up to the Lexington Scrabble® Club
This reports on the season which ran from September, 2004 through August, 2005.
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 22 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-04 through Aug-05 season. In this season, individuals played 6720 games, and so there were 3360 games in all. The average score in all of these games was 375. These numbers were 6416, 3208, and 375 for the previous season.
Of the 6720 individual games, 6321 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 374 for the season. These numbers were 6060 and 375 for the previous season.
Average attendance thoughout the season was 28, and with 52 sessions, including a club party celebrating the 25th anniversary of the club. These statistics indicate that each player plays on the average of 4 2/3 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.
149 different players have attended the club in the past 2 years. During the 2004-2005 season there were 58 active players, namely those who played at least 20 games, and here are the top 20, ordered by decreasing club average rating:
Rod MacNeil - averaged 467, won 18 of 20 games
Jere Mead - 422 40 52
Steven Saul - 410 133 182
John Van Pelt - 422 63 84
Mike Wolfberg - 413 207 275, scoring 113,487 points
Richard Buck - 410 91 131
Aaron Bader - 412 36 49
Rich Reiben - 410 27 38
Arnie Horowitz - 382 31 52
Mark Fidler - 400 127 179
Bruce Adams - 393 85 133
Elaine Patterson - 399 60 102
Joel Horn - 408 156 235
Jamie Ryan - 401 222 346, scoring 138,892 points
Ben Harrison - 393 129 201
Ben Greenwood - 391 46 81
Ed Liebfried - 391 19 28
Carl Durdan - 392 73 122
Bob Becker - 389 193 321, scoring 124,978 points
Judy Horn - 390 156 285, scoring 111,221 points
Also of note:
Trx. Kt. played 406 games and scored 132,801 points.
These high-rated players attended our club, but failed to play the
minimum of twenty games to qualify to be considered as active:
Jason Katz-Brown, Joey Mallick, Merrill Kaitz.
Season Average Ratings of the Top 50 Players who Played at Least 20 Games
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1791.76 Rod MacNeil 1660.41 Chris Kulig
1777.81 Jere Mead 1649.34 Jesse Day
1750.96 Steven Saul 1646.42 Ellen Miller
1746.62 John Van Pelt 1644.90 Larry Katz
1745.05 Mike Wolfberg 1639.34 Rob Rosenthal
1742.04 Richard Buck 1635.44 Diana Spiller
1740.72 Aaron Bader 1634.04 Eric Schwartz
1731.22 Rich Reiben 1627.51 Adam Rodriques
1730.27 Arnie Horowitz 1623.82 Seth Lipkin
1722.84 Mark Fidler 1618.31 Tim Wilkinson
1722.82 Bruce Adams 1609.42 Leigh Bernstein
1719.94 Elaine Patterson 1607.75 Myron Feld
1717.36 Joel Horn 1595.51 Michael Cresta
1690.75 Jamie Ryan 1594.85 Marshall Finn
1689.34 Ben Harrison 1593.29 Jackie Prince
1688.81 Ben Greenwood 1587.85 Linda Giovinazzo
1685.22 Ed Liebfried 1582.19 Renate Bachmann
1681.36 Carl Durdan 1570.49 Jane Conti
1681.24 Bob Becker 1559.44 Tim Lutts
1681.04 Judy Horn 1558.69 Hilda Siegel
1679.46 Thomas Stumpf 1538.15 Trx. Kt.
1678.29 Barbara Revkin 1530.24 Judi Boviard
1678.06 Marsh McPhee 1528.97 Bob England
1676.42 Jake Bergmann 1510.44 Wayne Yorra
1672.17 Joev Dubach 1510.24 Catherine Day
There are many notable achievements this season:
The club's web site continues to be at http://wolfberg.net/scrabble/lexington, and it is also reachable using the shorter http://LSC.wolfberg.net. You can also click on the "Clubs" box at http://ScrabbleClub.com to get there.
We usually have about 4-7 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 highest game score in a club session during this season was 649 by Bob Becker. Runner-up was Mike Wolfberg's 621. These were the only games in the 600's during this season, down from ten such games in the previous season. The club record for high game is 709.
With 406 games, Trx. Kt. broke the record for the most games, since it was set at 351 by Jamie Ryan in the previous season. Trx. averaged playing nearly 8 games per session.
With 222 wins, Jamie Ryan broke the record for the most wins, breaking his own record of 204 wins, which he established in the previous season. Runner-up was 207 wins by Mike Wolfberg.
In a normal club session, albeit a lengthy one, on 24-Mar-05, Bob Becker won his first 9 games. Although he played a tenth game, he lost that one. The record is 12, but at an all-day party.
With a total of 138,892 points, Jamie Ryan broke his own record of 135,187 points, which he established in the previous season.
Bob Becker had the highest percentage above average when he scored 649 points in a game on 2-Jun-05. His percentage above average was 66.1%. The runner-up was 53.5% by Tim Lutts, when he socred 503 on 31-Mar-05. We have tracked this statistic only since the 1997-1998 season, and the club record is 80.6% set in the 2000-2001 season.
These players played 5 bingos in one game on various sessions throughout the season: Judy Horn, Joel Horn, Richard Buck, Aaron Bader. The club record is 6 bingos.
The second-highest total score in this club was 1046 in a game on 7-Oct-04, in which Steven Saul defeated Joel Horn 546-500. The losing of 500 is the highest losing score in this club's history. In this phony-free game, the first five plays were bingos, and each of the players bingoed 4 times. This game can be viewed here. Another high total this season was 980, when Bob Becker defeated Trx. Kt. 588-392 on 2-Jun-05. The club record is a total of 1062.
The highest tie of the season was 442-442 by Steven Saul and Mike Wolfberg. Runner-up is 374-374 by Judy Horn and Bob Becker. The club record is 462-462.
Jake Bergmann scored 230 points for MITZVAhs, which he played on 11-Nov-04. The club record is 293 points, and this is the second-highest high score for a bingo played in this club.
On 12-Feb-05 at a club party which was club-rated, John Ezekowitz made a 105-point non-bingo. John had played the phony CHINT to end just above the light blue double letter square on the left bottom row. Then, he hooked this with ZINGS. Although he did not even consider the playable bingo he had, John scored more with this non-bingo than he could have scored with that bingo. The club record is 109.
In November, 2004, Joel Horn made 6-letter overlaps in each of two consecutive weeks. On 4-Nov-04, Joel played ToRSADE underneath JAILERS ending under the R. On 11-Nov-04, he played IDEATED underneath STARKER starting under the T. We believe the club record is a 7-letter overlap set in 1980, but we do not recall the specific words.
On 2-Dec-04, 6 games were played in which the loser exceeded 400: Marshall Finn 452 (to Joel Horn's 484), Jamie Ryan 414 (to Bob B. 440), Jamie Ryan 412 (to Judy Horn's 473), Wayne Yorra 411 (to Ben Harrison's 443), Jamie Ryan 410 (to Richard Buck's 453), Jamie Ryan 404 (to Mark Fidler's 454). Notice that Jamie was the high-scoring loser in 4 of these 6 games. This ties the club record achieved in several other sessions over the years.
On 13-Jan-05, Bob Becker played the 11-letter word MOTIVATIONS by adding MOTIVAT (for 97 points) to IONS, which his opponent made as an attempted blocking play. This is the only 11-letter bingo played in this club.
On 21-Apr-05, Barbara Revkin first played VACATION for only 62 points (since one of the 1-point letters was represented by a blank) at 15E, but then on her next play, she scored 42 by extending it with ERS to make the 11-letter word VACATIONERS.
On 9-Jun-05, Bob Becker first played QUESTION. Later, Chris Kulig added ER. Subsequently, Bob hooked this with LUXES, making the 11-letter word QUESTIONERS.
On 10-Feb-05, Larry Katz extended MON to make the 10-letter bingo MONOTHEISM.
The highest attendance during this season was 41 players, including 2 new ones, on 2-Jun-05. The club's record is 44 set in the previous season. The average attendance during the season was 28, down 1 from the previous season.
Twenty-three of our regular club players attended the North American Scrabble® Championship tournament in Reno, NV August 19 - August 24, 2005. 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.
| back to the top of this page | This page, maintained by Mike Wolfberg, was last updated on December 14, 2012. |