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Charles Reinke Takes First...Again...

1st Charles Reinke continued his recent trend of titanic spreads, going a perfect 4-0 with a spread of +645.  He averaged a staggering 484 points per game while only allowing 323 on average.  Out of all his opponents, only Richard Lauder was able to put the fear of the tiles into him: that game ended 411-381, with one bingo apiece - EULOGIES for Charles and WADDIES for Richard (WADDY is a verb meaning "to strike with a thick club").  Charles' high game was a 562 against Gail Salm, featuring the bingos GUANASE, UPSTARE, and HORNETS (all good bingos to know, as they are quite high-probability).  UPSTARE anagrams to PASTURE, UPTEARS, and UPRATES, while HORNETS anagrams to SHORTEN and THRONES.

2nd Bryan Benwitz overcame a rough start, losing his first game 306-408 against Peter Schmiedicke but winning his next three to finish 3-1 +313.  It is interesting to note that the bingo deities only saw fit to give Bryan the chance to play seven-letter bingos - his one eight-letter attempt, TEMPORAS, turned out to be phony (it is a creative mashup of the words TEMPORAL and TEMPURAS).  Bryan achieved his second-highest club game ever when he beat Richard Lauder 545-252, pummeling our poor club director with words such as SPLURGE, URINOSE, and LENDERS.

3rd Peter Schmiedicke also went 3-1, with a smaller spread of +118, to grab third place in the expert division.  He saved his best for last, dropping a 500 game on Mary Becker, 501-372.  Peter landed DISRATED, BOSSIEST, and AGENTED while Mary hit DEPLORED.  Thomas Reinke proved to be his downfall, as he lost that matchup 311-505 despite the opening-play bingo ELUANTS.

Honorable mention to Thomas Reinke for almost scoring 600.  He fell one point short of that mark when he beat Mary Becker 599-325.  He had four bingos: GAIETIES, POLITEST, a 3x3 OVERMINE, and word-of-the-week ANTHELIX (defined as "the inner curved ridge on the cartilage of the external ear").  As part of fate's continuing agenda against the Reinke brothers, Charles Reinke also played the word OVERMINE in the same round, but didn't get nearly as many points for it.  He probably should have played VOMERINE to avoid the twin jokes.  Richard Lauder also got a triple-triple of his own: INGRATES for 140 points against Helen Flores.

Sue Goldstein Triumphs in Quadruple-Header

1st Sue Goldstein played four games against regular opponent June Scott, the series ending 3-1 in Sue's favor.  All of the games were close: her biggest win was 346-300.

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.