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Lexington Scrabble® Club 1998-1999 Season

This reports on the season which ran from September, 1998 through August, 1999.

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, which is situated on Lexington Green behind the Lexington Minuteman Statue. Judy Horn has been directing this club for about 16 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.

These are the top 16 active players in decreasing club average rating:


  Adam Logan       - averaged 423, and won 43 of his 53 games
  Jere Mead        - averaged 413 in 24 games
  Joey Mallick     - averaged 422 in 63 games
  Merrill Kaitz    - averaged 424 in 25 games
  Steven Saul      - won 113 of his 177 games
  Richard Buck     - averaged 404 in 139 games
  Mike Wolfberg    - averaged 403, and won 118 of his 185 games
  Joel Horn        - won 126 of his 185 games
  John Van Pelt
  Arnie Horowitz
  Ben Loiterstein
  Dave Mallick
  Mark Fidler
  Elaine Patterson
  Bruce Adams
  Judy Horn        - won 138 of 267 games, totalled 102,544 points

Our club roster also includes CGP list mistress, Sherrie Saint John.

In this past season, the highest game score was 611 by Merrill Kaitz. The only other over-600 game was a 605 by Mike Wolfberg. The club record is 709 by Mike Wolfberg on 4-Nov-82.

The highest losing score for the season was John Van Pelt's 468 on 1-Jul-99; the winner of that game was Mark Fidler, with a 517. The club record is 480 by Merrill Kaitz, losing to Mike Wolfberg's 493 on 12-Jan-89.

The highest tied score for the season was a 462 by Merrill Kaitz and Richard Buck. We believe this is a club record.

In the unusually long club session held during the day on 26-Dec-98, Joel Horn won ten games and was undefeated.

On 20-May-99, Judy Horn created SCARIFYING, a 10-letter word as a bingo by surrounding RIF with letters A,G,I,N,S, and 2 blanks. This is not likely to be a club record, but it's the longest play we have noted in our records.

The weekly news lists the top ten active players based on ratings. Normally this includes exactly ten players. When there are ties, such as for first place, we consider both of those players to be first, and there is no second place, since it is skipped. A strange case occurred for the news for 24-Jun-99 in that four players were tied for tenth place and therefore 14 players were listed in the top ten. We believe that to be a club record.


back to the top of this page This page, maintained by Mike Wolfberg, was last updated on December 14, 2012.