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The most exciting news of the day was the great finishes at the 2015 North American SCRABBLE Championship by Thomas and Charles Reinke. In a tough field of over 300 competitors, Thomas attained a highly coveted spot in the quarterfiles where only the top 8 competitors were able to compete for the overall championship. He finished 7th and won $500. Charles competed with the rest of the pack and finished 7th, making him 15th overall, good enough for the Class B prize of $200. Thomas and Charles leave with shiny peak ratings of 1930 and 1931 respectively, putting them both squarely in the top 40 players in North America.

If you want to follow some of their games see:

Thomas vs. Kenji:  http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2015/3;turn=0

Thomas vs. Panupol: http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2015/18;turn=0

Thomas vs. Jesse Day: http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2015/22;turn=0   and  http://event.scrabbleplayers.org/cgi-bin/showgcg.pl?id=/nsc2015/23;turn=0

You can watch the video of Thomas playing Jessie here: http://www.twitch.tv/ggslive/v/9673302

Live streaming video coverage of the finals with Matthew Tunnicliffe and Jesse Day was excellent and a recording can be found here: http://www.twitch.tv/ggslive/v/9795136 

Meanwhile, back in Madison...

Twelve of us met in the church to play some low stakes scrabble, each of us looking forward to not taking our usual Reinke scrabble poundings. 

First place went to Peter Schmiedicke who was undefeated, going 4-0 vs. the Reinkeless field. He had the high average of the night at 444 and averaged a session leading 2 bingos per game He also had the high game of 535 against Helen, who could be heard vehemently complaining that Peter's 91 point play of RESPACE was in fact a word. 

Second place went to Bryan Benwitz who went 3-1 +247 losing only to Peter the Defeater. He hand the nice find of SENARIUS (singular of SENARII, which is a Greek or Latin verse)

Third place went to Lynda Finn who went 3-1 +172 losing only to Peter the Defeater.

Fourth place went to Mary Becker who went 3-1 +112. Her only loss was to to Lynda, which means whe was transitively defeated by Peter the Defeater who she did not have the opportunity to play.

Gail is Bingo Queen with 9 bonuses, including the beautiful PEREONS and MINIVER. Dave Gilligan gets the word of the week with the lovely SCULLERY which is a room where kitchen utensils are cleaned and stored. Runner up for WOTW goes to Helen with COLTISH which not only scored 100 points, but a challenge as well.

Thomas Reinke Boosts Confidence Before Nationals

1st Thomas Reinke now has a decent shot at winning all 31 games of next week's National Scrabble Championship thanks to his perfect 4-0 +376 record at club. All he has to do is conserve that momentum and not use it up while engaging in other tasks, like eating or sleeping. The first step of Thomas' imminent domination was taken against Aaron Bader, with that game ending 458-422 in favor of the twin. Aaron got ORIENTER and TANDEMS (new anagram: DAMNEST) to Thomas' GAYETIES, SLIPPING, and ETHINYLS. Gail Salm employed a more defensive style to try to contain Thomas' high-scoring tendencies; she succeeded in a sense, but still came away with a 336-374 loss. In the category of "consolation prizes", Gail did play the word-of-the-week RAMJETS as her only bingo in that game (Thomas was also limited to the singular MIDAIRS). Thomas then made his most convincing case for being a future national champion when he whomped his brother Charles by an impressive 190-point margin, 550-360. Charles found RESTIVE to prevent the game from turning into an even larger blowout, but his efforts were almost pathetic when compared to his brother' bingo assault: ETERNALS, BONDINGS, SPATTERS, and the nine-letter RETINULAR were more than enough to snag the win. This is the second time RETINULAR has been recorded on a scoresheet; Charles played it three years ago.

2nd Dave Gilligan, going 3-1 +291, did not get any bingos, but he did confirm what we have been suspecting all along, which is that the 50-point bonus of a bingo is actually a smokescreen instituted by undercover Russian operatives to limit the effectiveness of our Scrabble play. So, kudos to Dave for finally having the courage to open his eyes and recognize this deception. He barely came away with a victory, 358-351, against Betty Hasselkus, who scored 82 points for her bingo of POUNDER. A matchup against Gail Salm was somewhat more decisive, ending in a 397-229 Dave victory. However, the "no bingoing" strategy did not work in every game; Dennis Lloyd used his bingo of LUSTIER to take down Dave in a low-scoring 306-336 contest.

3rd Charles Reinke averaged over 500 points in his wins, but his disastrous encounter with his brother relegated him to third place with his 3-1 +147 record. Bryan Benwitz was the first to be subjugated; his match with Charles concluded with the scoresheets reading 481-308. Bryan played TONGUED, but Charles tripled that bingo output with STOLLENS, WEARIEST, and DERIVATE. A subsequent game against Richard Lauder resulted in the highest loss of the evening; Richard scored 445 but still lost by 95 points as Charles scored 540. Surprisingly for such a high-scoring game, both players had just two bingos: OPERATE and BONELIKE for Richard, FETIDLY and HOSTLING for Charles (A HOSTLER is somebody who tends horses, but HOSTLE is not a verb). Charles rounded out his collection of wins with a 486-417 triumph over Peter Schmiedicke. This time, both players had three bingos; Peter got DIATRON, PASTORS (104 points!), and AUDITEE while Charles got RALLIES, AIRBASE, and GALENITE.

Charles' AIRBASE was the only new bingo played this week. Richard did find himself with some extra spending money in his pocket thanks to a triple-triple of RELISTED for 131 points, played against Barb Besadny.

Charles Reinke Wins Some Games, Achieves Neither Fame nor Fortune

1st Charles Reinke went 4-1 with a sizable +507 spread to capture first place. A large chunk of his spread was accumulated during the second round of the night, when Charles was paired against both Dennis Lloyd and Barb Besadny. Against Dennis, Charles won big with a 525-317 final score, playing MODALIST, FORESAW, VINEGAR, and word-of-the-week BOTONNEE (adj. having arms ending in a trefoil, used of a heraldic cross, also BOTONEE), each for more than 80 points. Dennis, to his credit, was able to play DEVIATED amidst the chaos. Barb did not fare any better; her game against Charles ended at 428-206. This time, Charles was limited to "just" one bingo, FORESTRY. A much-anticipated matchup between brothers also ended in a victory for Charles, as he bulldozed Thomas by a score of 450-341. SEASONER and TIDEWAYS were Charles' bingos; Thomas' was AVENGES.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke also got in five games and also went 4-1, but his smaller spread of +393 slotted in him in second place. "Domination" was the only word to describe the situation when he matched witz with Bryan Benwitz and came away with an easy victory, 449-292. This is the first time in the calendar year that Bryan has scored under 300, but he did get down a bingo, DECRIALS. Peter had two: AUDIENT and WHEEZING. A 441-383 win against Charles Reinke might not have quite reached "domination" levels, but it still felt good for Peter to spoil Charles' undefeated night. With three bingos (ANAPEST, COOEEING, BLURRING) to his opponent's two (OLEINES, CREMAINS), Peter also won the bingo battle in that game. However, bingo totals might not be so important after all, as Mary Becker was able to defeat Peter in a close game (355-348) despite getting outbingoed (Mary had DIGESTER; Peter had TURNOVER and SWELTIER).

3rd Thomas Reinke averaged a mind-melting, brain-busting, and skull-smashing 507 points per game on his way to a 3-1 +694 output. Things started off well for Thomas as he quickly destroyed any hopes that Bryan Benwitz may have had of extending his eight-game win streak. That game ended decisively in favor of the twin, 480-306. Next up was Helen Flores, who fared just as poorly as Bryan had, losing 270-547. Helen was not able to bingo while Thomas selfishly had three: OVERLATE, PODIATRY, and ANGELICA. However, these winning scores, which might appear impressive at first glance, were rendered totally lame by the score that Thomas would attain against Andy Bohnsack: 658. That is the highest score so far this year and also the third-highest since modern record-keeping began in 2011. Thomas had four bingos: FERULAE, TOURISTA, MOFETTE, and the triple-triple PUNITION for 140. Andy phonied with RECAGES but it was allowed to stay on; Thomas' motivations for not challenging remain unknown at this time.

Helen Flores also went 3-1, making a swift recovery after getting whomped by Thomas in the second game.

This week we had two bingos found solely in the new wordlist: Charles' MODALIST and Gail's LEMONIER (LEMONY was always good, now it compares).