Blog

1st Charles Reinke followed up his weekend domination of the Arden Cup in Chicago with an additional serving of domination specially whipped up for the good people of Madison, Wisconsin. A 4-0 +458 record and 470 per-game average left him in undisputed first place for the night. He started off with a 453-321 win over Mary Becker, getting down a trio of high-probability seven-letter bingos: TOONIES, RENVOIS, and ORGEATS. The bingos continued unabated in the next game as Charles had four of them (MICRODOT, IDOLATRY, PETERING, and UNREASON) in a 521-395 victory against the similarly-named Thomas Reinke (who played EXORDIA and DONATIVE). In round three, Richard Lauder proved most capable at slowing down Charles' scoring might, but he was only partially successful as Charles won the game regardless, 401-359. Both players had two bingos in that one: Charles played PREWIRES and SOLENOID while Richard had TORSADES and MIAOUED (the latter of which looks more like a drunken typo than a real word). In the last game of the night, with an undefeated record on the line, Charles had no problem shaking off Bryan Benwitz; the final score of 503-345 was not particularly close. Bryan avoided complete chastening by getting down a bingo of POISONED, but Charles, again, had three bingos (PHORETIC, TINSTONE, and VIBRATOS) to put the game away.

2nd Thomas Reinke stared upwards in the standings with feelings of jealousy and hatred, but, in the end, was content with a second-place finish at 3-1 +235 (that contentedness made easier to achieve by virtue of the fact that he still holds a commanding lead over his brother in the yearly standings). In the first game of the night, Thomas faced off against Bryan Benwitz and won comfortably, 409-343, playing bingos of TABOULI and NESTLIKE (Bryan had RINGETTE). Thomas then ran into the unstoppable Charles Reinke and was defeated 395-521 for his sole defeat of the evening. Things turned around in the next game, where Thomas made easy work of Helen Flores, 536-359. Helen got down a bingo of TOILETS (after bemoaning the lack of an open T on the board for STILETTO), while Thomas had four bingos of his own: GEODETIC, TUMBRIL, ABELIAN, and ANOTHER (as in, "Thomas's opponent flipped the board when he played ANOTHER bingo"). In round four, Dave Gilligan made a surprise late arrival (after having stalked around the outside of the church on foot for an hour) and was rewarded with a matchup against Thomas, which didn't go well for Dave, as the 321-439 final score will attest. Things could have been worse, as Dave did manage to play a bingo (CARDING), but Thomas outdid him with two (SMEARED and DEFICITS).

3rd Richard Lauder played just three games (being fatigued from a grueling day out on the links), but made the most of it with a 2-1 +159 record. He squared off against James Frankki in the first game and was victorious, 399-347, thanks to bingos of VENTAGES and DONATION, which were much more potent and intimidating bingos than James' singular RESINOUS. Richard then went up against Helen Flores and scored another victory, 405-256. Sadly, the integrity of his winning effort was despoiled by a phony OUTAGED. On the plus side, his valid play of MORSELED drew a challenge from his rightfully suspicious opponent. On the even plusser side, his nonbingo outplay of UNDOUBLES (played through DO on the board) earned him a seriously large amount of style points (cash value: one-hundredth of a cent). The third and final game of Richard's evening did not have such a positive outcome as he was felled by Charles Reinke, 359-401, but Richard had just beaten Charles the week before, so the memory of that happy occurrence may have softened the blow somewhat.

1st James Frankki put in his best performance at our club since moving to Madison, going 4-0 +168 and coming in first place. His night got off to a great start with an opening bingo of QUAKIER for 100 points in his game against Bryan. It's tough to come back from 100 points down right away, but as they always say "it's better to be down by 100 at the beginning than at the end". Over the rest of the game, Bryan made up 14 points of the deficit, and the end result was a 469-383 for James. In the next game, he beat Helen 372-310, with him playing SUNRISE and Helen playing ONAGERS. An ONAGER is a wild ass of central Asia, and can also be pluralized as ONAGRI. He followed this up with a close 406-392 over current club leader Thomas. He had bingos of SESTINAS and a tight-fitting RECLAIM, while Thomas could only manage LASERED. James faced a rack of clunky consonants at the end of the game with few places to play them, which made the final score closer than it maybe would have been. He had another close game in the finale, a 412-406 win against Richard. If he was feeling the pressure, he didn't show it, as he found the frustratingly-close-to-a-palindrome DETONATED.

2nd Aaron Bader went 4-0 +114 in his weekly Collins-dictionary series with Mark, averaged 473 (to his opponent's 445), and came in second place. Their opener was a real barn-burner, with Aaron winning 521-494, playing BALKIER, TELEGONY, AMINITY. He won this game despite Mark's heroic five-bingo effort. Honestly, if I lost a game while playing five bingos, I would mutter "dang it all" and look sadly at the board for a full ten seconds. The next was also a barn-burner (no barns were harmed in the making of this writeup), the final being 484-478 in Aaron's favor. Aaron had bingos of EPHEBOI (n. EPHEBOS, a young man in ancient Greece) and IDEATES, and Mark had GARROTE, SPINATE, and ALIENATE. The third game was the only one that wasn't close, as Aaron won 436-362 playing TARAIRES* and DILATANT. His winning margins went back to being uncomfortably close in the last round, with 452-445 being the final. I'm beginning to think that this whole "Collins" thing really inflates the average score for those who participate in its frenzy.

3nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +580, a fitting performance for a guy who has been described as "the Thomas Reinke of Scrabble". He faced two in the first round, Betty and Dave, and won convincingly by a combined 449 points and played 6 bingos. Things were closer against Richard, as he had to fend off his opponent's triple-triple of TROTLINE (n. a strong fishing line). Despite that high-scoring play, Thomas won 398-324. He suffered his only defeat of the night against James, 392-406, in the third round. Luckily for him, he and James are playing in different divisions of the Chicago tournament this weekend, so he doesn't have to fear even more beatdowns over Memorial Day. In the final game of the night, he was paired against Bryan and won 449-378. Bryan started off with HARLOTS and later added ASTONIED, and Thomas played SMARTIE, TUNNELER, and OEILLADE (n. an amorous glance, spelled in French as œillade).

Mark played 13 bingos this week despite going 0-4, so it seemed fair to award him Word of the Week for his play of PROROGUE (v. to suspend a parliamentary session without formally ending it). Relatedly, I seem to remember Dave once playing the noun form, PROROGATION, by placing PRO in front of the already-played ROGATION, but such a play, not being a bingo, could not win Word of the Week.

1st Thomas Reinke easily turned away all those who were misfortunate enough to go against him as he finished with a 4-0 +572 record. His first game, against Dave Gilligan, was actually his closest win, but it still wasn't all that close: 428-361. Dave got down HARDIER, but Thomas had COLLAGES as well as the nine-letter LISTENERS (played through ER already on the board). Thomas followed that up with a comparatively stress-free win over Helen Flores, 473-271 (playing PANIERS and MANIACS in the process). A matchup against eventual second-place finisher Bryan Benwitz was somewhat anticlimactic, as Thomas again won handily, 444-286. Thomas utilized the bold but unreliable strategy of "don't let your opponent play any bingos", and this time, it worked; Bryan didn't bingo, while Thomas had chemistry-themed bingos of TOLUATE and DIMETHYL. With an undefeated record on the line going into the fourth game, Thomas felt absolutely no pressure as he dismantled his brother Charles Reinke, 536-391. Charles didn't completely roll over, getting down LEVANTED and EYEBARS (though missing BLEAREYED when playing the latter); however, Thomas' assault of furious bingoage (DISPELS, VIRGULE, AMIDONES, and LACONISM) left no chance for Charles to win.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +80, but his smallish point spread was not put to the test, as Bryan was the only 3-1 finisher. He got things started with a stout 481-350 victory over Charles Reinke, playing VERNALLY, COTTARS, and AILERON (Charles had HYGIENE). No doubt the seasonably vernal weather played a role in Bryan's bingo choices. In round two, James Frankki didn't fare much better than Charles did; Bryan beat him by an even 100 points, 427-327. James got PEREIONS as his only bingo, while Bryan again had three: CHAINES, OSSATURE, and OUTWINDS. The aforementioned loss to Thomas Reinke dampened Bryan's 4-0 aspirations (as well as his point spread), but he recovered in round four, winning a tight game against Lynda Finn, 397-390. Lynda had bingos of EARNING and TITTERS; Bryan played VENTERS, but the strict 15x15 limit of the Scrabble board prevented either player from extending it to EVENTERS.

Dave Gilligan's BOGLANDS was chosen as word of the week.