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Someone Stop Thomas Before It's Too Late, Oh No, Please, No.....

1st Thomas Reinke, for the second week in a row, navigated the stormy waters of the Madison Scrabble Club without encountering a single iceberg, going 4-0 +518. Faced with Andy in the first round, he earned victory by playing LAVATORY and (foreshadowing alert) TRIODES. Feeling that a mere +74 spread wasn't enough, he then vowed to win his next 2 games by a combined 1000 points. He came up short of this lofty and, frankly, laughably unrealistic goal, but still managed to earn a pair of big wins against Dennis and Helen. In the last game, with perfect nights on the line for both players, Thomas defeated Bryan 437-392, playing CANINES, HEARTILY, and (again!) TRIODES. With that win, he has now won nine straight; the club had better act fast if they wish to stop him from earning the $5 prize for winning 10 straight. Something in the vein of Nancy Kerrigan might do the trick.

2nd Bryan Benwitz topped the pack of four 3-1 players with his +266 spread. He opened up his night with a convincing win over Susan, 443-249. This was followed up by a close win over Charles, 421-386. His bingos of DOTTRELS (n. a shorebird) and STUIVER (n. a former Dutch coin worth 8 duit) helped, but the game was won by setting up an unblockable S-hook on a triple-word so that he could play SPEAK for 75 points. Pretty good! After beating Betty in a high-scoring 477-395 five-bingo contest, he faced the tough task of ending Thomas' winning streak. Though he came up short, he always be remembered for his bravery in the face of insurmountable odds.

3rd Andy Bohnsack had the second highest spread in the pack of four 3-1 players with +219, earning him third place and a whole paragraph dedicated to his accomplishments. A tough loss to Thomas set the stage for him to narrowly defeat Joe, 374-364, with his double-double TRIDENTS overcoming Joe's BAWDIER and UNCOATED. This, in turn, set the stage for a not-so-narrow victory over Dave, 544-267, a game that featured the highest scoring bingo of the night, REWEAVE for 116. In the final round, narrowness returned to Andy's night in the form of a 383-377 win against Charles. Charles' late challenge of HUCKS (n. a durable fabric) was the difference maker. Remember, folks, always save time for the endgame lest you fall into the trap of desperation-challenging when you don't need to.

Charles played the bingo of the week NAPHTHA (n. an old term for crude oil). APHTHA (n. a small blister) is also acceptable. In other bingo news, the word EASIEST was played twice tonight, bringing it up to 4th place on the club's "most played bingos" list, trailing only AIRIEST, ATONIES, and ETESIAN. There's a joke there somewhere, I just know it.

Thomas Reinke Denied Third 700 Game By Selfish Opponent

1st Thomas Reinke went a perfect 4-0 with an even +800 spread, snapping streaks and breaking records along the way. His first two games were victories (as expected given his win-loss record), against Bryan and Betty, but those were unimpressive when compared to his third game of the night: a 695 dropped on Richard, the highest individual game of the year and second highest since the club entered its modern era of record-keeping. Thomas bingoed with FALTERS, RETINUE, ANTINODES, CEMBALO (n. a harpsichord), and the triple-triple IDLENESS. Those, combined with a few high-scoring power tile plays were enough to propel him close to the fabled 700 mark. In his final game, he possibly surpassed even that accomplishment by ending his brother's 13-game winning streak, a streak that was thought by many to have no end, continuing in perpetuity until the sun itself transformed into a blackened husk and fell from the sky.

2nd Charles Reinke, going 4-1 +147, had a pretty good session except for his seemingly interminable streak getting terminated. He made a habit of coming from behind on this night, first overcoming early deficits against Joe and Helen in a 2-on-1 to win both. A victory over Gail was followed by a close contest against Susan, 414-375. Susan bingoed twice, with TOADIES and ARRESTS, before Charles could get one of his own, ATTORNEY, which ended up being enough for the win. His tendency to play from behind backfired in the last game against Thomas, with him watching helplessly as his brother laid down ACHIOTES, SLUTTIER, and VIREMIAS in a 308-440 loss. Here's an expert Scrabble tip from the writer: if you want to win, you have to play some bingos, dummy.

3rd Joe Horowitz made the first of what may be many appearances in the top three, going 3-1 +437. He played a close game with club-leader Charles, coming up short 382-412. Rather than let that loss haunt him for the remainder of the night, he channeled his disappointment into Scrabble dominanace, winning his next 3 games by over a combined 400 points. Joe's devastating bingo of HEIFERS for 111 (that's a lot of points) was they key against Sue. In his next game against Barb, he again won big, 472-254, playing VALUERS and MANHOLE (n. I was going to put a risque joke here but this is a family-friendly blog, sorry. Just forget about it). His last game against Mary was a little closer 404-357, in part due to Mary's plausible phony of ATONALS*. Hopefully Joe can continue this streak of good play in his first tournament this weekend. At the very least, he will not be forced to play either of the Reinkes.

Bonus! 4th Helen Flores had a great night, missing out on the top three because of some arcane rules about "margin of victory". She went 3-1 +40, including wins over the tough-to-beat Bryan and Aaron.

Gail played the word of the week, REQUINTO (n. a type of small guitar).

Charles Reinke Has Win Switch Stuck in "On" Position

1st Charles Reinke lengthened his current winning streak to nine, following up last week's perfect 5-0 record with a still perfect but slightly less perfect 4-0 +314 performance. Just one more win will see him awarded five bucks for winning ten games in a row. Interestingly, if irrelevantly, all four of his opponents ended up with 2-2 records. The first of those opponents was Bryan Benwitz, who lost by a clean hundred, 331-431. Charles landed INTONER and TITHABLE (anagram: HITTABLE) in that game, setting a two-bingos-a-game precedent that would not be deviated from or improved upon. He played ENATION and AVOIDED to fell his brother Thomas, who wielded weaponized words of ARSENOUS and TOOTLES but still lost, 441-434. Dave Gilligan would be the final victim of the night; despite total parity in the bingo count column (COINTERS and OUTRIDE for Dave, EVASION and a nine-letter UNMERITED for Charles), the score was a lopsided 459-321 in Charles' favor.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke, perfect through three games but feigning fatigue in order to avoid playing the fourth game, finished at 3-0 +364. He averaged a slightly-above-average 425 per game but was able to hold his opponents to a stifling 304 per. Both Joe Horowitz and Sue Goldstein were made to feel Peter's inextinguishable fury as he downed both of them with ease, 438-275 versus Joe and 459-264 versus Sue. Neither opponent bingoed, but Peter picked up the slack by bingoing four times in the two games, with ERUCTATE, PETALOID, ABRASIVE, and SNIGLET. A match against Dave Gilligan was significantly more competitive and ended with just a six-point margin, 378-372 for Peter. Dave managed to get down the only bingo played against Peter that night, IMPORTER for 76, but Peter again bingoed twice with SAGGIER and the useful TINWARE (anagram: TAWNIER).

3rd Andy Bohnsack was strangely (for a field of seventeen) the only 3-1 player, so his anemic +51 spread proved irrelevant. He squeaked by Gail Salm, 375-367, which didn't help the spread column much but definitely put a pleasing checkmark in the win column. It was a battle of high-probability bingos: CURATES for Andy, TONIEST and TRAINER for Gail. More bingos fitting that description were unleashed when Andy roughed up Thomas Reinke and got away with it, 439-384. Andy's OUTSEEN and TAENIAS didn't earn him any style points, but a win is a win even in the absence of style points. Meanwhile, Thomas' DONZELS earned a meager amount of style points which were quickly negated by a play of GENITOR. Dennis Lloyd can claim responsibility for Andy's solitary defeat, with a final score of 389-354 proving once again that the person who scores more points will usually win. Andy played MAESTRI and STRIATA to Dennis' ARENOSE and SHALIER. Guess what I have to say about those bingos?

Just one new bingo was played this week, Betty's FEEDINGS.