Aaron Bader Loses a Game, but the Soothing Salve of First Place Will Heal Even the Direst of Wounds

1st Aaron Bader topped a group of five players with one loss thanks to his 4-1 +515 performance. Almost half of his final spread total came as a result of a 504-274 encounter with Sue Goldstein. Aaron played a trio of eight-letter words to secure his victory: SOLENOID, ARIDNESS, and ACTINIDE. A later game against Lynda Finn was marred by the unwelcome blight of phony words; Aaron erred with DONNART (only DONNERT, DONNERD, and DONNERED in our dictionary) while Lynda got away with RULINESS. It was Aaron's win, 489-363. Finally, as the hour grew late, Aaron unleashed his largest game of the evening when he defeated Bryan Benwitz 508-430. Bryan had three bingos of OBELISE, GIRDLER, and BEACHED, the last for 98 points, but was matched every step of the way by his opponent, who found PARRIED, PATNESS, and NEEDLES.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a club-leading 464 per game en route to a 4-1 +403 finish. He managed to extend his winning streak up to twelve in a row before encountering Peter Shmiedicke in round two, a classic example of an unstoppable force encountering an immovable object. The game ended heavily in Peter's favor, 515-406, thanks to Peter's four bingos of SEDUCING, MANROPES, RATTIER, and SIRVENTE. Thomas responded to that disappointing loss by drubbing Susan Vergeront 567-300. Just like his opponent had done the previous game, Thomas deployed a total of four bingos on his nemesis: ECHIDNAS, ROTARIES, FORECAST, and the new word REMOULDS (SMOULDER and MOULDERS were previously valid). The ultimate triumph, however, was attained when Thomas beat his brother Charles 452-431. Charles got down AUROREAN, MIGRATED, and the new BRIDIES, but Thomas's nice nine-letter find of GONOCYTES paired with a lesser find of EXOTICA carried him to victory.

3rd Charles Reinke ended up at 3-1 +280, frustratingly just one rung below his brother. Things started off smoothly, with a game against Gail Salm ending 525-320. Gail played ORACIES (the new anagram of SCORIAE); but Charles had ENTHRALS, PUMMELED, and SAUNTER for a decided advantage in BPFB (bonus points from bingos). Bryan Benwitz fared slightly better, but not better enough to walk away with the win, as Charles prevailed in their matchup 435-383 despite Bryan's tri-bingoed assault of REVOTING, BONESETS, and TONNERS. Charles had VEINULET and a word-of-the-week candidate, SYNKARYA (plural of SYNKARYON, a type of cell nucleus). Charles' third win was a somewhat low-scoring contest against Aaron Bader, 403-359.

Andy Bohnsack deservedly won Word of the Week with his ridiculous, unbelievable, and mind-boggling find of SOUNDSTAGE against Peter Schmiedicke, played to the word AGE which was already on the board. Unfortunately for fans of justice and proponents of meritocracy, Andy lost the game 423-436.

Lots of new bingos were played this week: REMOULDS (Thomas), DUALLIE (Charles), BRIDIES (Charles), ORACIES (Gail), SARNIES (Gail), and DISOWNER (Dave).