Andy "Mr. B" Bohnsack Takes Experts to School

1st Andy Bohnsack averaged 444 over five games, finishing at 4-1 +329.  After being on the receiving end of a 500 game, losing to Thomas Reinke 320-515, he dished out two 500 games of his own, topping Peter Schmiedicke 518-384 and crushing Mary Becker 561-256.  As if by magic, bingo-prone letters seemed to supernaturally will themselves onto Andy's rack, resulting in such plays as ETCHERS, ATROPIN, ESPRITS, and LIBELERS.  And all those in just one game!  His mystical two-tiles-at-a-time drawing technique is finally paying dividends.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +312 to get second place in the experts.  His lone defeat was by one point, 388-389, to seasoned Scrabble veteran Mark Kenas.  Like Andy, Charles also had a four-bingo game, this one coming against his brother Thomas: NONFOOD, DEAIRING, ISOGONE, and RAILERS were the bonus plays Charles unleashed in that fraternal fistfight, while Thomas managed DELATING and USAUNCES.

3rd Mark Kenas took third place honors by finishing 3-1 +300.  He started off with two big games, 481-239 versus Mary Becker (playing OSTEOMA and SNORTIER <INTRORSE>) and 454-363 versus Peter Schmiedicke (finding RAISABLE and RETILES).  Then the well of tiles ran dry, and he ended the night losing to Andy Bohnsack with a final of 358-392. 

Honorable mention goes to Richard Lauder for also being 3-1, but with an inferior +200 spread.  Richard played the word of the week, WOOMERAS, in the process of besting Lynda Finn 403-344.  A woomera (or womera) is a device used to propel spears.  Thomas Reinke also played two word-of-the-week candidates with SAVORILY (in a savory manner, unpronounceable enough to draw a challenge) and ALKAHEST (the hypothetical universal solvent sought by alchemists, also ALCAHEST).

Harwinder Dowd Romps in Intermediates

1st Harwinder Dowd's lossless record propelled her to first place in the intermediate group, 2-0 +15 being her final tally.  As her low spread indicates, she won two very close games: 299-289 against Aki Miura and 317-315 against Sharlie Miura.  She found and played the word SMELTED in the latter game - those 50 extra points sure come in handy sometimes.

2nd Sharlie Miura went 1-1 +35.  She scored an upset win over Helen Flores, 347-310.  Sharlie is now 4-4 against Helen in games played since 2011.