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Lexington Scrabble® Club 2003-2004 Season

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
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    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:

Club Web Site

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.

NSA ratings

We usually have about 4-6 players in the top 100 and about 8-10 players in the top 200 in the NSA ratings.

ISC Players

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.

High Games

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.

Most Games

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.

Most Wins

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.

Most Points

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.

Highest percentage above average

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%.

Many Bingos by One Player

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 Losing Scores and High Total Scores

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.

High Tie

The highest tie of the season was 451-451 by Barbara Revkin and Joel Horn. The club record is 462-462.

High Bingo

John Van Pelt scored 212 points for QUEERISH. Mark Fidler scored 161 for HORSEMEN. The club record is 293 points.

High Non-bingo

No special record was remembered in this category during the season. The club record is 109.

Consecutive Bingos

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.

Many Games in The 500's

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).

High Session Attendance

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.

Unusual Drawings to Go First

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:

This Club at NSC2004

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.


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