Blog

1st Thomas Reinke came in first place yet again, going 4-1 +202 and strengthening his first-place spot in the yearly standings with roughly two months to go in the year. He took on two at once in the first round and collected two victories, creaming Steve Hartsman 458-278 and fighting off Helen Flores, 423-385. Thomas then went up against Mark Kenas, and, typically for their Collins-lexicon matchups, it was a high-scoring affair; sadly, it was a loss for Thomas, 400-520, despite some neat bingo finds of MYOSOTE and BESPRENT (Mark had INACTIVE, INTERIOR, and PERIDOT). Staying true to his club-leading 2.36 bingos per game, Thomas piled on the bingos in his round-three match against Bryan Benwitz, slapping down PARADES, SILICATES, LEGATINE, and NOCTULE on his way to a 479-443 win. For the final game, Thomas got revenge against Mark, winning 477-409 with bingos of FUNKIER, ANCONAL, and OREADES#.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +327, nicely making up for the previous week's 1-3 record. A week's worth of pent-up craving for Scrabble domination was unleashed fully in round one, as Bryan bulldozed Richard Lauder by a score of 516-263, bingoing with MATINEE, TURNABLE, and MANGONEL. Bryan got down three more bingos (MAENADS, ALEURONS, GRIMNESS) while defeating Charles Reinke 447-391. Immediately faced with the other Reinke, Bryan suffered his only loss against Thomas, 443-479, while only bingoing once with ICINESS. Bryan got back to his bingoing ways for round four, getting LYDDITES, TALCIER, and RESTING in a 437-383 win against Steve Hartsman, who had CLARINET and OPSONISE.

3rd Dave Kinzer went 2-1 +24, prevailing in the standings over a large contingent of players who had 2-2 records. In round one, he squared off against Andy Bohnsack, and while he did not bingo himself, he also prevented Andy from bingoing; the result was a completely bingoless 363-346 win for Dave. Future Andy opponents, take note. Dave suffered a setback in the second game, losing handily to Lynda Finn, 313-461; again, Dave didn't bingo, and his strategy from the first game failed as Lynda got down HANDSET and VIRGATE. Dave's night ended with a 392-237 win against newcomer Kelsey Stanczak, 392-237, thanks to his find of INDOLES. (Kelsey's other game worked out better for her, as she beat Carol Ormand 326-253 and had the nice find of POINTES).

Steve's TURBOCAR was word of the week.

1st Thomas Reinke overcame an emergency relocation of club operations to go 4-1 +370. He quickly hopped into to the loser's bracket with a first-round loss to Charles Reinke, 439-448, despite flexing his Collins knowledge as a form of intimidation (BANDELET#, PAGODITE#, and EARWIGS). Thomas then ran off four straight victories, starting with comfortable wins over Richard Lauder (532-286) and Bryan Benwitz (469-367). A 118-point double-double of STERILIZE against Richard was word of the week. In the final round, Thomas had to utilize all of his available brainpower to prevail in both games of a two-on-one match: he got a revenge win against Charles, 472-445, playing PIGOUTS, CERRADO#, and SEXTAINS to Charles' OLDSTER, TARTANES#, and TEGUMINA, as well as securing a hotly-contested 419-415 victory over Steve Hartsman, playing BEDEWING and PHENETOL to Steve's high-prob TRAINEE.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +355 with a per-game average of 480. He used -ED bingos to great effect in the first game, playing RESINED and FRESCOED to defeat his brother 448-439. This was followed up with a dominating 611-310 victory over Andy Bohnsack; 611 is the third-highest score this season and the fifth 600+ game overall. Charles reached such scoring heights with relatively high-probability seven-letter words as his bingos: GRADATE, BOLETES, SARDINE, and KATIONS. Charles' bingo output slowed down in the third game, but his singular LENTOIDS was enough to beat Steve Hartsman 417-345. Sadly, a 445-472 rematch loss to Thomas in the last game put a cruel end to Charles' desires for an undefeated evening.

3rd Sara McLaughlin bounced back from a recent 0-4 outing to go 3-1 +182. Her first game saw her get a 107-point bingo of FRESHING, but the outcome of the match probably wasn't to her liking, as she was felled by Steve Hartsman, 355-458. That game would prove to be her only loss of the night. In the second game, Sara made quick work of Dave Kinzer, winning 431-302 thanks to a find of AGOUTIES. She also got a big win against Andy Bohnsack, 393-278, finding TOASTED to Andy's AERIEST (delayed payback for Andy's 616-point game against her in the not-too-distant past). A 414-373 victory against Richard Lauder, bingoing with GRANTERS and REISSUES, capped Sara's valiant comeback effort after starting the night with a loss.

1st Bryan Benwitz went a perfect 4-0 +424, making headway in the fight for the club championship as the club season dwindles down to its final few months. In round one, Bryan took on Helen Flores and used three bingos (DOTTILY, SIDLING, SAVORING) to take a 453-355 win. Bryan followed that up with a 447-294 win over Lynda Finn, showing no mercy whatsoever to an opponent compromised by a recent surgery. Things were a bit more closely-contested in a match against Charles Reinke, but Bryan pulled it out by a score of 409-406. Charles had PATRONLY to Bryan's ISOLABLE. Bryan was able to put on the cruise control for the last game as he secured his undefeated record with a 476-306 win against Andy Bohnsack, 476-306. Bryan had the nice find of DANAZOLS, in addition to EPICURE and a phony TRITOMES* (TRITONE and TRITOMA combined); Andy got down AIRLINER.

2nd Dennis Lloyd inverted the previous week's 1-3 record to finish 1-3 -80. He fought off Andy Bohnsack in the first game of the evening, escaping the fracas with a well-earned 477-449 win, thanks to finds of SCANTER, HAIRIEST, and the plausible DITTOES* (DITTOED is valid; DOTIEST is the word in DEIOSTT). Dennis' spread total took a dive in the next game as he was taken down by Charles Reinke, 338-486; TEASING was his only bingo (of note: TEASING is by far the preferred choice of Madison players when presented with the letters AEGINST, hitting the board 19 times; by contrast, EATINGS has only been played once). Dennis came back from that big loss to vanquish Lynda Finn, 384-374, getting OUTEARN to Lynda's DESTINES, and then wrapped things up with a 423-393 victory over the other Reinke, finding NESTLED and HARDIEST to snap a seven-game losing streak against Thomas.

3rd Charles Reinke finished 3-2 +266 with a club-leading thirteen bingos. Squaring off against Thomas Reinke in round one, a rematch from earlier battles for nutrients in the womb, Charles came out ahead 507-436, getting MYELINIC, ELOIGNED, and FAIBLES# to Thomas' VIREMENT#, CAESURAE, and SORDERS* (DORSERS was the word he was looking for). Charles continued to amass large quantities of bingos as the night went on, playing four of them (GOATIER, BEETLERS, ALIENISM, DEPAINTS) to beat Dennis Lloyd 486-338. A tough two-on-one match against Andy Bohnsack and Bryan Benwitz in the third round was a partial success, as Charles beat Andy 440-388 but lost to Bryan 406-409. That three-point loss to Bryan was painful, but even more painful was Charles' two-point loss to Mark Kenas in the final round, 467-469. Mark got word of the week honors with his nine-letter APPENDAGE, to go with TRAINING and BLISTER, while Charles had ANTIWEED, LAMEDHS, and BIFOCALS.