Mark and I played two games this past weekend and each won one. Mark had a remarkable win in the second game where he pulled out what had to be the only possible bingo in his penultimate turn. I averaged 412 and Mark 373. Here is the bingo breakdown:
| Craig | Mark |
| TENTORIA (60) | NETtLEs (70) |
| PRIaPISM (84) | TRILLING (61) |
| CESSION (89) |
My replacement rack after playing TENTORIA was AIMORZ? and there was an open S on the middle right TWS, yet in spite of how good that rack looked, there are no eight-letter words with an S. There are only two seven-letter bingos, RhIZOMA and ZOARIuM, yet I didn’t bother to look for any (and I do not recall if there was even a spot to play a seven) because the left TWS was open and I was able to play MIRZA for 80, slotting the M on the TWS and the Z on the DLS. It took four more turns before I was able to play my bingo, which I was surprised to find since my rack was IIMPPS?. I did see the only other bingo, PIMPIngS, but there was nowhere to play it yet I was more confident with PRIaPISM. I believe this was the first time in thirty years of Club and Tournament play that I managed to play this word.
CESSION scored seven more points than its anagram, COSINES, which fit someplace else.
Our second game was fairly close, with me ahead 350-320. With PARRY leading down from the middle right TWS and an open three spaces below it, the threat of a 42-point PARRYING was imminent since the tile pool showed IING still in the bag (the remaining eleven tiles were EEGIILLNRTU). I decided to play OWN from the Y in PARRY to score seventeen. My score was now 367. I felt confident in that play yet my replacement draw included the final N, so Mark couldn’t have played PARRYING for 42 anyway. The N in OWN gave Mark an opening to play TRILLING for 61 and take the lead 381-367. There was only that one bingo within that tile pool of eight, but three more (REGULINE, RETIEING and RETILING) from the tile pool of eleven. My remaining tiles were full of duplication, with a rack of EEENNUU and I could only play NENE under the T in TRILLING for eighteen. Mark easily played off his E (the last tile left in the bag) for six. The last tile I drew after I played OWN was a U, yet would still have lost the game if I had picked a fourth E and left the U for Mark. Mark won 393-385.