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Brian Benwitz came out on top in every category (top finisher, top average score, lowest opponent average, most phonies). A successfull session all around in that everyone averaged 2 bingos per game and over 400 points per game, Peter got the best word, with the nice play of ?AIORTY through a J. 

Andy Bohnsack is Probably Just a Cyborg Programmed to Play Bingos

1st Andy Bohnsack had 14 bingos en route to 4-0 +487.  He had back-to-back 500-point games in rounds three and four: 524-331 against Lynda Finn, and 500-285 against Mary Becker.  He played four bingos in both of those games, as well as his game against Charles Reinke, but only played two in his game against Shayla Dunn (SNOOZER and RUMMIES).  One day in the near future, Andy will get 20 bingos in a night, and at that point we might as well just stop playing Scrabble.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +460.  Like Andy above, Charles broke the 400-mark in all of his games.  The one blemish on his scorecard was a high-scoring 467-494 loss versus Andy, the score of 467 being Charles' highest loss of the year.  He played INVERTED, GATEAUS (N. a fancy cake...what's the word for a plain cake?), and UPSTARED in his futile effort to out-bingo Andy, who played HEROINE, UPSTARED (does that word look familiar?), MILTERS, and BOTCHING.  Charles also had the highest game of the night when he recorded a 529 against Barb Besadny.

3rd Bryan Benwitz made the most out of one of his infrequent appearances at club, dispatching three experts on the way to 3-1 +181.  He lost a close one 371-384 versus Lynda Finn in the first game of the night (playing SOLATED to Lynda's ENTWINED and HOTNESS), then beat Thomas Reinke, Richard Lauder, and Shayla Dunn.  His high game of 466 against Richard consisted of the good find of CARBONIC and the good phony of TIEABLE. 

June Scott Unleashes the Fury

1st June Scott went 2-1 -179, getting down the bingo of BOATERS when she beat Harwinder Dowd 401-324.  401 is June's highest game of the year up to this point.

2nd Harwinder Dowd finished up 1-2 -23, her win coming against expert Barb Besadny, 409-316.  She played one bingo in each game: SNAILED, SKATERS, and IGNITES.

Shayla Dunn played the word of the week, JAUNDICE, in her 402-491 loss against Charles Reinke.  She also played the word COLLEENS in that game, which is a noun meaning "an Irish girl".  Thomas Reinke unofficially got "phony of the week" with his double-double, nine-letter NORLANDER against Helen Flores, defined by Thomas as "an inhabitant of the norland".  If you add the letters EIKR, you get ERIK NORLANDER, a semi-famous prog-rock keyboardist, but sadly for us, proper nouns are not valid Scrabble words.  It was a good night for phonies (or a bad night for well-timed, poker-faced deception, depending on your perspective), as NORLANDER and TIEABLE were the only ones played.

Charles Reinke Scores a Lot of Points, Plays a Lot of Bingos, Subsequently Wins a Lot of Games

1st At 4-0 +573, Charles Reinke proved to be utterly unstoppable, averaging 505 points and three bingos per game.  He gave Peter Schmiedicke his only loss, winning 555-376 while playing four bingos: GRAPLIN, SMASHED, LITOTES, and SPACEMEN.  Peter's OUTBREED (defined as breeding among unrelated stock, not "to surpass in breeding"), while scoring an impressive 94 points, was not nearly enough.  His closest game was a 458-410 victory over Mark Kenas wherein he played the triple-triple TERNIONS for 131 points as well as the uncommon LEHAYIM (also spelled LECHAYIM, it's a Jewish toast, not the bread kind though).

2nd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-1 +459, unbelievably scoring above 500 in all three of his wins: 531-350 against Richard Lauder, 524-299 against Susan Vergeront, and 521-289 against Chris Vergeront.  That last game's spread of 232 was his largest of the night, and it was also the game in which he played the most bingos, four of them: ANETHOLE, ORDNANCE, REPORTED, and DARTLES.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 with a relatively modest +162 cumulative.  The regularly recurring Reinke-Reinke matchup resulted in Thomas' only loss, 387-470, but that defeat was offset by his 500-370 conquest of Chris Vergeront.  Both players had two bingos in the game (RURALITE and INERTIAE for Thomas, OVARIOLE and GAMINES for Chris).  Thomas also walked away with the "most intimidating phony" award when he played the fancy-sounding GLYCASE against Mary Becker.  The phony word's origins appear to be in the words GLYCANS (a carbohydrate) and GLUCOSE (a sugar).  For his efforts he get to endure the ridicule of his brother for a week.

Harwinder Dowd Maintains Stranglehold on Intermediates

1st Harwinder Dowd went 2-1 -35.  She was rewarded for her good play the past few weeks by being matched up against Mark Kenas in the first round.  She lost that game 305-451, but won her next two to make up for it.  She got one bingo in each game: SENIORS, HOISTER, and REFUNDER.

2nd June Scott finished 1-2 -136.  She scored a healthy 395 in her second matchup against Sue Goldstein, who scored 347.

Mark Kenas got word of the week when he played ENCEINTE, a noun meaning either "an encircling fortification" or "pregnant".  Close runner-up was his play of TOREUTIC (adj. pertaining to artistic metalworking).