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MARY BECKER REIGNS TRIUMPHANT OVER EXPERT RANKS WITH FOUR STRAIGHT WINS

1st Mary Becker went 4-0 +298 for undisputed first-place honors.  Her big win came against intermediate player Sue Goldstein, where Mary's bingos of GRANTED and "FRONTERS" (phony, only FRONTER and REFRONTS are good) secured her victory.  Mary also got away with the plausible-looking "CANTINES" (ANCIENTS, INSECTAN, INSTANCE, CANNIEST) when turning away Betty Hasselkus, 396-315.

2nd Andy Bohnsack finished at 3-1 +298, scoring above 400 the first three games before being thwarted at the last by Mary Becker, 361-384.  He had an impressive 470-408 win over Charles Reinke in which he deployed the sevens URINOSE, CERATES, and HEISTED.  Both players in that game found out that URINOSE cannot be extended to "URINOSES", at least if one is concerned with playing only valid words.

3rd Betty Hasselkus averaged a hefty 430 points per game and wound up with three wins, one loss, and a spread of +236.  She played WIRINGS and the appropriate word STUNNER in a 420-393 upset win over the club's top dog, Thomas Reinke.  Betty also scored a whopping 507 against Molly Gardner, aided by her triple-triple find of SPENDING.

SUE GOLDSTEIN RETAINS "QUEEN OF INTERMEDIATES" TITLE

1st Sue Goldstein walked away with a 2-2 -54 final, turning back both Miuras to notch her two wins.  She played two bingos in her 387-292 win over Sharlie, SPITTLES and LOONIER.

13 players showed up in the basement of the church, with only one small fan to soothe their fevered brows...Charles Reinke put down the word of the week WARRIGAL (Noun, a dingo) on his first play of his first game, before the heat could slow his thinking.  Betty Hasselkus' 86-point WIRINGS was good for high I, Aki Miura shed a C for five points and three bucks, Richard Lauder's EXPANSES for 101 snagged high E (which would have gone to Betty had she not already gotten high I), and Thomas Reinke clinched low D.

THOMAS REINKE RUNS ROUGHSHOD OVER EXPERT OPPOSITION AS LIGHTNING FLASHES DRAMATICALLY IN THE BACKGROUND

1st Thomas Reinke's 4-0 +342 showing secured him first place in the expert division.  He showed off his word knowledge with DOGNAPS and ASEPTIC in a 427-336 victory over Shayla Dunn, and also had an impressive bingo-less win over Susan Vergeront, whose dual bingos of ENABLER and SILAGES were not enough to overcome Thomas' balanced scoring assault.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +207, conquering one Reinke 392-353 but falling to the other, 346-437.  The most generous contributor to her cume was Mary Becker, when Lynda's bingos of DANCING and ATRESIA propelled her to a 473 score versus Mary's 298.

3rd Charles Reinke lost against Mary and Lynda, but racked up an obscene spread of +566 while averaging 477 over the course of the night and going 3-2.  His cume was mostly due to two games against the ever-stoic Peter Schmiedicke, a 572-321 three-bingo dismantling in round two and a 576-346 follow-up shellacking at the end of the night.  In the latter game Charles threw down bingos with abandon, unleashing four of them (INFLAME, ENFORCER, ADMIRING, ATLANTES, to Peter's sole BROACHES) in his quest for victory.

SUE GOLDSTEIN SHOWS NO MERCY WHILE SWEEPING INTERMEDIATES

1st Sue Goldstein held her opponents to an average of 272 points per game while going 4-0 +397 for first place in the intermediate group.  Her closest victory was an 11-point squeaker over Aki Miura 361-350 in the first round, after which point she clamped down on the defensive end; Aki was the only opponent of hers to score above the 300 mark.  Sue also averaged a handy 371 on the night.

2nd Sharlie Miura went 1-1 -100, felling June Scott 337-274 before being felled herself by eventual first place finisher Sue Goldstein.

3rd June Scott finished at 1-2 -128, her win coming against Aki Miura, 322-300 in a tightly fought contest.

Twelve Scrabble fanatics met on a stormy night, with cookies and cake to aid in their wordsmithing.  SPAHI was the word of the night, defined as "a Turkish cavalryman".  Peter Schmiedicke made off with $4 when he played the word SPEARING (an appropriate word, I'm sure many cavalrymen used spears of some sort...), Sharlie Miura got the low A play, Susan Vergeront's non-bingo FINCH flew for the high H, and Lynda Finn played an I for five points to end up four bucks richer.  Shayla Dunn played the word of the week with her 9-letter find of MIGRAINES through AI, receiving 50 extra style points in addition to the normal 50-point bonus.

CHARLES REINKE UNSCATHED AGAIN WITH A 4-0 +266 RUN

1st - Charles Reinke picked up a little ground in his quest to overtake his brother Thomas who leads the club with a 73% wins record.Charles raised his own % record to 70.8%, as he twice emerged the winner in two close games, a 404-385 encounter with Andy Bohnsack and in his closing 393-367 game with Richard Lauder. In that latter game, Charles needed the help of all four S's and both blanks to gain that 26 point victory in a game that remained neck-to-neck all the way to the end.

2nd - Thomas Reinke lost but a single game to Michael David (380-471) to finish in 2nd at 3-1 +116. Thomas played FEMINIST and HOGTIED in his losing cause as Michael answered back with MOONILY, ARRIVES and LIERNES to handily gain that win.

3rd- Andy Bohnsack's 3-2 plus a whopping +512 cum attested to Andy's equally impressive bingo splurg. Andy played a kingly number of 11 bingoes, including gems like ANTINODE, MODERATED (a nine) and AMNROSIA. Andy now can claim the highest per game bingo average, at 2.1 over the equally bingo savvy twin Reinkes.

JUNE SCOTT TOPS A 6-PLAYER INTERMEDIATE FIELD

1st - June Scott satisfied a small hunger for bingoes when she laid down SALTINE on her way to an opening 431-327 win with Aki Miura, on her way to a final 2-1 top spot finish in the Intermediates.

2nd - Dee Lillge took second with her 2-2 +76 evening.  Dee's high bgame for the night was a huge 412-219 game with June, wherein Dee played SEEPING as one of her four bingoes in four games. She also played tyhe nicely found SUNDOWN, a word defined as "to experience nighttime confusion". No confusion was seen here.

3rd - Sue Goldstein's 2-2 +20 took 3rd place at barnes & Noble.  Sue closed out her night with a 341-293 win vs. Katie David who made a much too rare appearance this night as she accompanied her husband Michael to Madison's scrabble club.  Sue bingoed with STRAINS in her winning final game.