Peter Schmiedicke Lives Up To "Defeater" Nickname

1st Peter Schmiedicke steamrollered his way to a flawless 4-0 +387 record, easily snagging first place in the process.  It was not an anxiety-free journey, though; in the closest game of the night, Peter just barely squeaked out a win against Richard Lauder, 385-382.  Peter desperately needed every point that his three bingos provided him: THEREIN, TANNERS, and EXTRADOS (n. the outer curve of an arch).  The rest of Peter's contests were not as closely-fought, culminating in a near-200-point drubbing of Barb Besadny, 481-285.  Three of Peter's nine total bingos were played in that game: AIGRETS, RETAINER, and TROUPIAL.

2nd Charles Reinke scored over 400 in each of his games en route to a 4-1 +355 performance.  Things got off to a good start when he played two-on-one for the first game and won both: 463-399 against Lynda Finn (with bingos of BANDIED, CREDITOR, and PENDULAR) and 449-290 against Chris Vergeront (GRIEVOUS and AMENTIA).  His win against eternal nemesis Thomas Reinke was less convincing, ending 422-413 with just one bingo, SOARING (anagrams ORIGANS and SIGNORA) for the victor.  Meanwhile, the loser played three bingos, somewhat lessening the pain of his loss: ANTEING on the first play of the game, EQUALLED on the second, and later, DIARIES.

3rd Mark Kenas went 3-1 +201, continuing his run of solid play that has pushed him up to second place on the yearly standings.  To make a statement, Mark thoroughly crushed the former second-place leader, Thomas Reinke, by a score of 564-411, one of the highest combined scores of the year.  Thomas played MASSIER and PLATONIC, but even that goodly amount of bingos was rendered impotent by Mark's four: TAILWIND, CATHODE, LAPIDATE, and SQUINTER.  Fittingly, Mark's only loss was to Charles Reinke, who prevailed 495-356.  Mark would have been awarded bingo of the week for playing SHIPHAND in the course of his 417-340 win versus Susan Vergeront, but it turns out that SHIPHAND is phony.  Better luck next time, Mark!

Super-special 4th place goes to Barb Besadny, who won her first three games before running up against the immovable Scrabble juggernaut otherwise known as Peter Schmiedicke.  Barb pulled off an upset win against Charles Reinke, 426-410, by bingoing out with the find of VASTIER.  Charles played NONRATED and COTHURNI for some style points but not many of the other kind of points (the kind that matter).

June Scott Tops Intermediates For Second Straight Week...Who Can Stop Her?

1st June Scott finished 2-1 +32, her second straight 2-1 performance.  She defeated both Miuras, one after the other, for her two wins.  Against Aki, she bingoed with SORTING to propel her to a 330-288 win.

2nd Sue Goldstein ended up with a 2-1 +27 record, a mere five spread points behind rival June Scott.  She had the chance to take first place for herself when playing June in the third game, but didn't quite win by enough; the game finished at a score of 335-319.