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Bryan and Peter both went 3-1 but Bryan had more spread. Andy was bingo king with 10 in 4 games and played the word of the day, ENNEADIC

Andy "Mr. B" Bohnsack Takes Experts to School

1st Andy Bohnsack averaged 444 over five games, finishing at 4-1 +329.  After being on the receiving end of a 500 game, losing to Thomas Reinke 320-515, he dished out two 500 games of his own, topping Peter Schmiedicke 518-384 and crushing Mary Becker 561-256.  As if by magic, bingo-prone letters seemed to supernaturally will themselves onto Andy's rack, resulting in such plays as ETCHERS, ATROPIN, ESPRITS, and LIBELERS.  And all those in just one game!  His mystical two-tiles-at-a-time drawing technique is finally paying dividends.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +312 to get second place in the experts.  His lone defeat was by one point, 388-389, to seasoned Scrabble veteran Mark Kenas.  Like Andy, Charles also had a four-bingo game, this one coming against his brother Thomas: NONFOOD, DEAIRING, ISOGONE, and RAILERS were the bonus plays Charles unleashed in that fraternal fistfight, while Thomas managed DELATING and USAUNCES.

3rd Mark Kenas took third place honors by finishing 3-1 +300.  He started off with two big games, 481-239 versus Mary Becker (playing OSTEOMA and SNORTIER <INTRORSE>) and 454-363 versus Peter Schmiedicke (finding RAISABLE and RETILES).  Then the well of tiles ran dry, and he ended the night losing to Andy Bohnsack with a final of 358-392. 

Honorable mention goes to Richard Lauder for also being 3-1, but with an inferior +200 spread.  Richard played the word of the week, WOOMERAS, in the process of besting Lynda Finn 403-344.  A woomera (or womera) is a device used to propel spears.  Thomas Reinke also played two word-of-the-week candidates with SAVORILY (in a savory manner, unpronounceable enough to draw a challenge) and ALKAHEST (the hypothetical universal solvent sought by alchemists, also ALCAHEST).

Harwinder Dowd Romps in Intermediates

1st Harwinder Dowd's lossless record propelled her to first place in the intermediate group, 2-0 +15 being her final tally.  As her low spread indicates, she won two very close games: 299-289 against Aki Miura and 317-315 against Sharlie Miura.  She found and played the word SMELTED in the latter game - those 50 extra points sure come in handy sometimes.

2nd Sharlie Miura went 1-1 +35.  She scored an upset win over Helen Flores, 347-310.  Sharlie is now 4-4 against Helen in games played since 2011.

Charles Reinke Pulls Further Away From Experts

1st Charles Reinke ended up at 4-0 +598. Charles started off slow with an uncharacteristically low-scoring 345-331 win over Gail Salm, a contest in which he was held bingoless.  He then regained his bingoing mojo, playing a total of eleven in his next three games and breaking the 500 mark twice: 513-396 against brother Thomas (playing MAYBIRD, TOTABLE, HAVERELS, and NUDNIKS) and 576-322 against Andy Bohnsack (finding ANDIRON, READIES, ERRATICS, and PETTABLE).  It should be noted that, in the writer's opinion, TOTABLE (and its alternating spelling, TOTEABLE) is the stupidest word in the entire Scrabble dictionary.  However, PETTABLE is totally reasonable, since any cat owner would know that pettability is one of the essential qualities of a cat.

(don't play PETTABILITY, that's phony obviously)

2nd Mark Kenas also had four wins, but his singular loss held him to second place on the evening.  His best win was a 453-418 victory over club-standings-runner-upper Thomas Reinke.  Some expert-level word-knowledge was flaunted in that game: Mark played TROPHIED, ENTICERS, and word of the week EREMURUS (N. a perennial herb, plural EREMURI or EREMURUSES) while Thomas got down the somewhat more common words NEONATE and PASSOVER.  Mark also unfairly got to play the two-V bingo EVINCIVE when he beat Gail Salm 410-353.

3rd Andy Bohnsack finished at 3-1 with an unfortunate -96 cume.  He had two three-bingo games that both ended up as wins: 469-381 against Peter Schmiedicke and 478-418 against esteemed director Richard Lauder.  Then the bingo well ran dry as he only got one bingo, GURNETS (alt. spelling of gurnard, a marine fish), in his spread-annihilating loss against Charles Reinke.

Sue Goldstein: "All I Do is Win"

1st Sue Goldstein made easy work of the intermediate group, finishing an undefeated 3-0 +197.  However, the evening was not stress-free: she barely pulled out a win against June Scott, 317-313. 

2nd Sharlie Miura went 1-1 -75, good for second in the intermediates.  She dispatched June Scott 311-279 before falling to Sue Goldstein.