If Thomas Reinke Were a Hurricane, He Would Be a Category Five

1st Thomas Reinke was the only undefeated player out of nineteen attendees, going 4-0 +527.  His closest victory was not close at all, as he defeated Shayla Dunn 452-341.  Thomas played the words NOTARIAL and UNWIELDY (an adjective which perfectly describes the letters EDILNUWY) while Shayla got down ALOETIC and the two-U USURERS.  Thomas' highest game came against the player two spots below him in the yearly standings, Andy Bohnsack.  Andy played GENTLES and HARLOTS, but lost 372-547 as Thomas landed NEROLIS (N. A fragrant oil), NICTATES (V. to wink), and the phony DRYBOARD.  There are plenty of weird -BOARD words, but DRYBOARD isn't among them: PEGBOARD, MOPBOARD, RUBBOARD, and BOXBOARD are just a few examples.  As Thomas is now the proud owner of twelve wins in a row, five bucks will go to the next person to beat him. 

2nd Charles Reinke finished 3-1 +252 for second place.  Taking a break from fathering duties, Michael David beat him in a tightly-contested game, 376-361.  Super secret hint of the day: all you need to is out-bingo somebody and you'll usually win!  Michael can attest to that, as he got two bingos (ENGINEER and INSISTER) with Charles only getting one (SAURIAN).  Charles scored 456, 470, and 506 in his other three games while getting three, three, and four bingos respectively.  A small excerpt of that bingo list: INTROFY (V. to increase the wetting properties of), MAQUETTE (N. a small preliminary model), DEVILTRY (N. mischief), and SATYRIC (adj. resembling a satyr, a woodland deity of Greek mythology).

3rd Bryan "Bryaniac" Benwitz also ended the night at 3-1, with a cume of +53.  Both of his first two games featured three bingos: CERTAIN, SAGIEST, and REVISION in a 414-378 win over Richard Lauder; and PRICIER, UNIVERSE, and UNSTATE in his high game of the night, 477-390 vs. Helen Flores.  Then the wheels fell off the bingo wagon, and he played no more valid bingos.  He did, however, get two phonies to stay on the board: BAPTISER (which really should be a word, as BAPTISE and BAPTIZER are both good) and OUTSOWN.

Helen Flores played the word of the week, GAVOTTED, when she beat Andy Bohnsack 416-381.  GAVOTTE is a verb meaning "to dance a gavot". 

Harwinder Dowd Enjoys View From Top of Intermediates

1st Harwinder Dowd went 2-1 +94, handily defeating Aki Miura 357-271 along the way.  Her loss came to expert Gail Salm, who played the word REINVITE on the way to a 361-312 victory.

2nd June Scott also went 2-1, but her -8 spread relegated her to second place in the intermediates.  She nearly had a 100-point win against Aki Miura, 371-277, but was then matched against expert Shayla Dunn, to whom she lost, 215-366.