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Take the Top Three from Last Week, Scramble it Up, then Skip the Following Three Paragraphs

1st Thomas Reinke went an undefeated 4-0 +362 in the season's second week, putting him in a temporary tie with his brother for first place in the club standings. His nine-letter WITHDRAWS (played through AW on the board) was chosen as Word of the Week, played against Richard Lauder in the first game. Thanks to an additional bingo of LISTENER, Thomas came away with the victory, 435-414, despite Richard's counter-bingos of PRENTICE and ACTIVATE. In the third round, Thomas was matched against fellow undefeated Betty Hasselkus, and again laid down two bingos (RALLIER and CONINES) on the way to a win, 473-360. Still undefeated, Thomas and Bryan Benwitz were pitted against each other in what would be the final, culminating battle for untold glory and renown. Thomas' STEAMIE and EGYPTIAN (n. a typeface with squared serifs) glared angrily at Bryan's OLEINES and ANTEROOM, and in the end, it was Thomas who was able to put a checkbox in the win column, with the final score being 452-422. Thomas has now won 26 of his last 30 games; his four losses in that span have all been to the player who appears below him in this week's standings.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +428 and averaged 481 points per game, a disappointing mark after his 524 average last week. Charles got his singular loss out of the way quickly, dropping to Bryan Benwitz 371-433. Each player was limited to just one bingo apiece: INBOARD for Bryan, WACKIEST for Charles. Interesting trivia: in Charles' last twenty games, he has scored below 400 only three times, all of them while playing against Bryan. The beard must have defensive powers. In any case, Charles was fully recovered by the final two games, scoring well over 500 in both. He laid down four bingos (PELORIAN, OPAQUELY, INTARSIA, and TEENERS) in the course of a 552-375 victory over Dennis Lloyd, who got down READIED. That level of scoring was not enough for Charles, so he kicked it up a notch for his final game against Richard Lauder and won decisively, 586-299. Richard managed REMOVED and FANTAIL, but Charles was again smiled upon by the tile gods, and got four bingos of his own: ANISOLE, BETAINE, MOOTNESS, and the phony POSTROCK (PREROCK and POSTPUNK are both good).

3rd Aaron Bader again benefited from the absence of a certain Collins expert in going 3-1 +316. He used up all his mojo early with a dominating 549-291 triumph over Gail Salm, reaching that high total despite two relatively small bingos, HORSIES (73) and LAMBERTS (77). Unfortunately, neither player managed to extend LAMBERTS to FOOTLAMBERTS. Both are units of luminance. Aaron also added an entry to the "beat up on Richard" category with a 468-395 win against our esteemed director. Richard sneakily got by the phony of ASTOMAL (ASTOMOUS is acceptable, and AMATOLS is the real word in those letters) as well as the perfectly valid COLONIST, but Aaron's three bingos of AZURITE, AVENGING, and SHITTIER (gasp) were more than enough for the victory. Just like Charles above, Aaron's only loss was to Bryan Benwitz, 324-384. The bingo well ran temporarily dry for Aaron, although it did produce a little something for Bryan, who got HARTALS and RECODES.

We saw three new bingos played this week: STEAMIE (Thomas), HORSIES (Aaron), and WRISTING (Dennis).

With the Slate Wiped Clean, Charles Reinke Immedately Writes his Name on It Again

1st Charles Reinke couldn't have asked for a better way to start the new club season; he averaged 524 over his four games and played ten bingos. Probability and math say he won't keep it up, but the indomitable nature of his will says he can. Of all Charles' opponents, Bryan Benwitz came nearest to breaking Charles' will, losing by a mere 41 points, 393-434. PRICKED and FEASTED were Bryan's bingos, while Charles got down OMERTAS and ANTIARIN. Charles followed up that game with a pair of 570-point outbursts against Gail Salm (578-250) and Peter Schmiedicke (571-448). However, both were marred by phonies; Charles played EENIEST (confusion with EENSIEST?) against Gail and a 185-point triple-triple of REACCESS against Peter. The game against Peter was the second in a row between these two players that ended with a combined score of over 1000; last week, Peter beat Charles by a score of 526-484. When do they start drug testing in Scrabble, anyway? Only a 20% phony average can mar what is otherwise a very strong start to the year.

2nd Aaron Bader had a fairly consistent evening, scoring in the 400s in each of his games while going 3-1 +351. The new club season didn't begin the way Aaron envisioned, as he was paired with (and lost to) the formidable Thomas Reinke, 428-443. Both players had a pair of bingos; OUTLYING and LACTOSE for Thomas, VAUNTER and BOREENS for Aaron. His bingo fortunes would remain the same for the rest of the night (he played two in each game), but his scoring output did see a significant uptick in the final two games, allowing him to average 452 on the night. A game against Betty Hasselkus ended strongly in Aaron's favor, 467-306. Aaron played SIGNORE and FANTAIL (TAILFAN is also good), with Betty getting down LOANERS. Peter Schmiedicke did not fare any better, with his match against Aaron also being close to a blowout in the wrong direction, 330-496. After struggling with clunky racks for the first half of the game, Peter finally got down SEATLESS and OUTLINES, but Aaron's higher-scoring TANNERY and DOWDIER, plus a bevy of other high-scoring plays, were enough for a comfortable win.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 with a rather diminutive +80 cumulative. The perpetrator was a 132-point loss to his brother, 379-511. Thomas played TELLIES and VOYAGES, the latter for 96 points, but Charles' trio of ARGENTUM, NONAGONS, and word-of-the-week WIZARDER (adj. WIZARD meaning fine or superb) built up a fortress of points that proved impossible to breach. Fun fact: WIZARDER was deemed such a stupid word that the new Collins dictionary refused to include it! Thomas did manage to win two games in which he only bingoed one time: 436-404 over Bryan Benwitz (playing GAINSAID) and 422-257 over Dave Gilligan (playing VENDORS). Thomas' current 1.5-per-game bingo average will need to be improved if he wants to reach last year's 2.18-per-game average. Luckily, there are still 51 weeks to do so.

Both of the new words this week were played by Charles: OMERTAS (a useful anagram for MAESTRO) and WIZARDER.

I Hear Peter Schmiedicke Sleeps With A Dictionary Under His Pillow

1st Peter Schmiedicke went 4-0 +508 averaged 485 points per game, his highest-ever single-session average. Dave Gilligan was made to know first-hand the potency of Peter's scoring skill when thier match ended with a 465-248 final score. Peter played INFLAMED, AEROLITH, and SLOTHING to neatly slot in with his three-bingos-per-game average for the night. He followed up that win with a 526-484 victory over Charles Reinke that could only be described as a "scoring frenzy". Charles recorded three bingos (RETAINERS, ALUMINIC, and PALTERED), but Peter one-upped him with four (INOSINE, REDRAFTS, ANODIZE, and OUTGIVES). Rarely is a 1,000-point total score achieved; that combined total is the second-highest this year. Charles' score is also the third-highest losing score this year (Aaron Bader having lost with both a 485 and a 506). After that satisfying win, one would think that Peter was done crushing people's dreams, but he wasn't; in the final deciding game, he roughed up Dennis Lloyd quite badly, scoring 518 to Dennis' 346. IDEALESS and AVERSION were Dennis' bingos, but there was nothing he could do as Peter again got four such plays: ATTRITE, HANDIEST, FOREPLAY, and UNBRACED.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +393, and while he couldn't finish above Peter in the nightly standings nor beat him in their game, he did manage to average more points, at a heady 490 per game. It took him a while to get his engines running, as he barely escaped with the victory against Bryan Benwitz, 383-368. Bryan had MOONRISE and SWEATED to Charles' STIFLERS and FORMATE. Then, Charles' engines were fully operational, and he proved it by dropping a 613 on his own brother, who scored just 338. A pair of 100-point bingos (SEXTING for 123 and SHOALED for 101) were supplemented by METALED (76) and PEDOLOGY (68). That 600-point game was the seventh such game this year, however, it was not even close to the highest game score this year, which was Thomas' 658 just a few weeks ago. Charles wound down the evening with a 481-336 win against Helen Flores, playing ENDURING, TRIASSIC, and UNVARIED along the way.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +83, winning the first three before facing Peter Schmiedicke and being denied what would have been his first undefeated performance at our club. In the first game, he evened up his lifetime record against Gail Salm by winning 423-339. They now stand deadlocked at three wins apiece. Gail played the high-probability ELOINERS, but Dennis had two bingos in DIRTIEST and TRUNDLE. Two more bingos (ASSEMBLE and LUSTIER) were served up to Aaron Bader, and again, Dennis walked away with the win, 396-350. Do you sense a pattern emerging? Against Helen Flores, Dennis AGAIN found himself blessed with a duo of bingos, this time ARTISTE and INTONES, and AGAIN came away with victory clutched tightly in his fists, 400-275. If Dennis can continue to reliably get two bingos in every single game of Scrabble he plays, the phrase "club disbandment" starts to sound kind of like a portent.

Since September is right around the corner, that could only mean one thing: the club season has drawn to a close! Thomas Reinke is this year's club champion with a sweet 75.6% winning percentage. That's like going 3-1 every single night! Charles Reinke trailed behind at 73.2%, with Bryan Benwitz in third at 65.988% (Andy Bohnsack, at 65.951%, was very close to overtaking Bryan).

Helen's nice find of HABITUES was chosen as word of the week. A HABITUE is a resident or frequent customer of a place. Just two words from the new book were played: Gail's GAITERED (the third time she's played that word) and Charles' SEXTING, later extended to SEXTINGS.