As usual, he faced Charles in the last round with a perfect record, and also as usual, said perfect record was ruined. Has anyone ever seen the movie "Groundhog Day"? Just curious.

1st Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +378, edging out his brother for first place. His first win came in a relatively unexciting game against James, 396-367. He only bingoed one time, with OUTSAIL. He then faced Charles and received his only whupping of the evening, with the final score being 419-488. He bingoed with SCARVES and TUTORIAL, while Charles played LIMONENE, SPADEFUL (n. as much as a spade can hold), and RUBEOLAS. Maybe he would've won had he not foolishly challenged ARIGHT (adj. rightly; correctly). It was at this point in the session that he pounded his fist on the table and shouted "enough's enough!", and he followed that proclamation up with a 501-274 win against Helen. His best play that game was SCATHED for 102. In the finale, Bryan struck first with VELIGERS, which was quickly countered by Thomas' double-double MOTORIZE for 126. He later added SALINITY and SOUDANS (n. SOUDAN a Muslim ruler, also SOLDAN) and won 509-317.

2nd Charles Reinke added another item to the extremely long and ever-growing "Things I am worse than Thomas at" list by coming in 2nd with a 3-1 +313 record. He beat Bryan 450-402 in the opener, with the dreaded Q tile making an appearance just in time to cost Bryan a chance at victory. Charles bingoed three times, with NUTTIER, LEADENED, and BALAFONS (n. BALAFON a musical instrument of Africa, sort of like a xylophone). He also let Bryan get away with the phony ODORISE*. If you are ever tempted by that word, play OROIDES instead. After beating Thomas 488-419 in the second round, he turned his sights to the similarly undefeated Betty. He scored 513 in that game, changing her descriptor from "undefeated" to "defeated once". Despite the high score, he only bingoed twice, with ROOSTER and NONSKID. If you've been paying close attention to this paragraph, you'll've noticed that Charles had 3 wins at this point, but ended at 3-1. Thus, the result of the final game is spoiled for you, and it's true; he lost against James 314-367.

3rd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +189 in his weekly British battle with Mark, averaging 464 points which is good for the normal dictionary but not even (NOT EVEN) impressive for Collins, where players regularly score 900 points (okay I'm exaggerating now). He won a close won in the first match, 499-477, playing the word-of-the-week TORCHLIT as well as ENCLOSE and UNBROWNED (referring to ground beef, I presume). Mark also had three bingos, FLEXORS, AMORTISE, and NAILHEAD. Aaron had his highest score of the night in the next game, winning 514-363 while playing DARLING and GUTROTS*. For the rest of us, play ROTGUTS. His only loss came in the third round, and it was was a close one, 431-441, despite his bingo trifecta of SUPEREGO, TINKERER, and DERATING. In the last game he won 413-387. Mark played SMITHERS in that game, but don't take the S off of the end (you can take it off the front, though, for MITHERS). It meens the same as SMITHEREENS.