Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz trampled everyone in his path with a 4-0 +511 record. Bryan got off to a strong start when he defeated Sara McLaughlin 505-304 in round one, finding AVERRED, ANNOUNCE, and OUREBIS in the process. What followed was the closest thing to a contested game that Bryan encountered all night, but it was still a comfortable win against Charles Reinke, 457-418. He added three more bingos (OVERRATE, FRAGGED, TOLUENES) to his sizable list of eleven such plays; meanwhile, Charles took solace in his word-of-the-week find of SOFTCORE. In round three, Bryan vanquished Thomas Reinke 506-405 in a game which contained seven bingos, three for Bryan (ENTICER, VERMOUTH, ONERIEST) and four for Thomas (VOLUMED, RADIATOR, ISOGRAFT, ANISEED). A 451-281 win against Richard Lauder at the end of the night gave Bryan his fourth win and a perfect evening.

2nd Charles Reinke's 3-2 +128 record was good for second place on a night where nobody managed to go 3-1. His first-round two-on-one match saw mixed success; a game against Dennis Lloyd was a 404-358 win, but this was offset by a 399-463 loss to Mark Kenas, despite Charles' 107-point EXPORTS. Losing to Bryan Benwitz 418-457 put Charles even deeper in the hole, but he crawled out of that hole (and then some) with a hefty 456-331 rematch victory over Mark. Mark got down STRINGER, while Charles had EATERIE# and RIFLIPS. If you want to add to your mental list of words with weird origins, RIFLIP is the same thing as RFLP, which is an acronym used in the field of genetics. Charles closed things out with a 432-372 win vs. Sara McLaughlin, finding two currencies, DENARIUS and LISENTE, to propel him to victory.

3rd Richard Lauder arrived late but made good use of his three games, finishing 3-1 +16. He showed off his bingo-finding ability, and also his phony-finding ability, in a 437-372 win over Dennis Lloyd where he played FETTERS, DULCIAN, and BEERMAN* (which is just like a MILKMAN but for beer). Richard had another good game against Lynda Finn, winning 422-301 thanks to BREATHER and INLACES. But it all came to a sad end when Richard got smooshed by Bryan Benwitz 281-451, ending the night on a significant downward note.

1st Charles Reinke's 4-1 +410 was sufficient for first place in a field where no player went undefeated. Charles' non-undefeatedness (defeatedness?) was firmly established in round one when he lost to Mark Kenas 433-451; Charles got down OPERETTA and a nine-letter BARGAINED, while Mark had UPFLOWED, REHEATS, and ANTISERA. Charles rebounded by defeating Bryan Benwitz in decisive fashion, 497-314. Bryan had a lone SALIENCE to Charles' CLEAROUT, WOODMAN, and TRENCHES. Round three saw Charles embroiled in a two-on-one against Mark Kenas and Lynda Finn, but the extra challenge didn't slow Charles down too much, and he won both, 418-404 vs. Mark and 422-378 vs. Lynda. Charles wrapped things up with a nearly-uncontested 537-346 win over familial foe Thomas Reinke; sadly, his valid bingos of NOTELET and WINERIES did not prevent bystanders and assorted kibitzers from calling Charles' ethics into question thanks to his phony OVERSUM* (MEVROUS# is good in CSW - NWL players should refrain from committing that one to memory).

2nd Thomas Reinke was blessed with the opportunity to play six games in a single club session, but instead of making the most of it by going 6-0, he decided to go 4-2 +375 instead. In round one, he played two games at once, and while his game against Lynda Finn was a comfortable 539-334 victory with four bingos (ANTIWEAR, ANTISEX, MORGENS, TROPHIED), his game against Sara McLaughlin was a low-scoring 357-335 win where Thomas didn't bingo (Sara had AIRDATE). Thomas displayed some deep word knowledge with a find of FUSCOUS in the next round, but lost to Mark Kenas 421-458. Another two-U bingo, ULCEROUS, was deployed against Helen Flores for a 472-334 victory. The final round game Thomas another two-on-one opportunity, and while he got bigtime revenge against Mark Kenas, winning 539-301 with BURETTES, SNEEZES, TARAIRE#, and LACTONIC, he also suffered a bigtime loss to Charles Reinke, 346-537.

3rd Bryan Benwitz scored over 500 in all his wins and finished at 3-1 +457. Three bingos of ELOINERS, NITERIES, and PICRATE gave him a big 517-288 victory over Helen Flores to start things off. Losing to Charles Reinke 314-497 wiped out much of his spread, but he gained it right back with a 522-335 romp against Sara McLaughlin where he put his bingo-finding skills to good use with FEMALES, TAUNTER, and COVERERS. His third and final win of the night was a 514-290 match against Lynda Finn.

1st Bryan Benwitz prevailed over a tightly-contested club session where three players finished with 3-1 records, his +364 spread buoying him to a gold metal that, while not quite olympic in prestige, is still moderately prestigious. He won big against Thomas Reinke, 502-420, thanks to a four-bingo bonanza (bingonanza?) of ZEOLITE, BOSOMED, ANTIDORA, and the 9-letter POTTERIES. Bryan also unleashed some punishment on the other Reinke, taking down Charles 482-262 (Charles' lowest score at club since 2011). Bryan did suffer defeat in round three, with his gargantuan 17-game winning streak against Dennis Lloyd coming to its end in nailbiting fashion, 374-377. A nice RESHOEING brought Bryan's nine-letter bingo count to two, but Dennis' BAPTISE for 88 was enough to take a long-awaited victory.

2nd Thomas Reinke returned from illness in proper fighting form, finishing 3-1 +224. His first game was a Collins-lexicon match against Charles Reinke, and while it was atypical in that neither player scored over 400, Thomas was happy enough to take the win, 395-365. Thomas bingoed with ALASTOR, FROTTAGE, and GRAILES# in that one, while Chares was (again atypically) limited to zero bingos. Another three bingos (SENARII, SOUTANES, RADULAE) were deployed against Bryan Benwitz, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 420-502 loss. After defeating Sara McLaughlin 430-343 (despite Sara's finds of MASTERS and OUTDATED), Thomas pulled out all the stops and walked away from his contest against Dennis Lloyd with a big 515-326 win. A triple-triple of BILANDER for 140 points was a big factor there, although it wasn't the highest-scoring bingo played: that honor went to Helen Flores' 149-point SCRAPERS.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 -84, having his positive spread built up so carefully through the first three rounds obliterated in round four. He started off strong with a 415-329 win against Helen Flores, getting down SERPENT for that eternally-lusted-after fifty-point bonus. Things got a bit tighter in a 369-353 victory over Sara McLaughlin, but Dennis' PORCINE and RESITES delivered him the win. As mentioned before, a lengthy losing streak against Bryan Benwitz came to and end when Dennis beat him 377-374, but visions of a glorious 4-0 outing were snuffed out by Thomas Reinke in the final game of the night, 326-515.