Mark and I played sixteen games while on holiday, where all but one were played in Scotland, or en route there. Our first game and the only game we played in England was in Manchester. I was fortunate to win fifteen of these games. The tile gods were feeling generous and blessed me with 21 of the possible 32 blanks. After 31 years of competitive play I achieved one Scrabble milestone during my tenth game.
01 I played DIABETIC (65) and NEGATES (76). Mark played STiNGER (67). 417-328
02 I played RETAINER (82) and Mark played SLEEpeR (68). 314-426
03 My bingos were COHEsIVE (80) and SIERRAN (65). After COHEsIVE I drew AIIKNNT and saw the bingo TANKINI, yet Mark’s next move blocked the play. I saw its only two 8LW, TANKINIS and ANTIKING, but couldn’t play either. Mark struggled with time and lost sixty points. 406-177
04 I played GIpSIES (75) and ORDEREd (69). 450-290
05 Four bingos for me starting with ReDEYES (78) which, while going first with the rack DEERSY? I see only makes that one bingo. I also played GLAIRES (81), STRAITEN (131) and NEUROmA (71). Mark got down QATS for 69. 568-307
06 I played DOTAGES (73) and TAWNIES (91). 459-223
07 My bingos were EQuITES (94) and STERANE (74). Mark played SEDATIoN (74). 411-323
08 Oddball bingos all around with my DYSPNEA (74) and kNOTTIEr (66). Mark’s was PUNCHERS (107). 381-359
09 I played oRTOLAn (62) and FURANES (80) and Mark played STONIER (73). 406-343
10 This was a record-setting game for me as I managed to play six legitimate bingos: INDAGATe (83), ARMORIES (70), CURAtIVE (86), TOILSOME (62), INFLATER (72) and TOUGHIE (92). Mark played WINDIEST (66) and RAZE (62). My first three plays were bingos, and since they were all horizontal, the board looked like an S in the lower right quadrant. I exchanged tiles on my fourth play, and then played my fourth bingo, the vertical TOILSOME, taking me to 301. I had managed to play one six-bingo game in my past, but it was a tainted six because one of the bingos was a phony. Not a bad combined score: 586-408
11 A couple wacky bingos in this game with TRAILiNG (82), ExCUSES (76) and REZEROES (88). 477-218
12 The only bingo in this game was my RETSINAs (74). At one time I had the rack AAIKMN? and saw three of the possible five 8LW, all of which were dreamy fantasy plays: ANtIMAsK, KAtsINAM and KAMAaINa, yet couldn’t play any of them. The other two 8LW were MAcKINAw and MANAKIns, which I didn’t know. Of course that meant I had the singular MANAKIn on my rack as the sole 7LW, yet didn’t know it. 376-263
13 Coincidence alert as my first bingo was ENNObLED (59) immediately followed by ELOINED (72). Thus my earlier rack was DEELNO? and my replacement draw was DEEILNO. I also played PEREION (66). Mark played DITHeRS (92). 486-356
14 Another game where I almost drew the same bingo rack, yet not in back-to-back plays. My bingos were AREOLAS (67), AREOlAE (63), BURGLED (83) and RETIEING (61). Mark played JOSTLING (66) and SCOUTEd (76). 521-343
In this game I managed to squeeze in my N, Q and B above RETIEING to perfectly slot NIQAB, scoring 55. The N and Q both landed on DLS:
__K_____
_NIQAB__
RETIEING
__E_____
15 I played QUAiNTER (67) and aRANEID (82). 396-323
16 I played LORiNERS (66) and TANAGER (77). I also set up JEU adjacent to a TLS, then played PAX down to also make JEUX (62). 458-370