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Lynda "Infinnite Points" Finn Scores Many, but Not Quite Infinite, Points

1st Lynda Finn went 4-1 +134, coming in first by taking advantage of a programming feature which sorts players by total wins, not win percentage. She phonied in both of her closest wins, proving that 1.) phonying is fun and 2.) sometimes you need to do it if you want to win. Against Dennis Lloyd, Lynda won by a score of 415-407, playing the valid CALDERAS to go along with GOSSIMER (GOSSAMER is the correct spelling); Dennis had SPRINTED and OUTLINED. Later, in a game against Mary Becker, Lynda barely came away with the victory, winning 423-421 thanks to an impossible-to-challenge PIROGHIS. PIROGHI is valid, and most variations of that tasty Russian dumpling do take an S, so it's not surprising that it stayed on the board. Lynda did not need to utilize any fake words in her first-place-clinching victory over Thomas Reinke, 539-387. All four of her bingos were legit: MARLIEST, FLAVINE, PURITANS, and TONSURE. Thomas got down ARIETTA and ETRIERS, but all he managed to accomplish with those bingos was a 150-point loss instead of a 250-point loss.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-0 +263, then went home, forfeiting his chance for a helping of that four-and-oh undefeated glory. He started off his evening strong with a revenge win against Charles Reinke, 498-371. His high-scoring bingos of BIOCIDE (81), INWEAVES (80), and SHOUTER (90) were more than enough to trump Charles' DIESTRUM (84). After a prosaic 388-317 game against Helen Flores where Aaron's INTERNE was the only bingo on the board, Aaron defeated the previously-though-to-be-undefeatable Lynda Finn 404-339. It was another sad day for bingo fans, as there was only a single bingo on the board (RETURNED for Lynda) before the last two plays. Lynda bingoed with FUMIEST for what she thought was enough to squeak out the win, and instantly Aaron says "you aren't going to like this" and bingos out with APNOEAS for the win.

3rd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +357, some 100 spread points ahead of some other guy who shares his last name. Charles lost to Aaron Bader in his first game (the gory details of which are outlined above), but rebounded quickly with a 457-250 win against Sue Goldstein, made possible by bingos of ACETATE, IMAGINED, and INDICTED. Gail Salm managed to get a bit closer to defeating Charles with a 363-425 final score in their matchup. She even outbingoed him, playing two (GLANDERS and SINCERER) to Charles' one (ENTRAPS). Another three-bingo output for Charles, in the final game of the night, resulted in another 200-point victory; Charles played ELOIGNED, ANODISE, and TOREADOR to beat Richard Lauder (who got down ASSURED) 518-303.

With the last session in August comes the end of the club season. Charles ended the year strong and finished with the club's highest winning percentage at 75.8%, a comfortable 1.2% ahead of Thomas at 74.6%. Aaron rounded out the top three with a 67.5% mark. Charles also averaged a lofty 450 points per game, easily tops among regular players.

Charles Reinke Gets Tenth Straight, is Denied Glory of Eleventh

1st Charles Reinke went 3-1 +274, leading the clump of players who finished with just one loss. He won his first two games of the night to reach the enviable "ten wins in a row" milestone, thus earning a cool five bucks to spend on dictionaries. The first was a convincing 450-341 win over Lynda Finn, propelled by bingos of SHEREEF, OUTRODE, and INLAYERS> The second was not quite so convincing, with Charles winning a tense one against Mary Becker, 381-375. Then Richard Lauder came along and decisively snapped Charles' winning streak, thus earning a cool five bucks to spend on golf clubs. That game ended with a final score of 402-342; Charles' low score could be attributed to the fact that the bingo box on his scorecard was utterly blank. Richard, meanwhile, got down TONIEST and BUMPERS. Charles did redeem himself in the fourth game by creaming Aaron Bader, 530-311.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished at 3-1 for the third straight week, but his +231 spread indicated a performance that was not quite as dominant as past excursions had been. His big game was a 480-276 victory against Betty Hasselkus. Betty did get down SPOUTING as a bingo, but otherwise struggled to score while Bryan played RESTRING and UPSTART. That good fortune continued into the next game against Aaron Bader, and Bryan won again, 403-343. Bryan's inexplicably dismal head-to-head record against Aaron is now somewhat less dismal, at 6 wins, 16 losses, and a tie. In sadder news, Bryan's chance to go undefeated was thwarted in the final game by none other than third-place finisher Thomas Reinke by a score of 348-437. An 80-point SCREENED was Bryan's lone delegate to the bingo summit; Thomas sent REIFIES, SAINFOIN (anagram: SINFONIA), and UNBALED.

3rd Thomas Reinke's +158 spread was the lowest among the 3-1's, and he averaged under 400 for the second straight week, but he gets a paragraph anyway. Things got off to a promising start when he thoroughly outscored Dennis Lloyd, 474-304. In that game, Dennis got down TENNIES, his only bingo of the night; not too bad since he went 3-2 himself! Unfortunately, Thomas also outbingoed Dennis in addition to outscoring him, playing REASCENT, GLOBATED, and LINGUISA (a type of pork sausage, usually spelled LINGUICA). Fortune then discontinued smiling upon Thomas in order to frown upon him, and the result was a soul-, mind-, and body-crushing 263-525 loss to Aaron Bader. Aaron played SOFTENS, STINKERS, STUIVERS, and TORTURED for his bingos; some of those words are appropriate to the circumstances under which they were played. Thomas did redeem himself somewhat in the next game with a 417-256 win over Helen Flores.

Charles Reinke Returns From Nationals in No Mood to Lose Any More Games

1st Charles Reinke put together a perfect 4-0 +302 performance and is now has been the winner in fourteen of his last fifteen games. Helen Flores was the first victim of Charles' rage, losing 387-493; she got down DEVIOUS and OUTAGES, but Charles exceeded her bingo output with NOYADES, NATATION, and perhaps the most difficult and astounding triple-triple find of his storied Scrabble career, SNOOTIER for 131 points. Lynda Finn was treated to roughly the same amount of rage as Helen before her, with the Lynda-Charles match ending at 492-350. Again, Charles had three bingos: BIDENTAL, IONONES, and TORULAE. Three bingos per game would then prove to be untenable, and Charles could only play INANEST and CASEOSE (mistakenly thought not to take an S, it's a peptide produced in the digestion of casein) when defeating Mary Becker 444-395.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged a rather insane 502 points per game, even taking into consideration a loss which left him at 3-1 +620. He utterly squished Thomas Reinke by a score of 496-302, playing a whopping four bingos in the rout: SPHEROID, GRIMACES, UINTAITE, and WONDERS. Bryan's ability to dominate in Scrabble contests would only intensify; he got his second-highest game ever when he pummeled Aaron Bader in the third round, 578-371. Rumors are currently circulating that this over-the-top defeat is the reason for Aaron's only playing three games. In fairness, it would be reasonable to quit Scrabble forever after witnessing the amount of bingos that Aaron had to witness: FATTIER, RECHOOSE, FLOATELS, CAROMING, and INBOUNDS was Bryan's impressive bingo list. Unfortunately, Bryan's night of total domination was ruined by a 421-416 loss to the guy in the first paragraph.

3rd Dave Gilligan finished at 3-1 +104, not quite having the gaudy bingo list of Bryan, but attaining the same amount of wins, which is all that matters in the end. He snuck away with a close win against Gail Salm, 406-396, successfully countering Gail's COTERIE and HAULERS with two of his own bingos, ROOMIES and WASTRAL (WASTREL is good). Dave's primal urge to play phonies was kept in check against Mary Becker, where his two valid bingos (EMOTIONS and HOLIDAYS) led to a comfortable 421-298 victory. However, Dave's night was spoiled from the get-go by a first-round loss, 322-437, to Richard Lauder. Richard also temporarily put a hold on his phonying tendencies by playing UNFORMED, REGISTER, and BEETLES, while Dave was forced to leave the "bingo" section of his scoresheet blank for that round.