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Bryan Benwitz Gives Away Losses to the Less Fortunate

1st Bryan Benwitz wasn't his usual high-scoring self, but he didn't need those points anyway as he went 4-0 +205. An unusual amount of restraint was shown by both parties in a low-scoring match against Dave Gilligan, with the final score being a paltry 346-318. The bingo situation was a wash; Dave had SONNETS for 81, with Bryan adding on HEROICS for 79. Bryan regained some of his missing mojo against Susan Vergeront, snatching away her chances for an undefeated evening with a 447-380 victory. This time, Susan did most of the bingoing, playing FOUNTAIN and MATURER to Bryan's AILERON. In the final game, Bryan AGAIN trampled another player's hopes of an undefeated record, defeating the 3-0 Richard Lauder in a 373-338 contest. Richard played MISTRIAL and Bryan played HOSTILE; there's a pun in there somewhere, but a certain somebody hasn't really woken up yet.

2nd Thomas Reinke got in a bonus fifth game (amazing value on his two-dollar investment!) and put it to good use, going 4-1 +325. His two-on-one encounter happened in the first round, when he was matched against both Helen Flores and Mary Becker. Mary was the one who managed to put a few more dents in Thomas' armor, losing by a smaller margin of 83 points in a 453-370 game. Meanwhile, Helen Flores was taken down by a score of 472-323. Thomas bingos in the two games were RAINSUIT, KEGGERS, TOGATED, IGUANAS, and NEOLITHS. After those two wins, Thomas lengthened his winning streak to eleven games; however, he would face a longtime foe in the next round, and there his win streak would come to a calamitous end. The victor, Charles Reinke, played bingos of ADMIRAL and STENCIL, while Thomas found the more obscure VERRUCAE (n. VERRUCA, a plantar wart). However, obscurity doesn't award any extra points, so it was Charles' win, 411-386. Thomas would later pull out another weird word, ARRHIZAL, played in a 434-331 win over Dave Gilligan.

3rd Charles Reinke averaged 501 points per game despite a singular loss that left him at 3-1 +553. He started things off with a bang, defeating Gail Salm 556-336. Gail had the nice find of CAMPFIRE and the higher-scoring SQUARED (88), but Charles was able to respond with a trio of his own bingos: TENSITY, ANTERIOR, and BLOODIES. That score of 556 was not destined to be his highest score of the evening, though, as he scored a cool 587 against Helen Flores, who scored 249. That winning margin of 338 is his second-highest all-time. Four bingos were required for Charles to reach such heights: CONCEDE, PLANTAIN, PLANERS, and ANODISE. Even Charles' loss against Richard Lauder was a high-scoring one, 449-479. Charles had ANISOLE, AESTHETE, and MRIDANGA (n. a drum of India), but his efforts were nullified by Richard's SPAEING as well as his triple-triple of LITTERER for 122 points. That word turned out to be worth eight bucks, as it netted Richard both the triple-triple prize ($4) and the high E play (another $4).

Both Richard Lauder and Peter Schmiedicke also had 3-1 records. Sue Goldstein played the word of the week, the 101-point PALIMONY in a 401-403 loss against Betty Hasselkus. We had a few new bingos played this week: ANODISE (Charles), RAINSUIT (Thomas), and TRANNIE (Dennis).

Thomas Reinke Returns From Dominating Reno to Find That His Appetite for Domination is Insatiable

1st Thomas Reinke took no breaks after this impressive seventh-place finish at Nationals, going 4-0 +360 in his first games back on Wisconsin soil. By his second game he had fully hit his stride, vanquishing Gail Salm 454-308 with the help of two bingos, TAILRACE and ANGINAL (played to Gail's UNDERSEA and TIDIEST). Peter Schmiedicke did not fare any better; his game against Mr. 7th Place ended at 505-371. Peter got down SEMINAR and LACERTID (n. a type of lizard), but three is always bigger than two, and Thomas had three bingos: OUTFISH, BOBTAILS, and COLLEGER. Thomas' greatest challenge proved to be the deceptively unassuming Bryan Benwitz; nursing stomachs distended by unhealthy amounts of delicious cake, the two players fought to the very end. Only one point separated their scores at the conclusion of their game, 405-404 in Thomas' favor. For his bingos, Bryan played REFASTEN and the phony JEMINDAR. JEMIDAR and ZEMINDAR are both good, but don't blame Bryan; Thomas played the same phony back in 2012. This time around, Thomas played only good words, AMBRIES and OUTLETS.

2nd Mark Kenas recovered his mojo after a few tough series against Aaron Bader, this time going 3-1 +357 and averaging 487 per game. The one game Mark lost was coincidentally the only one where he did not get at least three bingos; playing TRIAGED to Aaron's LEACHATE, the final was 379-395. After that injustice, Mark exerted his veteran status, winning the next game 566-401 with four bingos: STUNTED, SUDORAL, SHONKIER#, and the nine-letter ARGENTITE. Another 500-point game followed that up, a 523-427 win for Mark. TARDYON for 117 turned out to be the highest-scoring bingo of the evening, but Mark added SALUTING and ASTERIA to his list just to make the victory complete.

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 for the second week in a row, this time with a sizable +254 spread that put him ahead of two other players with 3-1 records. Against Charles Reinke, Bryan flexed his defensive muscle a little bit, holding the normally bingo-prone player to a zero-bingo performance. With TRAMLINE for 71 and ANXIOUS for 112, Bryan took the win easily, as candy from a baby's clutching hands, 397-361. The next two games would further showcase Bryan's ability to completely stymie his opponents as he beat Lynda Finn 371-313 before crushing Dave Gilligan 472-311. In the latter game, Dave got down a 93-point play of BECAUSE, but was otherwise unable to generate any forward momentum as Bryan scored relentlessly, getting down TUTORIAL and TOLANES along with multiple other high-scoring plays. Sadly, Bryan's night ended with a 1-point loss against first-place finisher Thomas.

We had a few new bingos played this week: TRANNIE (Peter), BROADWAY (Andy), ARSTIES (Richard), NEARISH (Dennis), and SATINED (Aaron, although it doesn't really count since SATINED has been good in Collins for a while now). Helen Flores reached deep into her bag of bingos to pull out the low-probability VICINITY as word of the week.

We welcomed new players Terry Hope and Warren Bergmann from the Oshkosh area. Both of them got one win out of three games. Hopefully they don't expect cake at every club session.

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.