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HELEN FLORES TOPS LARGE TURNOUT @ 4-0 +284

 1st - Helen Flores went undefeated, including a dramatic 4th round win over Bill Rexhausen (410-371) to finish atop all the players on this first meeting in August for the Madison Scrabble Club. Helen started her night with a razor thin 2-point win (306-304) with Sue Goldstein before she put her game into overdrive.

2nd -  Bill Rexhausen put in a very rare appearance at club, but demonstrated with his 10 bingoes over five games that he knows his way around the tile bag's varied effusions. Even the horrid looking rack of EECIINR proved no match, as he conjured the word of the week, EIRENIC (adj., meaning peaceful) from those seven tiles.  Bill aveaged 449 for the night to boot on way to a 4-1 +485 cume.

3rd - Charlle Reinke finished in 3rd at 3-1 +318 despite only playing four bingoes, three of them legit words. His sole lose was to his brother Thomas 407-411 in an opening "king-of-the-hills" match.

Dee Lillge tops Intermediates with a 2-2 +149

1st - Dee Lillge opened with a big 416-277 two bingo (QUEERER, LOADERS) with Sharlie Miura. She ended at 2-2 +149 to claim the tiara for the Intermediates this night.

2nd - Sue Goldstein also played a nice Q bingo, QUOTERS in her game with June Scott as she also had a 2-2 record, with a smaller cume of +97 to finish in 2nd in a smaller group of Intermediates at Attic Angels. 

3rd - June Scott's 1-2 -149 allowed her to take 3rd place, her bingo of BEATING doing just that to Aki Muira in their 379-324 first game match.

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.