Aaron is Bad-er

1st Aaron Bader  went 3-0 +442 before disappearing into the rainy night, leaving all to wonder if he had really been there at all, if he was just an apparition... either way, we have his scorecard here, so we're going to treat his results as a real thing that actually happened. Against Sue in the first game, he got down the fancy EUSTELES (n. a plant part, or for something more detailed: "a stele typical of dicotyledonous plants that consists of vascular bundles of xylem and phloem strands with parenchymal cells between the bundles"). He earned a big win against Bryan in second game, 508-264, playing NEGATION, CHAFERS, and SAVOURED while Bryan struggled with clunky racks. Aaron saved his best for last against Charles R., overcoming an early 120-point deficit to win 472-380. He countered Charles' early EXPLODED for 107 with DOUBLOON for 86, then got down CISTERN and READIES to complete the effort. And then... where did he go?

2nd Andy Bohnsack narrowly edged out Charles Reinke by 3 spread points for 2nd place. We demand a recount! To start his night he won a close one against Richard, 418-400, playing ORIENTAL, SENOPIA, and IDEATES against Richard's FRONTES and EXTRADO* (INTRADOS and EXTRADOS are the inner and outer curves of an arch, respectively, both pluralize with -ES). After beating Mary 403-362, he turned his attention to Thomas, winning 364-303 in a defensive battle that was fun for exactly 1 of the participants (participants being defined as both players, all 100 tiles, the board, both racks, the clock, and the table). Sadly, Andy's perfect run came to an end in his final-round match against Charles R., where he lost 417-419. Andy did get down the triple-triple TRUMPETS for 149 in the losing effort, disproving the age-old adage "If you triple-triple you win". Actually, I just made that one up right now. Still counts as an adage though, I check the definition and it doesn't say anything about them not being only a minute old.

3rd Charles Reinke narrowly edged out Andy by 3 spread points for the much greater coveted 3rd place. Despite getting outbingoed 3-1, only playing the out-bingo LUSTRAL, he easily defeated his brother 523-402. He picked up the bingoing slightly against Helen, winning 400-316 by playing SAMLETS (n. a young salmon) and GARRISON. Then the bingos dried up, and he played only one apiece against Aaron and Andy, both with X's; EXPLODED and SIXTEENS. His five-bingo total is one of his lowest in the modern era of club stats, but he'll take the 3-1 record over gaudy bingo totals any day! Actually I think he would rather bingo than win. Who wouldn't? Winning is fun, but bingoing is funner.

Thomas played the word of the week, NEWWAVER (n. a member of a new-wave movement), the most likely word with two W's in a row. Others include QAWWALI and POWWOW.