Blog

1st Bryan Benwitz averaged 508 points per game and dazzled his opponents with 14 total bingos, finishing at 4-0 +730. He didn't waste any time in commencing the carnage as he trounced John Bialek in round 1, 515-295, bingoing with TORNADIC, TELEXING, PEASANTS, and DEAERATE. The "Bryan Bingowitz" nickname continued to be fully applicable as Bryan got down four more bingos (RETAINED, OVERLAIN, ESOTERIC, PEANUTS) while defeating Ron Malzer 483-287. In round three, Lynda Finn was the first player to manage a bingo against Bryan, getting EUSOCIAL for 80 points. However, Bryan's nine-letter bingo of DEPICTING, in addition to SERINES and RATTLIER, delivered him a comfortable 512-315 victory. To put the cherry on top, Bryan bested club leader Thomas Reinke 522-405, playing a trio of high-probability eight letter words: GERANIAL, TORTOISE, and LEVANTER. Thomas did, however, put a blemish on Bryan's undefeated night when he got away with a phony UNSNARE* in that game.

2nd Richard Lauder didn't quite match the heights that Bryan reached, but he still averaged a hefty 433 points per game while going 3-1 +325. Things started off poorly with a six-point loss to Lynda Finn, 385-391. Richard did outbingo Lynda two-to-one in that game (DENSEST and SILTIER vs. Lynda's BUTANES), but couldn't muster the few extra points needed to grab the win. Things improved after that, with a 418-368 win over Dennis Lloyd (bingoing with FRIAGATE and CHASERS) and a close 399-389 victory against John Bialek (getting UNDERLIT and GRASSED). In the final round, Richard clinched a top-three performance, and got his second-highest score of the year, when he vanquished Ron Malzer, 528-257. Ron found a bingo of RELINES, but otherwise couldn't get much going, while Richard had RESTING, SEINERS, and BOARDING.

3rd Helen Flores rounded out an anomalously Reinke-free top three with a 3-1 +6 final tally. She had considerable success against players surnamed "Bialek", first getting a big 476-351 win over Wendy Bialek thanks to three bingos of EGESTED, BOLONEY, and TAUPIER*, then defeating John Bialek 395-305 with bingo finds of TOUPEES and MOULDED. Her bingo of AUNTIES helped notch a third victory against Ron Malzer, 364-335. A doomed round one encounter against Charles Reinke, which Helen lost 342-580, in hindsight proved to provide exactly the motivation she needed to run off three straight victories and snatch a much-coveted writeup paragraph.

1st Thomas Reinke regained the top spot in the weekly standings with his unblemished 5-0 +499 record. He gained most of that spread total in a 552-247 win over Dave Kinzer where his bingos were DASYURE, CRANNOGE, DECRIALS, and WORRITS. A game against Richard Lauder was significantly closer, but still Thomas' win, 404-379. Richard had SENIORS in that one, while Thomas got EMPLANE and LAPIDATE (which was extended to the misspelled DELAPIDATE* - DILAPIDATE is the spelling that they were looking for). Thomas also strengthened his hold on top of the yearly standings with a pair of wins against his brother Charles, 463-364 and 409-390.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +464, two losses against his brother not being quite enough to prevent him from snagging second place in a smaller-than-usual field. His 390-409 loss against Thomas proved that the U is not always a horrible tile, as his bingos of GLAUCOUS and MEOUING contained three of them. Charles more than made up for those losses with a 566-288 win against Wendy Bialek, where four bingos (RAINIER, CORYBANT, DISRUPT, PIOLETS) helped him run away with it. At the same time as he was vanquishing Wendy, Charles was soundly defeating Richard Lauder, 438-281. TABETIC and CANARIES were his bingo finds there.

1st Charles Reinke brought his winning streak to nine straight thanks to a flawless 4-0 +547 performance. His first-round victory against Mark Kenas, 463-399, was actually his lowest score of the evening. In that one, his triple-triple ASTERIDS# for 131 points was able to overcome Mark's FLITTERN#, RAPTURES, and CAMELIAS. A rematch against Mark also ended in Charles' favor, 501-352, thanks in part to another high-scoring bingo, ADJURERS for 116. In the final round, a true "clash of the titans" took place as Charles, sitting at 3-0, matched up against the one other remaining 3-0 player, Bryan Benwitz. Despite the impressive pedigree of the two combatants, the clash was somewhat lopsided, as Charles won 493-354. Bryan found LIPREADS and VENETIAN, while Charles' bingo list consisted of NONOBESE, BEADSMAN, and GREENLIT.

2nd Thomas Reinke had the same win total as his brother, but the addition of a single loss to his scorecard dropped him to second place at 4-1 +486. He saved the majority of his wrath for his two Collins-lexicon games against Mark Kenas; playing a combined NINE bingos, Thomas won the games 512-329 and 539-359. His bingos were ANGELICA, FLIPSIDE#, UNROTTEN#, LENTORS#, URALITE, MANPOWER, FERRELS, DUNITES, and ASCITES. A more closely-fought victory was gained over John Bialek, 406-368. John found the gross bingo of BOOGERS, but Thomas outdid him with finds of INTONER, TENSEST, and word-of-the-week GUAIACOL. Thomas' only loss was to Bryan Benwitz, 405-433.

3rd Ron Malzer marked his third visit to our club with his first appearance in the weekly writeup, finishing at 3-1 +214 with a hefty 408 per-game average. His best game was a 462-349 smackdown of Dennis Lloyd where the bingo battle (POSTURE for Ron, LISTERS for Dennis) clearly doesn't tell the whole story. Ron followed that up with another large win, this one against Sara McLaughlin, 439-329. That one also saw each player get exactly one bingo: Ron's LANCETS and Sara's MOTIONED. Like Thomas above, Ron's only defeat was at the hand of Bryan Benwitz, 338-452.