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Gail Salm Sweeps, Others Weep

1st Gail Salm unleashed a torrent of tiles upon her four unsuspecting opponents, resulting in a 4-0 +196 performance that gave her undisputed first-place bragging rights. The path to undefeated-dom was not without its obstacles, however. Gail narrowly escaped with the win in the first game of the night, 339-327 against Susan Vergeront, when a loss would have irrevocably altered her destiny. Her bingos in that one were MEANEST and INVERTER. She must have thought that a 12-point victory was too much of a cushion, because her game against Mary Becker ended up being only a six-point win, 343-337. The crown jewel of her victories was a strong 446-379 triumph over the almost-club-leading Charles Reinke. Charles was stymied by Gail's bingoing prowess, and her three bonus plays (OVERWIND, MUSTIER, and BLEARING) easily overcame his sole effort of DIANTHUS.

2nd Charles Reinke put together a solid 3-1 +464 effort that was disrupted only by Gail's victory over him in the final round. He set a personal record in club play by scoring a monstrous 648 against Helen Flores, dropping down bingos of LURCHES, TWINGES, LIFECARE, and ADDICTER (READDICT is good) as well as a multitude of other high-scoring plays. That score of 648 is the sixth-highest all time since 2011, somewhat breaking up the Thomas Reinke hegemony on that list. Charles' other two losses were slightly more prosaic, but still showcased his scoring skills: 477-460 against Aaron Bader (sixth-highest losing score this year) and 520-391 against Thomas Reinke. In the latter game, seven total bingos were played: BIGEMINY, PELAGES, and NORTENAS on the losing side, DEFIANT, CTENIDIA, DEARTHS, and TAILBONE on the winning side.

3rd Lynda Finn was the second-best of four 3-1 finishers with her +305 cume. Her single loss was by just two points to Mary Becker, 376-378. Lynda's bingo (MENIALS for 77) outscored Mary's 70-point IODINES but couldn't find that extra scoring bump to get the win (perhaps too distracted by collecting pokeballs?). She made up for the close loss, however, with wins against the third- and fourth-place players on the yearly standings, Aaron Bader and Bryan Benwitz. The game against Aaron was also quite closely-contested, ending with a final total of 408-398. Aaron found MEUNIERE, but Lynda one-upped him with INERTIA and DISTORT, thereby securing the victory. Bryan was not able to make it as close; he lost to Lynda 347-409 despite an even two bingos apiece (ARRIVES and OUTRATED on Bryan's end; ADORNED and CANALISE for Lynda).

Thomas' LOWBUSH was chosen as word of the week. HIGHBUSH has been a word for a while, but LOWBUSH was just added in last year's dictionary update. In other bingo news, the club just recently crossed the 20% threshold in its neverending goal to play every seven- and eight-letter word in the dictionary. Only 45,348 words to go!

Richard Lauder Goes Undefeated* (Note Asterisk)

1st Richard Lauder succeeded in not losing any of his games, but this remarkable feat must be denoted, just like Barry Bonds' home run record, with an asterisk, for Richard only played three out of four possible games. His 3-0 +140 record nonetheless was enough for first place given the absence of any 4-0 performances, and his three bingos per game led all players. A first-round match against Lynda Finn resulted in Lynda's only loss of the evening as Richard got down AXSEEDS, ENTERICS, and OVERSPEND (through PE) to attain a 407-365 victory. He then pulled out his "bag of tricks" (read: bag of phonies) to take down Mary Becker by a score of 408-366. ENTITLED was his single valid bingo in the game; PALTROON (valid anagram: PORTOLAN; probably thinking of POLTROON) and AGENISE (either that or AGEWISE; handwriting unclear) were his phonies. To clinch his undefeated night, Richard first had to get past Charles Reinke, a task which was readily accomplished with a final score of 435-379, thanks to timely bingos of DONATED, DRAWLING, and OILIEST.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +319, the highest spread of three 3-1 finishers. His first game, a 309-430 loss against Bryan Benwitz, could have been taken as an ill omen, but Thomas rebounded from that setback to win his next three, nearly scoring 500 in all of them (missing the cutoff with a 498 against Dennis Lloyd). Dave Gilligan was the first victim of Thomas' 500-scoring ways; their game ended rather lopsidedly at 533-320. Dave got away with the phony LURIDEST (LUCIDEST is new to the dictionary; STUDLIER and DILUTERS are the real words in those letters), while Thomas contributed YEELINS, ZAIDEHS, and LINTIER to his extensive list of bingos. Thomas' next 500 game was just that, a round 500 to Peter Schmiedicke's 388. Again, Thomas played three bingos (ETERNISE, VIADUCT, and LUTANIST), but this time, his opponent got two, and they were both valid: AURORAE (almost looks like an exchangeable rack until you see the bingo!) and COLLEGE.

3rd Bryan Benwitz fell fourteen spread points short of second place with his 3-1 +305 record. His 565-249 trouncing of Helen Flores was his fourth 300+ winning margin this year. It was also his seventh four-bingo game (CONGEST, UNLOADER, ERASION, INWALLED) in the same time period. Peter Schmiedicke fared somewhat better, "only" losing to Bryan by a score of 380-453. Peter played PRERADIO and GOATEES, while Bryan got just one bingo of SANITIES, but Bryan's 81-point play of ZOUK, plus a bevy of other scoring plays, allowed him to snag victory from his opponent's greedy grip. Going into the fourth game with an undefeated record, the tables were utterly turned, and Bryan got a taste of his own bitter medicine, losing to Lynda Finn 538-333. Bryan's onliest bingo was ONLIEST; meanwhile, Lynda had a double-double of INSOLATE (82), CARVINGS on a triple word (90), and a triple-triple of ENTREATS (133). Lynda's triple-triple wasn't the first one played that night; Aaron Bader's COERCION for 122 holds that honor, found through the second C out of an EINOO?? rack.

Charles' ORDUROUS was chosen as word of the week.

There's a New Sheriff in Town

1st Thomas Reinke cobbled together a perfect 5-0 night, a night sweetened by the fact that he had overtaken his brother at the top of the yearly standings. After somehow overcoming two opponents at the same time in Dave and Gail while playing no phonies, he brought out a timely fake against Peter,  with DISHABLE*, to earn the win. It turns out that Aaron had played that word (which doesn't mean what you think it means) against Mark a while back in a Collins game, so while it wasn't a total fabrication on Thomas' part, it remains a glaring indictment on his word knowledge. Seriously glaring. Really, really glaring. I don't know how we'll ever be able to trust him after this. Feeling a combination of shame and embarrassment, he went phony-less the rest of the night. He beat Charles 433-386 in round three, and then opened with a bingo-bango-bongo of LORDING, GREEDILY, and DRENCHER against Richard in the final round. Richard made it close with CATIONS and STABILE, but Thomas ended up pulling away with an avalanche of high-scoring non-bingos to secure his undefeated session.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +174 to come in second place, coincidentally the same place he now resides in the yearly standings. He opened with a 418-350 win against Dennis, playing ENFRAMED and RIBOSOME. He then ended Betty's 1-game winning streak against him, winning 458-338 with the aid of SEINERS and RANKLERS* (n. one that rankles, except not really, because it's not a word and thus has no reasonable definition). Against Thomas, he must not have realized that the top spot on the standings was at stake; otherwise, he definitely would have played more than one bingo, right? Someone needs to work on their situational awareness. Charles did end up winning his final game against Peter, but it was too late; he is now doomed to an eternal fate of coming in second to his brother.

3rd Gail Salm came in third at 3-1 +114. She recovered from an opening loss against Thomas to win three straight, the first against Dave, 377-340. Of note: she played STONIER in that game, and then played it again in her 419-338 win over Bryan. If she had played it for a third time on the night, I think we would have had to make a prize for that occurrence and then award it to her. As it stood, she had to be content with a decisive 455-389 win versus Lynda.

Richard played the word of the week, DIURESIS for 122 points. As it was a triple-triple, and it won the high-D prize, he was awarded 9 green-gray rectangles for that play alone.