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Sanity Returns to Scrabble World as Richard Lauder is Finally Beaten

1st Charles Reinke faced stiff competition throughout the night, but managed to escape with four wins and a +193 spread.  Most of his games were rather close - the only one that wasn't was a 426-320 win against Mary Becker.  Charles played REGLAZES and SEAMING while Mary suffered a drought of bingo-prone tiles until the end, where her last rack of BISQUES was orphaned due to unfavorable board conditions.  Peter Schmiedicke came closest to felling the club leader, losing by a close score of 385-387.  Both players played just one bingo, well below the normal bingo output for them: EVASION for Charles and NICTATE for Peter.

2nd Richard "the Bearded Bruiser" Lauder went 4-1 +116, winning his first two games to extend his win-streak to 18 before Bryan Benwitz decisively put an end to the run.  The score in that one was a lopsided 292-484, but the payouts afterwards were tilted in the other direction; Bryan got five smackeroos for playing the role of spoiler, whereas Richard walked away from the loss thirteen dollars richer ($5 for the first ten games and $1 for each game thereafter).  Bryan unleashed a trio of bingos (TOLLERS, ENVIERS, and AWAITED) and was not perturbed in the slightest when Richard's VICTUALS came down.  Richard made up a good amount of that lost spread when he defeated Betty Hasselkus 460-271, playing three bingos of his own: FOLIATED (v. FOLIATE, to hammer into thin plates), SEASONS, and NOTIVES.

3rd Thomas Reinke got first crack at taking down Richard, but failed, resulting in a 3-1 +388 final record.  In a blaze of fury after losing out on the $5 prize, he averaged 466 points in his other three games.  He reserved an especially large amount of rage for the winner of that $5, Bryan Benwitz, whom he clobbered 479-256.  Thomas played MEASLIER and AGATOID (adj. resembling agate); Bryan managed to play WARTIEST amidst the chaos.

Bryan Benwitz played the word of the week, VAPOROUS.  It's always nice to bingo with such incompatible combinations of letters such as OOPVU.   

Dave Gilligan Bingos His Way to the Top

1st Dave Gilligan scored over 400 in each of his games while going 2-1 +382.  He played two bingos, SANDERS and ALLOTER (ALLOTTER and REALLOT are good) to defeat Sue Goldstein 423-278.  After his initial two wins, he was bumped up to the expert group, where he gave Charles Reinke a run for his money, finally losing 411-446.  Again, Dave was the proud owner of two bingos, ENABLES and ARROGANT, with Charles playing an additional two: DENTIST and STIBNITE (n. an ore of antimony). 

Thomas Reinke Unblinkingly Crushes Hopes, Dreams of Fellow Scrabble Players

1st Thomas Reinke applied some serious amounts of hurt to his four opponents, racking up large amount of spread in the process to finish 4-0 +509.  After ten straight losses at the hand of Charles Reinke, he finally beat his brother, prevailing 463-392.  INULASE was Thomas' contribution to the bingoing action; Charles played the high-probability ERINGOES (n. eringo, a medicinal herb, also ERYNGO) and LOGIEST.  The highest game score of the session also belonged to Thomas, who scored 528 (againt Lynda's 341) and played three bingos: RETITLE, STREAMS, and LAWINES (n. lawine, an avalanche, also LAUWINE). 

2nd Peter Schmiedicke scored a little less than his usual average (383 to his yearly average of 407), but it didn't matter as he ended up 4-1 +55.  He had only one 400-point game, but it came in a 96-point win versus Bryan Benwitz, 403-307.  Peter played GRASSES (something we don't see too much of this time of year) and Bryan played SNOWIEST (winner of Seasonally Appropriate Word of the Week).  The loss which marred his scoresheet was courtesy of Charles Reinke, who erased most of Peter's carefully-acquired spread with a 481-352 win.  Peter got $4 for high-S with PANDITS (n. pandit, a wise man in India), but Charles played TORULAE, EMACIATE, and the phony SHABBAT (SABBATH and SABBAT are good) to coast to victory. 

3rd Lynda "Finntastic" Finn went 3-1 +102, averaging 401 points per game.  She started off the night with a bang, roundly defeating Mary Becker 487-302.  Lynda greedily hogged the bingos in that game, all three of them attributable to her: STARING, THINNED, and AVERSION.  Added to the growing list of victims was Charles Reinke, who succumbed to the power of Lynda's lucky tile rack with a 346-382 loss.  Lynda had the double-double EARNINGS, plus enough high-scoring plays to easily outrun Charles' TOWLINES and INSOULED.

Betty Hasselkus was awarded Word of the Week for her find of SAWDUST.  While not an esoteric word, it certainly is a difficult find, since most of us would give up when faced with the dreaded WU tandem!  My first thought would be something like, "Blast my dratted luck!  Where can I play WUD?  Grumble grumble grumble."

June Scott Is a Bit More Forgiving Than That

1st June Scott finished at an even 2-2 with a not-so-even -166 cumulative.  Her bingo of FEARING did little to slow down Betty Hasselkus, who beat her 420-265 with the assistance of some POTIONS.  However, June went on to beat Sue Goldstein twice, including a high-scoring 375-351 match, to prevail in the Intermediate group.

Four people showed up to play on the east side.  Peter dominated with a 2-0 +317 record while averaging 463 points and three bingos per game.