Blog

1st Andy Bohnsack demonstrated considerable levels of Scrabbacular might with a 4-0 +334 record. He opened with a crushing win over Bryan Benwitz, 473-307; when the smoke cleared, Andy's three bingos of ABLATED, INSNARES, and CODIRECT were the only bingos on the board. Andy followed that up with another three-bingo outing, although his finds of CARTONS, GRADUAL, and POETISES weren't quite enough to get him across the 400-point barrier in a 392-315 win over Dennis Lloyd. In round three, Andy finally had an opponent put down a bingo against him, but he was able to counter Dave Kinzer's UNCLOSE with his own SULFURIC, winning 428-343, but more importantly, teaching us the valuable lesson that you should always look for bingos even when you have two U's. Andy wrapped up his unblemished performance by beating Richard Lauder 440-370, connecting on RAINWEAR and PILLOWED to Richard's CREATES and LEVERETS.

2nd Bryan Benwitz, juggling the duties of interim club organizer with the overwhelming amount of bingos sloshing around in his brain, went 3-1 +157. None of the aforementioned bingos materialized for him in game one as he was banished to the nether realm, 307-473. Things improved for the next game as Bryan deployed STOREYS, THONGIER, and NICTATES for a 461-402 victory against Richard Lauder. The upward trend continued with a 486-363 win vs. Dennis Lloyd (DESCANT, DEBOARDS), then culminated in the final round with a conclusive win over Dave Kinzer, 516-375. Dave got down HINDERED, but failed to challenge off Bryan's phony DONNERS* (DONNERT and DONNERD are good, but that's probably not what Bryan was thinking). Bryan also added ATONIAS and KEGGERS for more punishment.

Dora Kilburn got down the year's 12th triple-triple with NEEDLESS for 140 big points, leading to her highest losing score ever, 372-409 against John Bialek. Andy's SULFURIC was word of the week.

1st Thomas Reinke dominated once again with a 5-0 +564 record. Domination was total and complete in round one as he summarily dismissed both Dave Kinzer (552-367) and Helen Flores (519-327). Across those two games, Thomas hoarded literally every bingo for himself, getting ARISTAS, ZINGARE, ALTERITY, HERBARIA, LUMPENS, CARESSED, VALERIAN, and IRONERS. Thomas slowed down on the bingos in round two, but made his singular bingo count, getting a 3x3 ROUTEING for 122 to turn away Mark Kenas, 428-371. Resuming his bothersome practice of just plain bingoing too much, he hit three bingos (CORNEAS, BIRDSHOT, WORKDAY) in a 457-386 victory over Bryan Benwitz, who got down REINVENT and HERNIAE. Thomas encountered Mark again in round four and won for a second time, 421-362, landing LEACHING, ROOPIER#, and SPRENTED# to secure a flawless record and further widen the gap in the yearly standings between him and everyone else.

2nd Richard Lauder dialed up the scoring, averaging 419 per game to finish 3-1 +226. A round-one matchup against Bryan Benwitz saw Richard win the bingo battle (playing ENTIRES while Bryan was limited to a grand total of zero bingos) but lose the war, 280-356. That proved to be the end of Richard's losses for the evening, and each of his subsequent three games saw him score above 460. He took down Dave Kinzer 467-362, bingoing with CHEMISTS and BANTIES. That was followed by a good old-fashioned display of Wisconsin hospitality, beating the visiting Floridian Howard Pistol 460-356 with bingos of CRUSADE and SPICIER (Howard got ENDOSTEA and a plausible EPIGONAL* - only EPIGONIC). Richard's night ended strong with a 468-375 win against Helen Flores where he found CHROMATE, DEVIATED, and RELOADS.

3rd Steve Hartsman notched his second-straight third-place showing with a 3-1 +98 record. Like Richard above, his first game was a loss, 359-438 to Howard Pistol. Steve got down NONMETAL and STERLING, but Howard made some great finds of his own with OVEREATS, CORNROWS, and TROPISMS. Steve's fortunes reversed against Helen Flores, with Steve winning 425-270. Encountering Lynda Finn in round three, Steve just barely held on to win a barnburner, 469-457. Both players had three bingos: BAGUETTE, GRINDERY, and MORGANS for Steve; REVISITS, BRAILLE, and ROOSTED for Lynda. Another tightly-contested win followed, this time against Charles Reinke, 418-408. Steve was able to banish Charles directly to the fiery underworld with an 80-point DAMNING.

Notable was Mark Kenas' 632-point game against Charles Reinke, which was the second-highest-scoring game this year. A large fraction of that lofty point total was from Mark's triple-triple find of QUEENLIER for 221 points, played through EE already on the board (thanks Collins!). That 221-point bingo is the fourth-highest since 2011, behind MOBILIZE (248), ZIPPIEST (248), and QUEASILY (239).

1st Bryan Benwitz went 3-0 with a dominant point spread of 403, resurfacing the eternal philosophical question of whether 3-0 is a better record than 4-1 (the site doesn't seem to think so). He punished Richard Lauder in round one, 407-283, getting a 90-point ANTISAG to propel him to victory. After that point, Bryan's scoring skyrocketed as he found AIRWOMEN, UNPLAYED, BRETHREN, and SANDLIKE for a conclusive 524-300 win over Dennis Lloyd. For the final game of his abbreviated session, Bryan encountered Charles Reinke in a fireworks-filled game (insert July 4th joke here) that ended in Bryan's favor, 504-449. Charles actually outbingoed Bryan, getting DANDIES, FELLATOR, AIRWAVE, and RIVAGES to Bryan's CHAUFERS, OUTEATEN, and OUTFABLE, but it wasn't enough. Bryan has now won six of seven against Charles, a (presumably) rare feat.

2nd Thomas Reinke came back from a week off to go 4-1 +160, although it wasn't really a week off given his attendance at the July 4th tourney in Albany, New York. He kicked things off with a two-on-one match against Dave Kinzer and Chani Katz: while he was able to dispatch Dave by a score of 433-392, he lost to Chani 428-432, giving the second-time visitor a rare Reinke win that she can take back home and cherish. Thomas may have a significant amount of time to plot revenge before Chani is able to make it back to our club. Thomas started his comeback tour with a round two win against James Rollins, 396-335, getting TRESTLE and REINCITE vs. James' COMELIER. He then downed Andy Bohnsack in a tight 380-368 game where each of the two-a-game bingoers was limited to one bingo: TESTIER for Thomas, MUNTINS for Andy. Thomas was allowed to switch to the Collins lexicon for the last game, repelling Charles Reinke 438-388 with bingos of OESTRUAL and the always-useful-(but-only-for-Collins-players) DOUANIER#.

3rd Steve Hartsman got in some good practice games for the upcoming Scrabble Players' Championship in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as he went 3-1 +196. He barely got past James Rollins in round one, winning 371-369 with an 80-point SORBITOL being his sole bingo (the higher-probability SORBITAN might come up more often). A 375-437 loss to Charles Reinke followed; Steve found out that playing only one bingo (CITADELS) isn't always sufficient. Regaining his momentum, Steve pulverized Dave Kinzer in their third-round matchup, 455-274, getting the high-probability sevens of ELOINER and BONIEST. The night ended with a 423-348 win against Chani Katz, where Steve got down ANESTRI and SETTLING.