Blog

1st Lynda Finn (mostly) cruised through a tough field of competitors with a 3-1 +250 record and a nifty 422 per-game average. Things got off to a good start when she scored a comfortable win against Sara McLaughlin, 484-282, getting down bingos of HORSIER and CREATES while Sara was sadly held bingoless. Lynda followed that up with a pair of wins against the #1 and #2 players in the club, calmly beating Thomas Reinke 400-385 with not a trace of intimidation, and then taking down Bryan Benwitz 443-391 in a similar showing of steady Scrabble superiority. Lynda saw her bingo fortunes continue in those games as she played DIASTOLE, TEENIER, DETAILED, and BOOSTERS. Unfortunately, Lynda was not able to complete an undefeated record as she was defeated in the fourth round by Richard Lauder, 361-380.

2nd Bryan Benwitz fell a bit short of first place, but placed far ahead of third, with his 3-1 +200 record. He came away with a well-fought win in round one against Richard Lauder, where Richard's nine-letter FATTENING, supplemented by INTORTED, were equaled by Bryan's TONEARM and STOCKILY. A game against Dennis Lloyd saw Bryan deploy two more bingos (FAGGOTED and RETRIALS) to take the 422-340 win. Bryan's sole loss came in round three versus Lynda Finn, where an uncharacteristic zero-bingo game from the one known as "Bingowitz" resulted in a 391-443 loss. But the universe righted itself in the final game where Bryan prevailed in a lopsided match against Sara McLaughlin, 467-322. A small amount of good news for Sara did result from that game, as her find of COAXINGS, which drew a challenge, was chosen as word of the week.

1st Bryan Benwitz re-established his supremacy with a pristine 4-0 record and a +474 spread total that put him way ahead of all competition. He started with a nice 493-378 win against Dave Kinzer in the first round, but his scores kept getting smaller as the session progressed, so there is hope that the trend will continue and that, in roughly one month, Bryan will be scoring in the low 200s and it will be possible to beat him. Until then, however, the writeups will be filled with descriptions of Bryan's victories. In round two, Bryan got down three bingos (STEADIER, TRINKETS, VISUALS) while dispatching Dennis Lloyd 481-326, then played another three bingos to vanquish Thomas Reinke, 472-338. Perfection was secured when Bryan, yet again, played three bingos (VENUSES, RUGOLAS, and TRAILING) in a 433-363 win over Richard Lauder. All told, Bryan's opponents played just one bingo against him (Dave's TILAPIA), so maybe next week we should all try extra hard to find bingos when playing against Bryan.

2nd Richard Lauder turned his 1-3 record from last week into a 3-1 +185 record this week, good for second place. He started off with a comfortable 415-308 win against Sara McLaughlin, where the only bingo on the board was the phony HANSELD*. HANSELED and HANDSEL are probably the words Richard was thinking of there. Richard then got a win against Jane Wesson, 384-342, with his bingo of AROINTS matching Jane's OUTLINE. A third and final win was scored against Dennis Lloyd, 473-367, where Richard's bingo of TEMERITY was initially misspelled (and challenged off) before being redeployed on the board for a nice score. A bingoless 363-433 loss to Bryan Benwitz sadly dashed Richard's hopes of attaining the elusive 4-0 record.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +67 record. He pummeled Lynda Finn in the first game by a score of 456-273. Lynda did get one bingo of ALIENERS, but Thomas had three: OCREATE, PODIATRY, and BIOPLASM. He then took on Mark Kenas in a Collins-lexicon game, utilizing the CSW-only SEARATS# (in addition to WISTERIA and ORPINES) to take a 437-426 victory. A later rematch was even closer, with Thomas eking out a 445-438 win thanks to AIRBOUND and LAITIES (Mark got OUTGIVE and SPENDER). However, Thomas' zero bingos against Bryan Benwitz doomed him in their encounter, and he lost 338-472.

1st Dennis Lloyd dethroned the tyrannical Reinke-Reinke-Benwitz triarchy with his flawless 4-0 +294 record. Arriving too late to play in round one, Dennis made up for lost time by playing as the "one" in a two-on-one match in the second round. Squaring off against Sue Goldstein and Helen Flores, he won both games comfortably: 336-265 against Sue, thanks to a bingo of NAIVETE for 93 points, and 388-311 against Helen, thanks to PASTRIES and RESENTS. Dennis followed that up with his sole 400-point game of the night, 410-272 against newcomer Jane Wesson, a game which featured two bingos from Dennis' side, SHAFTED and READIES. To cap off his immaculate night of Scrabble supremacy, Dennis went up against regular opponent Richard Lauder and squeaked out a close 8-point win in a low-scoring game, 343-335. Dennis has now won four in a row against Richard, but Richard still comfortably owns the lifetime series; Dennis would need to win the next seven to even things up. Easy!

2nd Charles Reinke faced a tough lineup of opponents but emerged from the ordeal (relatively) unscathed, finishing at 4-1 +353. Undertaking the challenge of playing two players at once in the first round, he split his games, winning big against Thomas Reinke 540-406 but losing to Mark Kenas 416-442. Both games ended with six total bingos on the board, demonstrating the kind of bingo bounty that is almost commonplace when playing with the expansive Collins lexicon. Charles' bingos were EVILNESS, ADULATE, INTROITS, and PENTITO# against Thomas; FIRETRAP, LICENSOR, and REMAILER against Mark. With the loss out of the way, Charles went on to win his next three, starting with a 428-340 win against Lynda Finn, despite her shoutout bingo of LAUDERS. A 419-374 revenge win against Mark gave Charles momentum heading into the final round, where he collided with Bryan Benwitz and stifled the usually high-scoring Bryaniac 411-299. Both Charles and Bryan average over two bingos per game, but each played just one in their matchup: IDEATES for Bryan, TONNAGES for Charles.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +15, averaging a nice 454 per game but giving up 451 per game in response. It was a slow start for Thomas as he was pounded in round one, 406-540 against fraternal enemy Charles Reinke. The following game, against Mark Kenas, was also a big loss, 444-542. In that one, Mark got down four bingos (SHITTIER, SALPIAN, ALUMINES, UNCURSED) while Thomas had "just" three (NAARTJIE#, REBOILED, UNPERSON). Things turned around when Thomas played a two-on-one match against Lynda Finn and Richard Lauder; Thomas had three bingos in each game, and won them both, 453-364 vs. Lynda and 494-433 vs. Richard. A rematch against Mark Kenas in the final round saw Thomas unflinchingly play, and get away with, the phony TELEVIZE* (can only be spelled TELEVISE for some reason) en route to a 472-375 victory. Thomas' valid bingos were RENTERS and VELOUTE, while Mark found word of the week CALAMARI as well as TUNDRAS.

We welcomed first-timer Jane Wesson to the club. Her first game was a 372-297 win over Sara McLaughlin, buoyed by a bingo of ABILITY for 65 points - a good portent for future success!