Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz went 4-0 for the second consecutive week, bringing his current winning streak to 10 games. He opened with a 434-364 win against Thomas, playing bingos of GREETED, COULEES, and MIGRATED. Against Lynda in the second round, he deftly navigated a low scoring game, winning 361-308. His bingo of SELTZER for 102 points surely made the difference in that one. He unleashed his full fury (about 3.2 kilofuries according to the sensors) against Charles, scoring 547 against one of the toughest players the club has to offer. His bingos were INFECTED, REZONED, SINECURE (n. an office or position that requires little to no work, an example being the directorship of the Madison Scrabble Club), and TALIPEDS (n. TALIPED, a person afflicted with clubfoot). Against Gail, he won 416-376, a close game aided by his phony-of-the-week play of GERONIMO*. In his defense, he didn't have a real bingo that fit on the board even with his blank; sometimes you have to make your own best play. Now that he's won 10 in a row, whoever beats him next will receive five dollars, and if you think that that provides an incentive for him not to ever come back, remember that he doesn't get paid for the win steak until after he loses.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +169, coming in second place for the second consecutive week (don't worry, third place did change from last week). He lost to Bryan in the first game, with only a baby bingo of AERIEST near the end pushing him over the 300-point mark. AERIEST now has a 3-times-played lead over its anagram, SERIATE, in the "most played bingos" category 22 to 19. In the second round, he played two, Helen and Richard. Against Helen he won 391-304 with bingos of ATOMIES and RALLIES. In his game against Richard, he extended his opponents' DICTIONS to BENEDICTIONS for a good amount of points, and ended up winning 448-422. Expert pro tip of the day: if DICTIONS is on the board and there are seven open spaces above it, fish for OVERPREDICTIONS for the entire game so that you can say you played a fifteen-letter word. In the next game, Thomas faced Lynda and won a close one, 399-384. Both sides bingoed once: BINDERS for Lynda which was immediately met with TINGLES for Thomas. He then faced Charles in the final, and came out on top 487-376. He played PAREIRA, TENSIVE, and an appropriate-for-what-his-opponent-was-doing-the-whole-game OUTBITCH (v. to surpass in bitching).

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +227 while played two bingos every game, a model of consistency. He faced both Daves in the first round: against Dave Kinzer, he played two useful-to-know bingos, TENTORIA (n. TENTORIUM, an internal skeletal framework in the head of an insect) and ARENOSE, and won 479-283. In his other game against Dave Gilligan, he won 432-359, despite not challenging off Dave's phony PANELER* (only REPANEL is good). In the next round, he scored 460 against Gail, with double F-U bingos of REFUNDER and BOATFUL. As stated, he faced Bryan's full fury in the third round, as he lost 410-547. He did play FLORUIT (v. used in conjunction with a specified period or set of dates to indicate when a particular historical figure lived, worked, or was most active, Latin for "he/she flourished") and SILOING. He also lost big against Thomas 376-483, but he did get his required two bingos down, TWEENERS and PINOLES.

Dave Gilligan played the word-of-the-week, COTQUEAN. There are two very different definitions for it: 1: a coarse masculine woman. 2: a man who busies himself with women's work or affairs. Everyone should remember this word from when they read Romeo and Juliet in highschool. And remember, if your opponent opens with QUEAN with the Q on the double letter score and the N on the star, you can place COT in front of it for 60 points!

1st Bryan Benwitz held his own personal butt-kicking festival at Festival Foods (complete with festive live lute music emanating from the bar area), going 4-0 +423. He opened with a 423-351 win over club standings leader Thomas, playing FULLEST and INJECTOR (if you're ever thinking of playing INJECTER*, play REINJECT instead). He also added insult to injury by sticking his opponent with the Q. In the second round, he faced James, and won 476-405. James opened with ENATION, but it was all Bryan from there, as he played EARLOBES, SAPONINE, and DISRATE. That last one was for 110 points, as he had strategically placed SAPONINE one short of the middle-right triple word score square, then hooked DISRATE onto it. After that, he had an impressive win against Charles, winning by over 250 points, 566-309. His big play in that game was the triple-triple ADHESION for 149, while Charles' big play was... ELATIONS for 68. Bryan faced Mary in the final game, attempting to go undefeated, and barely escaped with a 393-370 win. Mary played REFUSING (probably a weird alternate spelling of REFUSNIK), while Bryan played KAINITES (n. a mineral salt, also KAINIT).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +273, earning second place. He lost the opener against Bryan 351-423, with his sole bingo of UNRIGGED not being nearly enough to stop the Bryaniac. He avoided an 0-2 start by squeaking out a win against Mary, 372-366. He had an early GLARIER, then held on for dear life as Mary made her comeback with OUTSIDE coming down late. Thing went a little smoother for him against James in the third round, as he won 517-299 and played four bingos: OVERDONE, CAPOEIRA, VIRAGOES (n. VIRAGO, a noisy, domineering woman. Remember, I don't write the definitions, I just report them), and GESTATED. In the final round he was paired against familiar foe Charles, and won easily 490-269 despite both combatants playing two bingos. His MEDEVACS in that game was chosen as word of the week. MEDEVAC means "to evacuate the wounded from a battlefield by helicopter". The past tense can be either MEDEVACED or MEDEVACKED, and you can also spell it MEDIVAC.

3rd Richard Lauder only stayed for one round, but did enough damage in that one round to come in third with a 2-0 +88 record. As you can probably guess, he played in a two-on-one, facing Dave and Mary. He beat Dave 428-403 with bingos of BARKIEST (does it refer to trees or dogs?????) and NOSTRIL. Dave played DISTRICT and SEARING, but his final blank-containing rack yielded no bingos, allowing Richard to seize the win. Against Mary, Richard won 405-342. He played NATTERS and the phony RECLOSE (only CREOLES is in those letters) while holding Mary bingoless.

In other club news, preparations are being made to move to a new location for the first Wednesday of the month in place of Festival Foods. Nothing is set in stone yet, but we will let everyone know by email and at club when things are finalized.

1st Thomas Reinke took top honors with his 3-1 +460 performance. In defiance of the old idiom, he saved his best for first, scoring an impressive 554 in a first-round matchup against James Frankki (who scored 381). Thomas had five bingos: FLAVORY, CLEAVING, ROUTEING, DETERGED, and TOUPIES. James had just one, CENTRIST, but the combined total of six bingos looked impressive nonetheless. In the second round, against Betty Hasselkus, the bingoability of Thomas' letters dropped significantly (he only played OLESTRA), but he still won handily, 438-298. Another big win was in store for round three as Thomas faced off against Charles Reinke (are they related?) and dominated to the tune of a 525-339 final score. Thomas' big play in that one was a double-double DEGLAZE for 130, but he also added TAVERNA and GOONIES to his bingo list (Charles had MATELOTS to salvage the game in some minimal way). At that point, given the overwhelming dominance displayed in his previous three games, a perfect 4-0 night seemed assured, but Bryan Benwitz had other ideas, winning their matchup 415-376.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 but was well short of first place with his +207 point spread. There was a distinct lack of bingo mojo happening in his first game, a 432-379 victory over Helen Flores, as both players were limited to just a single bingo worth 59 points each: Bryan had ASTERNAL and Helen had RETAILER. Bryan then lost a close game against Charles Reinke (the latest in a series of close games between the two of them), 416-411. DUNGAREE and CAIRNED were Bryan's bingos in that one, but they were offset by Charles' INSETTER and CATTIER. In the third round, Bryan was matched against Dave Kinzer, and, as the rest of the club looked on with searing jealousy, was afforded the opportunity to play on Dave's expertly hand-crafted new board. Bryan was not a kind guest on the new equipment, however, and won big, 445-325. Dave did get to play a bingo on his new board (SHINING), but Bryan had two of them (VIADUCT and MELODIC). To finish up the night, Bryan spoiled Thomas Reinke's hopes of an undefeated record by defeating his 3-0 foe by a score of 415-376. Bryan had a nice find of CROWBARS (along with OZONATE) to counter Thomas' nice find of VESUVIAN and not-as-nice find of SERENATE. Let this be a lesson to all those who scoff at the concept of bingoing while holding to V's and a U.

3rd Mark Kenas went 3-1 +53, his anemic spread beating out the even more anemic spread of Charles Reinke (-44). As usual, all of his games were Collins contests against his less-bearded opponent, Aaron Bader. He took game one 446-345 thanks to bingos of STOUTER and MORGAYS#; Aaron had word-of-the-week SLIMLINE. Aaron got his revenge in the second game, crushing Mark 522-344 and bingoing four times: LUTENIST, GRILLADE, DAINTIES, and RATOONER (Mark had WOODIEST). Mark didn't take too kindly to that, and won the next two games in order to ensure that Aaron deservedly fell to the bottom of the weekly standings. Game three was a high-scoring affair, 478-447, which saw Mark stick to high-probability TWL bingos (RENATURE, ACONITE, and REGULOSE), while the final round ended in a score of 472-373 and just two bingos on the board (Mark's SORAGES#, Aaron's TOELESS). I thought the Collins dictionary had more words to bingo with?