Blog

No Score Too High For Charles Reinke

1st Charles Reinke ended with a 4-0 +592 record for his first undefeated night in two months.  Almost half of that spread came in a single game, when he heartlessly defeated newcomer Jonathan Lindh 568-293.  Four bingos served as Jon's welcoming party: REINSMEN, SIMONIAC (N. one who practices simony, the definition of which is too complicated to describe here), FLIRTERS, and LOMENTA.  That's what we in Madison call good ol' midwestern hospitality. Bryan Benwitz was the only of Charles' opponents who gave him a scare; the final ended up 431-398 in Charles' favor despite Bryan's two bingos (WIRETAP, GELATED (v. GELATE, to become gel) to Charles' one (SOVRANS).

2nd Thomas Reinke enjoyed a 3-1 +596 final record to place second.  He got things off to a good start by crushing Helen Flores 540-297 and playing four bingos: READDING, EVERTING, STEERER, and OUTLETS.  Thomas then followed that up with another 540-point game, beating Susan Vergeront 541-294, this time with only three bingos (word of the week BIRDBATH, REFUSAL, and SAILORS).  Alas, no good thing lasts forever, and Thomas' streak of 500-point games was ended at two.  His loss came against archfoe Charles Reinke (no relation), who applied copious amounts of hurt on his non-relative, 436-295.  Maybe the pain of this sub-300 game will allow Thomas to have more compassion for his opponents in the future.

3rd Lynda Finn finn-ished at 3-1 +206 (that joke never gets old!) and averaged an impressive 432 per game, well above her year's average of 394.  Chris Vergeront was just one of her three victims; he was found in an alleyway behind the church mumbling something about "bingos" and "tiles".  A 352-478 loss will do that to a guy.  Lynda also reached deep into the tile bag to unleash three bingos (EARINGS, LOVAGES, and REDLINED) against an unsuspecting Dave Gilligan, who fell 327-489.

As noted earlier, the club welcomed newbie Jonathan Lindh from the Milwaukee Club.  He went 2-2 and averaged 377 points per game; pretty good for a Milwaukeean!  He showed that he meant business when he pummelled Betty Hasselkus 531-288, using four bingos to effortlessly overcome Betty's scoring efforts: OXIDISE, GENERATE, SATIRES, and the phony PIGHEAD (PIGBOAT and PIGWEED are good, among others).

Three totally terrific tile-wielding terrors took tremendous temerity to toss tiles together to toughen their tempting tableaus.

When they weren't SNOOTING about those that weren't there or those who had given late REPLIES, they were admiring the REGLETS near the ceililng at HyVee. The place was DUSTIER and more ARENOUS than usual, but somehow they stayed ENGAGED. they were all LIONISERS of the clubs best players who didn't attend. They tried to be the SILENCER of all the noise around us, but they didn't REALISE they had SPAWNED quite the uprising from the child-REARING set who were eating with their families in the cafeteria. The faint smell of SIRLOIN steak eminated from their plates. 

ENDNOTE: COSIGNED, TURIONS, PARTONS and LACTONE were also played.

Lynda Finn: "Bingos Schmingos"

1st Lynda Finn easily Finn-ished off her four opponents, ending up with a 4-0 +237 record despite playing only three bingos.  For a player who averages a bingo and a half per game, a drought of this magnitude is very unusual. She got two of those bingos out of the way earlier when she defeated Charles Reinke 429-387, playing ENDITES and CORNIER against Charles' TAGLINES and OVERMANS.  The third bingo, MESHING, went uncountered as Lynda beat Helen Flores 380-309.

2nd Charles Reinke used his first-round defeat at the hands of Lynda Finn as the needed fuel to power a dominating performance the rest of the way, finishing 4-1 +742.  His smallest win in the span was a "mere" 462-316 victory over Shayla Dunn.  New father Renato Umali was not spared Charles' wrath; when the dust cleared, a final score of 569-350 told the whole sad story.  Renato played BANDEAU, but the tile gods otherwise smiled fully upon Charles, allowing him to play GASELIER (alt. spelling of GASOLIER, a chandelier with gas burners), AUDITING, STILLED, and ANARCHY (prompting the comment, "anarchy is always fun."  Indeed).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +235, putting together a solid three-game run before running up against Lynda Finn in the deciding game.  The Bryaniac started off with a bang, defeating top expert Thomas Reinke with authority, 412-334.  Thomas was held bingoless as Bryan played three such words: SNARLER, SLINGER, and UNTINGED.  He also notched his fifth-highest game ever when he crushed Chris Vergeront 528-341.  Again, his opponent didn't manage to bingo as he used up the good tiles with plays such as EROTIZE (v. to give a sexual meaning to), WANIEST, MANDOLIN, and BLUNDER.

Dave Gilligan: Bingos Schmingos part 2

1st Dave Gilligan saw Lynda's small bingo total, said "I can do better", and ended up with only two bingos to go with his 2-1 +37 record.  He pulled out a close one, 332-316, against Sue Goldstein, with his bingo of CREDITS making the difference.  Dave took down Barb Besadny 360-308 for his other win.

Shayla Dunn got word of the week with her 167-point triple-triple of BLOWGUNS, which she used to tranquilize Thomas Reinke, 567-416.  She also played BARMAIDS, RETOOLS, and a 72-point non-bingo JERKINS in a primal display of dominance.  However, that 567 score was not the highest of the night: Andy Bohnsack scored a whopping 572 against Susan Vergeront, one of seven 500+ games played by club members on the evening.