up to the Lexington Scrabble® Club
This reports on the season which ran from September, 2003 through August, 2004.
The Lexington, Massachusetts Scrabble Club #108 has been running continuously since it was started by Edie Berman and Muriel Sands in January, 1980. We meet nearly every Thursday night of the year in a comfy basement meeting room of the First Parish Church, situated on Lexington Green behind the Lexington Minuteman Statue. Judy Horn has been directing this club for about 21 years. Ellen Miller serves as associate director. Mike Wolfberg joined the club within its first month of existence, and he took on the role of club statistician within the first year. The club has operated with its own rating system, designed primarily by Alan Frank, since early 1981. Ratings are based on the percentage of points each of the players scores in each game. The club web site includes a detailed description of this system.
This is a report of the highlights of this club's Sep-03 through Aug-04 season. In this season, individuals played 6416 games, and so there were 3208 games in all. The average score in all of these games was 375. These numbers were 5184, 2592, and 372 for the previous season.
Of the 6416 individual games, 6060 were played by an "active player". We define an active player as someone who played at least 20 games in the season. The average score of the active players was 375 for the season. These numbers were 4880 and 372 for the previous season.
158 different players have attended the club in the past 2 years. During the 2003-2004 season there were 60 active players, namely those who played at least 20 games, and here are the top 25, ordered by decreasing club average rating:
Average attendance thoughout the season was 29, and with 49 sessions, this yields the statistic that each player plays on the average of 4 1/2 games per session. We realize this is higher than in many other clubs, and so some of this club's achievements in one season should be understood in this context.
Jere Mead - averaged 426, and won 46 of 54 games Rod MacNeil - 419 15 21 Dean Cullen - 434 135 176 Steven Saul - 407 119 168 Mike Wolfberg - 420 154 212 Richard Buck - 415 110 152 John Van Pelt - 407 43 66 Joel Horn - 412 160 235 Rich Reiben - 416 37 56 Arnie Horowitz - 385 27 51 Mark Fidler - 383 102 169 Bruce Adams - 395 93 140 Ben Greenwood - 407 38 62 Elaine Patterson - 391 53 91 Judy Horn - 399 166 273, scoring 109,033 points Gina Fassio - 382 21 41 Thomas Stumpf - 392 37 57 Julie Lindahl - 410 55 87 Jake Bergmann - 392 33 51 Barbara Revkin - 395 109 162 Carl Durdan - 398 80 132 Ben Harrison - 388 76 135 Jamie Ryan - 385 204 351, scoring 135,187 points Ellen Miller - 375 86 171 Bob Becker - 382 91 171 Season Average Ratings of the Top 50 Players who Played at Least 20 Games ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1789.65 Jere Mead 1639.08 Gregg Foster 1778.72 Rod MacNeil 1638.96 Joev Dubach 1736.43 Dean Cullen 1637.72 Rob Rosenthal 1736.21 Steven Saul 1627.32 Adam Rodriques 1734.70 Mike Wolfberg 1623.84 Nora Tolins 1728.33 Richard Buck 1619.18 Jeanne Freebody 1722.41 John Van Pelt 1617.71 Diana Spiller 1711.92 Joel Horn 1616.33 Myron Feld 1710.27 Rich Reiben 1612.81 Leland Fidler 1710.26 Arnie Horowitz 1609.66 Sherrie Saint John 1709.90 Mark Fidler 1609.01 Jack Niles 1702.76 Bruce Adams 1607.89 Gary Reid 1702.75 Ben Greenwood 1603.73 Marshall Finn 1701.54 Elaine Patterson 1596.81 Jesse Friedman 1696.99 Judy Horn 1594.40 Larry Katz 1695.57 Gina Fassio 1573.68 Rick LaPointe 1683.34 Thomas Stumpf 1569.63 Sharon McWilliams 1680.88 Julie Lindahl 1567.96 Chris Mather 1672.26 Jake Bergmann 1561.91 Emmanuel Aronie 1668.29 Barbara Revkin 1559.89 Jackie Prince 1663.64 Carl Durdan 1551.79 Renate Bachmann 1663.59 Ben Harrison 1545.21 Jonathan Ellis 1654.98 Jamie Ryan 1544.85 Lauren Comeau 1640.77 Ellen Miller 1543.99 Tim Lutts 1640.47 Bob Becker 1542.11 Jane Conti
There are many notable achievements this season:
The club's web site continues to be at http://wolfberg.net/scrabble/lexington. You can click on the "Clubs" box at http://ScrabbleClub.com to get there.
We usually have about 4-6 players in the top 100 and about 8-10 players in the top 200 in the NSA ratings.
Several of our club members are active at the web-based Internet Scrabble Club. Our club roster includes ISC handles for many of these folks.
The 3rd highest game score in a club session was Ben Harrison's 696. The club record is 709, and second place is 703.
These were these 10 games in the 600's: Mike Wolfberg 642, John Van Pelt 638 and 631, Larry Katz 615, Dean Cullen 612 and 602, Bruce Adams 611, Richard Buck 609, Steven Saul 608, Joey Mallick 600.
With 351 games, Jamie Ryan broke the record for the most games, since it was set at 315 by Muriel Sands in 1994-1995 season. Jamie averaged playing about 8 games per session.
With 204 wins, Jamie Ryan broke the record for the most wins, since it was set at 175 by Steve Root in the 1991-1992 season.
With 135,187 points, Jamie Ryan broke the record for the most points scored in season, since it was set at 111,252 by Forrestt Tellis in the 1991-1992 season.
Ben Harrison achieved the runner-up record for this category when he scored 696. His percentage above average was 79.8%. We have tracked this statistic only since the 1997-1998 season, and the club record has been 80.6%.
These players played 5 bingos in one game on various sessions throughout the season: Judy Horn, Joel Horn, Richard Buck. The club record is 6 bingos.
High loss for the season was a 462 by Mike Wolfberg to Steven Saul's 472. The club record is 486.
The third-highest total ever seen in this club was 998 in a game on 22-Jan-04, in which Dean Cullen defeated Gregg Foster 587-411. The club record is 1062.
The highest tie of the season was 451-451 by Barbara Revkin and Joel Horn. The club record is 462-462.
John Van Pelt scored 212 points for QUEERISH. Mark Fidler scored 161 for HORSEMEN. The club record is 293 points.
No special record was remembered in this category during the season. The club record is 109.
Jere Mead came close to matching the club record of 4 consectutive bingos by one player. After Jere bingoed 3 times, he then scored 72 by using 6 letters to form an 8-letter double-double through split letters.
The club record of 10 games in the 500's was set when there were 27 players in attendance during the previous season of the club. On 26-Feb-04, this record was matched with a much higher attendace of 36 players; however, one of the games in that session was exactly 500, which is technically not "over 500". Here are the ten players who scored at least 500: John Van Pelt (638), Gina Fassio (562), Joel Horn (537), Ellen Miller (525), Latty Katz (523), Jamie Ryan (513), Marshall Finn (510), Nick Amphlett (508), Judy Horn (504), Mike Wolfberg (500).
On 11-Mar-04 there were a record-breaking 44 players, including 3 new ones. Thre were 43 in attendance at another session. Prior to this season, the record was 37. The average attendance during the season was 29, up 3 from the previous season.
There was one session in which there were 2 games in which an A and blank were picked to see who went first.
There was a session in which Chris Mather was involved with two interesting pickings to go first:
Twenty-six of our regular club players attended the North American Scrabble® Championship tournament in New Orleans, LA July 31 - August 6, 2004. This page details how the club fared.
Further details for many of the club records mentioned above can be found on this club's statistics page.
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