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1st Charles Reinke somewhat made up for a disappointing showing at last weekend's tournament, going 4-0 +522 and averaging a cool 505 points per game. His first game was a 539-318 win against James, where his first two bingos were the somewhat clunky DISEUSE and AUREOLAE. The grand finale was his triple-triple word-of-the-week out-play of CIRRIPED (n. any of an order of crustaceans, including barnacles, and don't forget that it takes an E for CIRRIPEDE) for 149 points. He then faced Bryan and won with a "mere" 496 points, 496-379. His big play in that game was TORQUES for 100. That rack also makes the words QUESTOR, QUOTERS, and ROQUETS. Against Helen in the third round, his scoring went down even more, with the final being 463-346. Helen bingoed with STRIDENT (the conclusion of the fun DENT/IDENT/RIDENT/TRIDENT/STRIDENT series), while Charles had EINSTEIN and VERTIAS. After that, he went up against Thomas, and it was an exciting match, with 7 bingos being played. Charles had COWHANDS, NAPHTOLS, DEFLATES, and the phony DEPUTISER* (DISREPUTE is the real word with those letters). Thomas, for his part, had CONOIDAL, MEGABIT, and PEDALING, but he still lost 455-522.

2nd Bryan Bewntiz followed up on his second-place showing at last weekend's tournament with a 3-1 +215 record. He started off with a 465-373 win verus Betty, playing MORTARS and the newly-added-to-the-dictionary WORDIES (n. WORDIE, a word lover). Although he beat him in the tournament, he fell to Charles 379-496 in the next game, his sole bingo of AWAITERS not enough to stop Charles' devious machinations of revenge. Despite going over time a little bit (a normal dilemma for him, but you can't argue with his recent results, so his slow-and-steady method must be working) in the third round, he won big against Dennis 452-273. He played MONASTIC for 94 to aid his cause; no word on whether it was extended to SEMIMONASTIC. In the last game, he played Helen, and won 429-368. Helen hogged all the blanks for her play of DIQUATS for 87, while Bryan had to be content with a blank-less SOCIETY.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +235, coming in third place. He faced two in the first round, Helen and Dennis. Helen saw the most success against him, winning 357-341 while playing CABANAS. Against Dennis, Thomas won 492-418 and bingoed with TINHORNS, OVERNEAT, and GURGLETS (n. GURGLET, a long-necked jar), while Dennis had CADGERS and the invalid GRATINES*. GRATINE is an adjective meaning "covered with a crust". Following that was a slog of a game against Mary, ending in a 388-305 win. Seven tiles went unplayed that game due to some annoyingly-placed Z's, Q's, and V's. Thomas did manage to squeeze in a bingo, BEAUTIES, before things got totally shut down. Against Gail in the third round, he won 484-323. Gail had parity in bingo-count, playing INERTIA and OUTRAISE compared to Thomas' CANTERED and LOESSAL (adj. pertaining to LOESS, a soil deposit), but Thomas had the advantage in the power-tile plays. And in the final game, he lost to Charles 455-522. 455 is a good score, but in Scrabble, if you're not first, you're last.

1st Charles Reinke came in first with a 4-1 record, although his paltry +46 spread was low compared to a normal four-win performance. The main reason for that was that he started off way in the hole as he lost to Thomas 336-595 in the first game. Thomas opened with BRUITER and didn't let up, playing STONIER, GLACEING, and TAPETUMS (n. TAPETUM a layer of cells in some plants) as well. Charles' sole bingo was ENURESIS (not to be confused with ANURESIS). Luckily, after that drubbing, things got a lot better for him, starting with a two-on-one pair of wins over Bryan and Helen. He beat Bryan 449-393 with bingos of SNORTED and SAURIAN, and simultaneously beat Helen as well, 424-332. His big play against Helen was SPIREME for 106; presumably he chose the best of the seven bingos made with the letters of EEIMPRS. In the third round, he faced Thomas again. This time, things were a lot closer, and he eventually pulled out a 425-424 win. Thomas had a rare double-X bingo, XEROXES, while Charles had UNSLING, CALIPEES, and INLACES. Charles' biggest win came in the finale, a 495-339 win against James. James was seemingly cursed with endless draws of vowels (sound familiar to anyone?), while Charles bingoed four times with PANDECTS, UNAKITES, FERRELS, and ALANINE.

2nd Bryan Benwitz faced a tough lineup and still came in second with a 3-1 +51 record. He, like Charles, faced Thomas in the first round, but unlike Charles, won. The final score was 422-410, with Bryan's final play of SUBSTATE for 83 points being enough to win even without the letters left on Thomas' rack. His only loss of the night came against Charles, 393-449 in the second round. But since this is supposed to be a positive paragraph about Bryan's accomplishments, we're going to move right past that into his 420-369 win against James in the third game. James bingoed with CLITORAL (a handy extension of LITORAL) and UNMOVED, while Bryan only had SEEDING. Despite the bingo deficit, he won with a decent margin; perhaps this indicates that there is more to Scrabble then just playing as many bingos as possible? In the final game, he faced Thomas again, and built up a huge lead with bingos of DIRECTLY, SENSATE, and GUERDON. The reason that you build up huge leads is so that you can withstand any disasters that happen; in this case, Thomas then triple-tripled with PLEDGERS for 167 but still remained behind, and Bryan ended up winning 485-441.

3rd Betty Hasselkus overcame a shaky start to come in third at 2-2 -171. She lost big against James in her opener, partially because she let his phony of OLDTOWN* go by unchallenged. For reference, the three-letter front extensions for TOWN are COWTOWN, MIDTOWN, and TOYTOWN. In the second game, she faced Sue, who, with a score of 461 came one point short of her highest score since the club started keeping track. Revenge was swift and merciless in the next round, as there was an immediate rematch where Betty won 381-292 with a bingo of FAIRIES. Her game against Helen got off to a good start when she opened with RELYING for 70. She later added DIARIES and ended up winning 416-290.

1st Richard Lauder stood alone as the only undefeated player of the night, finishing with a 3-0 +97 record. He started the session paired against a tough opponent in Charles, but he showed no fear and won a close one, 376-370. His first bingo of NEONATES scored a mere 58, but his self-descriptive play of TALENTED near the end put him over the top. At his own request, he played as the "one" in a two-on-one in the second round, facing Betty and Helen. Normal club operating procedure is that someone who specifically requests a two-on-one is paired with Thomas and Charles, but an exception was made in this case since he had already played Charles. Anyway, he won his game against Helen 388-320, with bingos of SIDEARMS (v. SIDEARM, to pitch a ball below shoulder level) and RELISHES. Against Betty, he won 361-338. Betty bingoed with REBOUNDS, while Richard had another low-scoring bingo, SALTERNS for 58. Does anyone else things would be more fun with a few more double and triple-word scores squeezed in the emptier spaces on the board?

2nd Thomas Reinke utilized the tactics he learned in the lawless land of Reno to come in second with a 3-1 +416 record. In the first game, he notched the highest game of the club year with a 652-point explosion against James. He bingoed five times, with VISCOSE (n. a viscous solution), UNEARNED, NONENTRY, ATOMIZED, and BIRACIAL. If he thought he was going to average 600 for the club session, however, he was sorely mistaken, as he came crashing back to Earth in the next round, losing 354-378 to Bryan. He rebounded a bit against Charles after that, winning 444-421. He had bingos of PIOLETS (anagram PISTOLE) and MOUCHES, with Charles having DIOXANE and a high-V-winning VOMITIER. For some reason, he was rewarded for this win with another chance to lose against Charles in the fourth round. With Charles' attention divided between him and Bryan, he won again, 440-402. His bingos were lame and not worth noting, unlike Charles' finds of ALTITUDE and PUDDINGY (adj. resembling pudding).

3rd Bryan Benwitz averaged a slick 433 on his way to a 3-1 +349 record. Like Thomas, he earned the bulk of his spread in the first round, in his case by beating Betty 542-280. A score like that implies a large amount of bingoes, which he had: SLATING, MONTIES, LEPROUS, and RIDDLERS. Likewise, a win against Thomas also implies a large amount of bingoes, but that wasn't the case in round two. He won 378-354, playing "only" (he would instead claim that it was exactly the correct amount of bingoes needed, no more, no less) MISDONE. In the third round, he faced Gail and won 461-347. Gail bingoed with MINERALS, and Bryan had bingoes of NIDGETS (n. NIDGET, an idiot), ATTENDS, and UNRENTED. A close inspection of this paragraph will indicate that up to this point, he had not lost a game. Which means you know what's coming next: a 351-413 loss against Charles. Charles played RESEDAS and a double-blank SCALARE, while Bryan's racks were such that he was forced to make up a bingo just to get one on the board: RAGLIKE*, which seems very reasonable to me.

Mark played the Word Of The Week, SAILMAKER. I seem to remember him saying that he had studied all the -MAKER words (LOVEMAKER, TROUBLEMAKER, WIDOWMAKER, etc.), so this play should come as no surprise. Bonus quiz: find the other word in the letters of SAILMAKER.

Congratulations go out to Thomas for coming in fourth place at the National Scrabble Championship in Reno, Nevada!