Blog

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.

1st Charles Reinke had a club session which could most accurately be described as "dominant" as he averaged 498 per game, played 14 bingos, and finished at 5-0 +709. His lowest-scoring game of 443 was notched in the first round against Dennis, a game where he also had his lowest bingo total with "only" two. Dennis did have the nice play of MISGAVE for 102, but Charles had CARDITIS and an out-play TRISOMES. In the second round he faced both Daves, racking up a pair of 500-point games, beating Dave K. 549-285 and Dave G. 519-320. His star play in those games was a triple-triple find of LINIMENT for 122 against Dave K. Charles' prefect night continued against Bryan in the third game, where he won 487-378. Bryan had bingos of COENURE and RADIOMEN while Charles played BRAVOES, OXALATES, and a double-double NEWTONS that won him a few bucks for the "High W" prize. His final game was by far the closest, a 493-491 win against Thomas. Both combatants played three bingos: BARONET, CRISPATE (adj. irregularly curled or crinkled), and WEAKENS for Thomas, and REWORDS, REINVITE, and MILTIER for Charles. The U's and I's were played early, and it seemed like whoever drew the Q was not going to be able to play it. Thomas was the unlucky receiver of that tile, and the 20 points Charles got from it were just enough to put him over the top.

2nd Bryan Benwitz didn't have as amazing of a night as the first place finisher, but did perfectly well for himself, coming in second with a 3-1 +140 record. He won 470-382 against Thomas in the opener, utilising wondrous bingos of WONDROUS for 111 and a late UTILISES to seal the game. Thomas played EROTIZED and the word-of-the-week COWFLOPS. COWFLOP, COWFLAP, COWPLOP, COWPIE, and COWPAT all mean the same thing, "a dropping of cow dung". Remember to mark your calendars for the Prairie Du Sac cow chip throw and festival during Labor Day weekend. This will be the year the Madison Scrabble Club delegation takes home the gold! But coming back to Scrabble, Bryan won the next game 435-390 against Helen. She fought valiantly, outbingoing Bryan with OUTRODE and ORIENTED to his BONEYARD, but it wasn't enough in the end. He suffered his only defeat of the evening against Charles in the third round 378-487, also his lowest-scoring game of the night. In the final match he faced Dave G. and won 445-329. Dave bingoed with OUTSANG (anagram of NOUGATS) and Bryan played GLITTER (no word on whether that was extended to AGLITTER) and ERASERS.

3rd Richard Lauder forwent what would surely have been an extremely wet, cold, windy, and all-around miserable evening on the golf course to play some Scrabble instead, and that was a good decision, as he came in third at 2-1 +14. He was rewarded for missing the first game with a second-round contest against Thomas. That game didn't turn out so well for him, as he lost 300-476 while watching his opponent lay down many (unearned) bingos. Luckily for him, no more bingos were played against him for the rest of the night. His next game was a 413-334 win over Dave K., where he played HAIRPINS and RETINTED. In the final game, he faced Mary and won that one as well, 418-307. In that game, he bingoed with FAIREST and ALTHORN (n. a brass wind instrument, kind of like a SAXHORN).