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Charles "Winwraith" Reinke Throws All Opponents into Mount Doom

1st Charles Reinke unleashed a devastating scoring assault over the course of his four games, winning them all with a total spread of 565 and averaging 490 per game. This makes him winner of thirteen of his last fifteen contests. Much of his wrath was reserved for Peter Schmiedicke, wrath that was delivered in the form of a 541-369 final score. Peter managed to console himself with a bingo of GARDENER, but that consolation was short-lived as Charles deposited four bingos onto the board: ASTHENIC, COSTLIER, ROBUSTA, and word-of-the-week FAUTEUIL, a type of chair. Somehow dissatisfied with the amount of anger he had unfairly directed towards his opponents, Charles went on to defeat Gail Salm 502-291. Gail struck with STRUDEL and PIERCING, but Charles lashed back with AENEOUS (adj. bronze-colored), SQUANDER, and DELATES. The night came to a close with a closer, but not all that close, 446-343 win over Chris Vergeront.

2nd Aaron Bader also had four wins, but his bonus fifth game turned out to be a loss, resulting in a final record of 4-1 +424. Fittingly, that loss was against first-place finisher Charles Reinke, 392-471. Aaron played SHEBEAN (anagram BANSHEE) but was turned away by Charles' ENGINES and triple-triple RATANIES for 122 points. The rest of Aaron's games went smoothly enough, with the smoothest by far being a 540-282 romp over Mary Becker. Despite playing in a two-on-one, Aaron found bingos of CELESTAS and SPAWNING, the latter for 106 points. That mark of 540 points, while lofty, would eventually be eclipsed when he crushed Andy Bohnsack, 574-410. Andy valiantly tried to stay in the game with his finds of TELECOM and DIAGONAL, but Aaron's quad-bingo assault of CAMELEER, REBODIES, LEDGIER, and FANTOOSH (Collins dictionary only) was just too much to overcome.

3rd Thomas Reinke enjoyed a 3-1 +408 performance, but would have enjoyed it more with just one more victory. He graciously welcomed back club director Richard Lauder, having just returned that day from warmer climes, by losing 366-409. Thomas played CURIOSA, but Richard was not to be denied, doublng Thomas' bingo output with his own plays of DEPRIVE and LISENTE. That was the first game, and Thomas would up his bingo count by one in each game. In the third round, Thomas defeated Peter Schmiedicke 435-393 on the back of this bingo-bango-bongo of EXERTION, AERATION, and GREATEN. Peter got down AREOLAS and SIDEARM to make it close. Betty Hasselkus did not enjoy the luxury of a close game, with her game against Thomas ending 586-266 for the largest single margin of the night. The bingo well flowed without inhibition for Thomas, as he got EXILIAN, HOTELIER, EDITION, and FORMATS to build up his huge score.

Again, only one new bingo was played this week, Gail's OATIEST.

Andy Bohnsack: "If Only Scrabble Could be This Fun All the Time"

1st Andy Bohnsack lengthened his winning streak to seven with a perfect 4-0 +362 outing. The "1000-point combined score" was in reach against Thomas Reinke, but their combined effort fell short in a 539-457 win for Andy. Thomas had the cool find of BIVOUACS (and the less cool TURNINGS), but Andy had four bingos of his own: GOODIES, IRONWARE, AERATION, and the "I can't have made this up so it must be good" GOETHITE (also GOTHITE). The bingo spigot continued to flow unabated as Andy played PAINING, BAILERS, and GENITORS while handing Betty Hasselkus her only loss, 458-351. Betty contributed RESITED to the bingoing effort. Still more bingos were on hand against Barb Besadny: INLAYING, NAUSEATE, and PEATIER. Andy's winning score of 396 was his lowest of the evening.

2nd Charles Reinke continued to gain ground on first place in the club standings, going 3-1 +297. He squeaked out a close, low-scoring win against Aaron Bader, 384-367, a game where each player only got one bingo: LANDAUS (n. LANDAU, a type of carriage) for Charles, CHIRRING for Aaron. Charles' bout against Susan Vergeront was anything but close, with Charles barely missing the 600-point barrier: 599-293 was the final score. Five bingos were on tap for the C-Twin: CATENARY, ETAMINE, DISAGREE, LADDIES, and the word-of-the-week nine-letter ESTUARINE. Andy Bohnsack decided smartly to not allow Charles that amount of bingos, and in doing so, gave Charles his only loss, 358-449. Charles was limited to SEDIMENT (new anagram: DEMENTIS); Andy had OUTLAWED and ENSLAVER.

3rd Peter Schmiedicke missed out on a higher spot by thirty spread points, finishing 3-1 +267. His singular loss was against the very person who beat him in the session standings, Charles Reinke. That game ended at 384-449, with just RESINED going down for Peter (Charles had TILBURY and SAPREMIA). The negative spread resulting from that game was made back, and then some, when Peter defeated Mary Becker 487-273. He found TEATIMES, IGNITERS, and TINEIDS appear on his rack at opportune times. Another three bingos materialized in front of him when he matched up against Gail Salm; AGROUND, EMULATE, and TEARILY led him to a 477-384 victory.

Both Betty Hasselkus and Gail Salm also finished 3-1. Only one new bingo was played this week, Aaron's DEHAIRED against Dave Gilligan.

Charles Reinke: "Points are Good"

1st Charles Reinke had a rather productive evening in the points-scoring department, with the outcome of all those scored points being a 4-1 +665 record. The challenge of playing as the "one" in a two-on-one game proved not to be much of a challenge at all, as both games he won handily: 499-304 against Lynda Finn and 565-310 against Helen Flores. In the latter game, he slapped down four bingos: TRANSIT, BISTERS (n. a brown pigment, also BISTRE), LEGATINE, and OVERCOME (missing the new bingo EMOCORE). More bingo racks were on deck for a game against lifelong adversary Thomas Reinke, with Charles playing ENDMOST, FENCEROW, and ONSTAGE (new anagram: TANGOES) to attain a convincing 491-325 win. Thomas got down SHOALEST but otherwise was unable to do much in the scoring department. Peter Schmiedicke managed to hold Charles to just one bingo in their matchup, and the result was a 392-356 victory thanks to Peter's out-bingo of AGONIES. Charles' TRYPTICA (n. an ancient writing tablet) was dubbed Word of the Week, but even an honor as high as that cannot erase the piercing pain of the loss.

2nd Peter Schmiedicke also went 4-1, but his smaller spread of +196 left him in distant second place. He had his own four-bingo game against Gail Salm; CRAYONS, TAENIAS, DELIMING, and RESOLVE were his words of choice in the 480-378 victory (Gail played two bingos of her own, ORDAINED, and the new AIRBASE, which was also played last week). In the night's closest game, Peter turned away Aaron Bader 375-371, a pair of abnormally low scores for the normally high-scoring experts. Aaron was held to a grand total of zero bingos; Peter found GRADERS and TITRATES for just enough points to take the win. In what must be some sort of cosmic justice, Thomas Reinke handed Peter his only loss in another low-scoring game, 399-346. Thomas' VERDINS and TRIBUTES were not quite offset by Peter's REIFIES.

3rd Lynda Finn averaged 429 per game, a full forty points above her yearly average, en route to a 3-1 +302 outing. Other than the previously detailed loss to Charles, she found the bingos to be plentiful. After five straight losses against Aaron Bader, she finally one won to the tune of 426-400, utilizing a crafty phony of NOCKERS (RECKONS and CONKERS are good) to gain the upper hand. Aaron responded in kind with a phony CODENAME as well as a nice nine-letter out-bingo of HEARTLAND (played through AN). Lynda's other two wins could fairly be classified as blowouts: 490-266 against Helen Flores and 495-288 against Gail Salm. Combined, her bingos in those games were GUNFIRE, MISPART (anagrams: IMPARTS and ARMPITS), SPHERED, SNOUTIER, and VENTAIL. It remains to be determined if the useful "A" hook on VENTAIL (for AVENTAIL) was ever put into use.

After a honeymoon period wherein multiple new bingos were being played every week, only one was played this week, Gail's AIRBASE.