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The Bryaniac Returns to Winning Ways

1st Bryan Benwitz slashed and burned his way through 4 unworthy opponents, going 4-0 +386, ending a 7-week streak of Reinke domination. He made quick work of Dennis Lloyd in his first game, helped in large part by his play of LIBRATES (rhymes with VIBRATES). He then overcame having unplayable bingos on his first rack of DEIRSTV (there are two; can you find them?) against Andy Bohnsack to win 380-373. That game featured the nice extension of STOMATE (a type of pore) to OSTOMATE (one who has had an colostomy, or any other type of OSTOMY). After soundly defeating Gail Salm in his third game on the back of three bingos, he faced Thomas Reinke, against whom he had lost 15 of the last 16, and crushed him underneath his beard, 419-360.

2nd Thomas Reinke found out that even if he is lucky enough to avoid his brother over the Scrabble board, he still remains cursed to come in second place for all eternity, going 4-1 +417. He pulled double duty in the first round, facing Dave and Adrienne, winning each contest by 62 points. Dave, in the manner of a true sportsman, kindly opened the perfect letters for Thomas' bingos: first an O for PARERGON, and then a C for LINGUICA (a type of Portuguese sausage, normally spelled LINGUIÇA, but the Ç tile was mysteriously absent from that game). He then served as a Redeye warmup for Helen Flores, who put up a good fight, losing 373-402. The game might have been different for her had Thomas not played TRUSTEED, a word that she had just played the round before and had the challenge adjudicated by none other than Thomas himself! A four-bingo contest came next, with him winning 585-262, featuring SILIQUAE for 66 points, a score which would have been 60 points higher had the Q not been a blank.

3rd Dennis Lloyd won three games, going 3-1 +51, good enough for third place. Coincidence? I think not. After losing his first game to Bryan, he resolved to never lose again for the rest of his life; I'd say he's off to a good start. The first victim in this new "Pax Dennisa" was Sue Goldstein, where he played POSTURE and STATION in a 412-288 win. He then faced the current club leader, Charles Reinke, and won, of course, because what else is he going to do, 437-428, helped by a timely bingo of INVADING. Not content with dethroning the tyrant, he decided to test his luck by phonying against the ever-skeptical Andy Bohnsack, with SELENOID* (which could mean 'a metal similar to selenium', but has the actual definition of 'N/A') in his low-scoring 354-340 win.

A bunch of new bingos were played this week: LUNATES, LORNEST, DERACINE, PIANOLA (how was that not good before?), and the extremely fancy 95-point PROPYNES by Charles, which was chosen as word of the week, and also as "Definition of the week", with the helpful "a gaseous methyl acetylene". What does that even mean?

Charles Reinke Says Hello to 2016 With Another Loss-Free Excursion

1st Charles Reinke's reign of Scrabble terror continued uninterrupted into the new year, as he went 4-0 +208. In the first game of the night, Lynda Finn had a promising start in her attempt to dethrone this tyrant, but was stymied in the endgame by Charles' bingo-like play of TEAZLE, and ended up losing 454-479. Remember that TEAZLE, TEAZEL, and TEASEL are words (and verbs), but not TEASLE*. Or don't. Dave Gilligan was next up on Charles' list of "people I want to beat at a board game", and again, Charles barely escaped with a win, 387-369, in part because he accepted the phony RERINSED*. Why would you ever be able to rinse something again? It just makes no sense. Charles attempted to justify his failure to challenge by noting the low amount of points the play scored; he was mocked anyway, much like peasants would mock a king for being so much better than themselves. The string of close games continued as he faced eternal foe Thomas Reinke, earning the win 383-364 in part due to his play of CEILIDHS, pronounced "kay-lees", which is a Gaelic social event. Tired of only winning by 20 or so points, Charles flexed his muscles against Andy Bohnsack, scoring a decisive knockout, 458-312. In that game he played PELLICLE, which was chosen as word of the week, and held Andy bingoless.

2nd Thomas Reinke had a perfect night if you discount his unwinnable game with Charles, going 3-1 +303. His first game, a 486-347 win against Bryan Benwitz, featured the nine-letter HARPOONER, which presumably means something to the effect of "one that harpoons". He followed this up with a 438-407 win versus Gail Salm despite Gail's 83-point play of the ever-useful word STOURIE. After the aforementioned beatdown at the hands of his brother, he rebounded by mercilessly and blatantly phonying against Lynda Finn, with BADGERY*, in his 499-347 win. Lynda attempted to counter the phonying with a few phonies of her own, which were removed from the board quickly, and will not be mentioned by name.

3rd Helen Flores' new year's resolution to win 75% of her games during this calendar year got off to a perfect start as she went 3-1 -67. A bingoless affair with June Scott ended in her favor, 331-325. The bingo counts increased slightly in her next game, against Susan Vergeront, with her playing ROSEOLA and Susan responding with the nice find of TRIAGING. Bryan Benwitz ruined her perfect evening in the next game, selfishly hogging both blanks in order to play JOURNEY with nary an apology. Undaunted, Helen saved her best for last, defeating Gail 389-377, helped along by her almost-a-word play of AMAROSA*. AMOROSO, a type of wine, is probably what she was thinking of, but who am I to say?

Dave's LORNEST was the sole new bingo of the week, if you could even consider it "new" since we have been using the new dictionary for almost a year now.

Charles Reinke Says Goodbye to 2015 With Another Loss-Free Excursion

1st Charles Reinke recovered from the recent interruption of his last winning streak to begin work on a new one, going 4-0 +376 and averaging 473 per game in the process. His biggest success came against Helen Flores, where he won 527-342. Helen got down ERASURE as her only bingo, while Charles had a pair of high-scoring bingos in TRAGICAL (94) and AVIDITY (92). Bingo fortunes would be more favorable for both players when Charles narrowly defeated his brother in a high-scoring contest, 494-481. The victorious twin had a quartet of seven-letter bingos to seal the deal: EMETINE, RESTERS, AMORINO, and SWEATER. Meanwhile, the non-victorious twin had RASHLIKE, UNTINGED, and word-of-the-week BIGEMINY (n. a type of heart arhythmia).

2nd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +468, with only a loss to his brother marring an outstanding performance wherein he averaged 495 per game. He started the night off with a bang by defeating the soon-to-depart-for-warmer-climes Richard Lauder 524-361. Richard deployed the phony SHELVAGE to try to stay in the game (along with the valid DRAINER), but Thomas one-upped him with three bingos of his own: SENIORS, ALATION, and AZOTURIA (n. an elevated level of nitrogenous compounds in the urine). The tile bag was even more biased towards Thomas when he thoroughly dismantled Mary Becker's winning aspirations, 548-304. In that one, Thomas had FIVE count 'em FIVE bingos: FOOTAGE, INFECTS, INTERNAL, INSNARE, and REMOTES.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +155 and averaged an impressive 453 per game, almost seventy points above her previous yearly average. Her high game came at Bryan Benwitz' expense, although both players scored above 400 in a 475-406 shootout. Lynda won the bingo battle, with her three bingos (CLOTHES, STUFFER, and ATTORNED) outscoring Bryan's two (STEERAGE and LIGROINS). She only got one bingo (REGAINED) against Richard Lauder, but managed to dominate the matchup anyway, 471-329. This was despite Richard's MONSTERA (n. a genus of flowering plants) and ANODISE. Lynda's run at an undefeated evening sadly ended with a 422-496 encounter with first-place finisher Charles Reinke.

Gail's TAJINES and Richard's ANODISE were the new bingos played this week.