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SHAYLA DUNN VICIOUSLY VANQUISHES FIVE FOES IN A ROW

1st Shayla Dunn's 5-0 +661 performance left no doubt as to who the best Scrabble player in the room was that night.  A gigantic 544 point game in the first round over Mary Becker wasn't enough for Shayla, who proceeded to calmly rack up scores of 485 vs. Lynda Finn and 507 vs. club champion Thomas Reinke.  That last game was especially sweet as she played the triple-triple ENFORCES through Thomas' foolishly opened R.  Shayla's undefeated night puts her within one percentage of point of Thomas on this year's leaderboard.

2nd Thomas Reinke had a mere three wins and a scrawny +97 point spread, totals which nonetheless clinched him second place among the experts.  He won a high-scoring game versus his bro Charles 477-444 and also handed Peter Schmiedicke a loss 461-396, playing the nice double-double MISBEGIN in the latter.

3rd with three wins, two losses and a +221 was Andy Bohnsack.  Usually a player scoring 400 is the winner, but not so in Andy's 422-450 loss to Lynda Finn.  His MISPAGED VIBRIONS were not enough to overcome Lynda's EELIEST BULLION GOITERS.  He did enjoy a 428-267 game against new player John, playing the useful EPINASTY (from a rack of AEINSTY) to further his quest for victory.

SUE GOLDSTEIN ONCE AGAIN ATTAINS TOP SPOT IN INTERMEDIATES

1st Sue Goldstein bounced back from a five point loss in the first round (vs. Barb Besadny 374-379) to win her next three games, going 3-1 +129.  She got two nice bingos on the night, PIGLETS and DUSTIER.

2nd Barb Besadny had an identical record to Sue, falling short just on spread, 3-1 +87.  Soundly beating Janet Greisel by an even hundred points, 401-301, was the highlight of her evening, marred only by the phony she played in that game, "meatish" (ATHEISM is the valid word in those letters).

3rd Betty Hasselkus' 2-2 -75 performance netted her third place in the intermediate group.  A one point nail-biter win over Helen Flores, 328-327, didn't do much to help her spread, but that W sure looks nice.

We had fifteen players show up to pelt tiles at each other.  Thankfully, the only injuries sustained were some bruised egos.  Andy Bohnsack sat upon the glorious and storied throne of Bingo King this week, thus inscribing his name into the immortal tablets of legendry as he put down twelve bingo plays in his five games.  This night was an especially bad night for phonies, with seven illusory words failing to get rightfully removed from the board: serifing (SERIFED is good though), sorries (ORRISES), soothen (SMOOTHEN and SOOTHER combined?) inulose (ELUSION or INULASE), bargers, borites (ORBIEST or BARITES), and meatish (ATHEISM).  Shayla Dunn, in addition to being undefeated, also played the word of the week with the beautiful JONQUILS, one of the few words with both a J and a Q (JEQUIRITY, anyone?).  Shayla also got down another Q bingo, QUASHES, but we can only have one word of the week.

THOMAS REINKE TOPS FIELD WITH 4-1 +583

1st - Thomas Reinke suffered only a glancing blow from Gail Salm's 343-337 win agin him as he piled up a massive 583 cume points and four victories to take top honors tonight. In his closing win of 398-353 with Peter Schmiedicke, Thomas played bingoes of LOUDENS and LOUDENED, a cute combo from a person who knows quite a bit about "TWIN" like conditions.

2nd - Twin Charles Reinke also stumbled once himself, when he too fell victim to a Gail Salm whose 421-406 game showed she could woman-handle both of the dynamic duo this night. Charles ended up at 3-1 +92 and in 3rd place in the club stats in this new season.

3rd- Peter Schmiedicke was immediately behind Charles with a 3-1 +91 effort. Peter was 3-0 before drawing Thomas in his last game of the night, and for the only time all night, Peter was held to just a single bingo (RECITERS) in that final game.

JUNE SCOTT SKATES TO A 1-1 +64 TOP SPOT

1st - June Scott took the top position in a field of three intermediates with her 357-270 win against Aki Miura. Aki is off now to Japan for the next two weeks so June will have her hands more full as the Intermediate group has been losing too many of its regulars just now. Any irregulars coming to rescue June?

2nd - Sharlie Miura also had a 1-1 evening, but a larger loss in one game left her with a minus -149 cume and a second place position.

3rd- Aki Miura, soon to be far far abroad, took 3rd of the 3rd players present with a 0-2 -214 outing.  We all wish him save travels and hope he and Sharlie will be back amongst us very soon indeed.

LYNDA FINN FINISHES AT 4-0

1ST - Lynda Finn turned on the afterburners, averaging 424 over four games as she won all four of her games to top the experts at 4-0 +363. She turned back Charles Reinke 399-382 in a nail biter of a 3rd round before winning her last game 447-291 with Intermediate Sue Goldstein to cinch the top spot.

2nd - Andy Bohnsack, who missed the first two sessions in this new year, showed the Reinke twins an alternative take on "stranger danger" when he faced them and then bested them both in two of his games while on his way to a 4-1 +477. Andy also had a thumping 13 bingoes in his five games, and now reigns as  the top player in the club's still new season.

3rd - Thomas Reinke's 3-1 +353 gave him a third place resting spot this eveening. Thomas literally gushed with bingoes in his 3rd game encounter with Shayla Dunn as he played what could be a all-time club record SIX bingoes in that one game...FAINTLY, TANGLED, LINGERIE, AUCTIONS, ACONITE and the appropriate (for Shayla) OUTWEARY as he steamrolled to a 582-347 fainal tally.

SHARLIE MIURA DOMINATES INTERMEDIATES WITH 2-0 NIGHT

1st - Sharlie Miura played her first bingo of the new year, HURTING, and it's resultant bonus points proved more than she needed as she surpassed June Scott 365-257 in their opening salvo. Sharlie finished at 2-0 +110 as she edged Sue Goldstein 319-317 in her final game.

2nd - Sue Goldstein's 2-2 -59 was enough to capture the 2nd place position in the field of just four intermediates. 

3rd- June Scott's single win of 356-242 with Aki Miura garnered her a 3rd place perch with a 1-2 -138 overall record.

Editor's sidenote: Five phoneys stayed on the board this week, Betty Hasselkus gamboled and won twice with her plays of TORTION and FEINTERS...btw, FEINTERS does have two good words, INFESTER and FERNIEST hiding away in those same tiles, while TORTION contains the good word TORTONI, an Italian ice cream treat.