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Aaron Bader's Decree: Acquiesce, or be Destroyed

1st Aaron Bader breezed by a veritable "killer's row" of opponents with a 4-0 +393 record, causing one to wonder, how unstoppable would he be if his brain wasn't overfull with British words?  Thomas Reinke was the hapless victim who came closest to grasping the tantalizing fruit off the tree of victory, but he still fell well short, losing to Aaron 357-388.  Thomas played perhaps the easiest bingo of the night with EASIEST, whereas Aaron had to work a little bit harder for his own bingos, getting COSTIVE and ANGINAS.  Aaron's dominance was thoroughly proven as he handed three otherwise-undefeated players their only losses.  The highest-scoring of those was a dismantling of Andy Bohnsack, 521-402, giving Aaron his first win in five attempts against this particular opponent.   MORTALS and TRIODES were Andy's rack-clearing plays; Aaron had ENLARGER, OLDSTER, and Word of the Week TURBOFAN.  The yearly standings now show Aaron holding a commanding lead over the competition, but there is plenty of time to change that state of affairs.

2nd Andy Bohnsack topped the list of players with three wins, going 3-1 +188.  Richard Lauder put up a token amount of resistance, playing CYANITE and SADIRONS before succumbing to Andy's might (as well as his bingos, DITTIES and LUNETTES), 443-346.  Even more heinous than that, Andy whomped Leslie Seltzer by a score of 504-298, this time getting three bingos: SATIRIZE, ERUPTED, and CREASING.  In the last game of the night, the fear of god was deservedly put into Andy as he barely escaped with his life against Charles Reinke, 387-383.  High-level expert word knowledge was fully on display in that game: Andy played STARTLER and GAINERS, with Charles contributing WISTERIA. 

3rd Lynda Finn entered into the top three by a mere seven spread points with her 3-1 +134 record.  She stifled the normally bingo-prone Bryan Benwitz, beating him 378-369 and preventing him from bingoing for the whole game (it didn't hurt that Lynda got two bingos of her own, TUNNELS and SCARIER).  Versus Mary Becker, Lynda accomplished a similar feat, holding her opponent bingoless while bingoing a number of times herself: GLAZERS, OUTSLEEP, and FEATURE.  That game ended with a more distant 447-310 final tally.  Her final win was against Dave Gilligan, who was unable to withstand Lynda's triple-triple of REGRATED for 140 points.  Now, in cheese country, that word might be interpreted as "to grate again", but to REGRATE is "to buy up so in order to sell for a higher price in the same area".  By way of consolation, Dave played SPEEDERS for 83 points, but the final score was still well in Lynda's favor, 408-320.

Two other triple-triples were played and rewarded with $5: Leslie Seltzer had BINDINGS for 140, and Peter Schmiedicke scored 167 with his play of HARSHENS. 

Dave Gilligan Just One Point Away From Three Wins (or Two Losses Depending on How Optimistic You Are)

1st Dave Gilligan's final record of 2-1-1 got him first place in the intermediates.  A rare tie against Bryan Benwitz, 332-332, was more welcome than a loss but less welcome than a win.  Dave had INSIDER to Bryan's SPLINTER, and a "creative" miscount of either of those plays could have easily swung the game in either direction.  A match against June Scott ended more convicingly in terms of a discrete outcome, with Dave's MAINTAIN leading the way to a 340-280 victory.

Charles Reinke Not Keen on the Idea of Losing

1st Charles Reinke emerged from a large group of 19 players as the only one undefeated, finishing at 4-0 +377.  There were a myriad questions, but no answers, as Charles roughed up his opponents; he averaged 458 over his four games, highest among all attendees.  In a game against Susan Vergeront, both combatants were allowed two bingos by the often-mercurial Tile Gods (ANTIGEN and TALLIERS for Susan; COLLIES and WARPAGES for Charles), but the final score was not so balanced, ending 491-314 in Charles' favor.  491 is an impressive score, but Charles' appetite for huge scores was not sated, and he defeated Andy Bohnsack 522-402 in the final game of the night.  Andy had DARKIES for 99 points, as well as an out-bingo of TOLUIDE, but Charles got down three of his own bingos - COLOCATE, OUTFLIES, and INSHRINE - for an easy win.

2nd Chris Vergeront returned from a summer of ultimate frisbeeing to prove that his skills had not grown rusty, finishing with a 4-1 record and a bewildering -27 cumulative.  All of his games were close save the one he lost, 328-442 versus Andy Bohnsack.  Against Mary Becker, Chris utilized his high-probability bingo knowledge to get down DECRIALS and ROADIES, thus squeaking out a 393-384 win.  If that score wasn't close enough for you, Chris later defeated Helen Flores by a still smaller margin, 325-317, a game where the only bingo on the board was phony - GLISSED.  As a former trombonist, Chris was as surprised as anybody when that word failed to turn up in the dictionary.  The scoring picked up when Chris matched up against Leslie Seltzer; Chris scored an impressive 479, and Leslie's 432 is the highest loss so far this year.  The younger Vergeront had three bingos of SOLIDER, JOINTER, and QUINATES (QUINATE is an adjective meaning "arranged in groups of five"); Leslie was held bingoless, but did get a non-bingo triple-triple of REQUITED for 162 points (!!), the highest-scoring non-bingo play in club history as far as this writer knows.  Leslie walked away from that game five dollars richer, as any trip-trip, bingo or not, gets rewarded with a fiver.

3rd Thomas Reinke only played six bingos, a low total for the prolific bingoer, but neverthless ended up with a strong 3-1 +391 performance.  A game with Bryan Benwitz saw some disciplined board control as each player was limited to one bingo apiece: LATRINES for Bryan, RADWASTE (n. radioactive waste) for Thomas.  A timely V-stick allowed the twin to prevail, 394-354.  Gail Salm was not spared a bingo assault as Thomas' other opponents were: the final score of 514-304 came as a result of Thomas' three bingos: SWERVING, NOTABLES, and REIMAGES.  Gail got down TOASTIER, a word that becomes more appropriate as the weather gets colder (somebody remind me why we don't relocate the club to Florida?).  As is often the case, Thomas' only loss came to his brother, 411-387.  Thomas got down the high-probability URANITE, but couldn't keep up with FRAENUM, LINTIER, and Word of the Week SANDSOAP from his mirror image on the other side of the board.

Barb Besadny Coldly, Methodically Handles Intermediates

1st Barb Besadny averaged a heady 387 per game as she went 2-1 +115.  She handily took care of June Scott, 394-315, despite no bingos being played on either side.  Her loss came against Susan Vergeront, and it was indisputably the closest game of the night, as the margin turned out to be just one point, 371-372.  Susan had STAIDER and ENGRAVES, but Barb made it extremely close even with no bingos of her own.

2nd Sue Goldstein went 2-1 +16 for a strong second-place finish in the intermediate group.  Her loss came against the aforementioned Barb Besadny, 392-355, despite a high-scoring bingo of FALSIES for 88 points.  However, while defeating Dave Gilligan 374-339, Sue got an even higher-scoring bingo: a triple-triple STRINGER for 113 points!  This left her average bingo score for the session at 101 points, easily topping every other challenger.

Aaron Bader 100% On Year - Can He Keep It Up?

1st Aaron Bader found that his winning percentage goes up when he doesn't have to play Mark all the time, going 4-0 +169.  Things got off to a great start as he beat last year's champ, Charles Reinke, 448-386.  Aaron's three bingos of DIALYSE, REVENGED, and MONGOOSE proved that extensive Collins knowledge doesn't have to stop you from bingoing.  To complete the "anti-Reinke", he also defeated Thomas Reinke by a score of 466-428, this time with just two bingos: RERAISE and MOORAGE.  His opponent likewise bingoed twice, with SLANDER and OLIGOMER (n. a type of polymer).  Not every game was as high-scoring, however: against Peter Schmiedicke, a final of 376-358 told a sad tale of not-quite-synergistic tiles, although OLESTRA and FRENETIC (both for 76 points) were well-received on Aaron's rack.

2nd Andy Bohnsack's 4-1 +202 performance easily slotted him into second place, but at only two bingos per game, he's going to have to up his bingo output if he wants to surpass last year's 2.23 per game.  His most impressive score was a 475-368 victory over Leslie Seltzer, whose higher-scoring INSPECT for 83 nevertheless was outdone by Andy's FEDORAS (75) and EPILATOR (74).  The two-bingo theme continued with ANGELUS and PERSONAL against Peter Schmiedicke, a usually high-scoring matchup that ended up "only" 415-341.  The singular loss blemishing Andy's scoresheet was provided courtesy of Thomas Reinke, who took advantage of the back-to-work schoolteacher's overtaxed brain to prevail 486-363.  Andy had ULTERIOR and TRELLIS, but Thomas pulled out the big guns with ELYTRUM for 110 points and the Word of the Week, CHIGETAI (n. a wild ass).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +364 to top the other 3-1 finisher, Thomas Reinke.  While many players started off the new club season with a victory, not did it in quite the fashion that Bryan did: a 569-251 win against Jordan Parker was easily the most dominating performance of the evening.  FIVE bingos found their way from Bryan's rack to the board: DENOTES, BONEHEAD, ADMIRE, SALLIER, and OVERAWED, the last one for 98 points.  A much closer game was played against Dave Gilligan, who put up a respectable 345 to Bryan's 382.  Dave had the unlikely three-S DISCUSS, but Bryan's more common PRINTED and INHALER (anagrams to HERNIAL) proved to be too much.  Andy Bohnsack took it upon himself to give Bryan his only loss, a 433-342 affair whose lopsided bingo counts in favor of Andy probably don't give Jordan much solace.

June Scott Starts New Year Off Right

1st June Scott has already achieved a feat that was not accomplished all of last season, going undefeated at 3-0 +92.  After two uneventful games with the Miuras that ended in her favor, June ramped up the intensity and piled on 378 points against Sue Goldstein's 325.  Of note was the high-scoring bingo of DIALERS for 92 points, leaving June with an average bingo score of...92 points!  Sadly, Jordan Parker's sole bingo of WANIEST scored 94, so June will have to be content with second place in that category.

2nd Sue Goldstein's scoresheet was a scene of purest equilibrium, with a 1-1-1 +72 record.  A 324-324 tie against Aki Miura ended without a bingo for either player, nor a real winner.  However, Sue's match with Sharlie Miura ended somewhat more convincingly with a 347-222 final.