Aaron Bader Doesn't Miss Mark All That Much

1st Aaron Bader proved that he can seamelssly jump between our "normal" dictionary and the "weird" British dictionary by going 3-1 +380. One of his few slipups was playing the Collins-only STEMLET during a rout of Bryan Benwitz that ended with a final score of 483-349. Aaron's three other bingos were all valid: ANDIRON, PAESANI, and HOUNDED. Bryan, meanwhile, was held uncharacteristically bingoless. Aaron achieved the same feat against Peter Schmiedicke in another rout, 473-311. This time, Aaron limited himself to only real words, those being MONERANS, DENTURE, and PRATIES. The lucky streak could not continue forever, though, as Aaron found that Charles Reinke was not willing to sit and watch all the good tiles drawn out of the bag by his opponent. Their matchup ended at 418-435 in Charles' favor, with Charles' sole bingo of CADASTER (also CADASTRE) overcoming Aaron's FURIOSO and SENTINEL.

2nd Andy Bohnsack fell only 24 points short of first place with his 3-1 +356 record. The night did not start off well for Andy as he was downed by Gail Salm, 452-399. Gail was able to stifle the effect of Andy's find of OOCYTES (anagram: COYOTES) with three bingos her own: STRIPER, INCITERS, and "Appropriate Word of the Week" WINNERS. After that setback, Andy found the rest of his games to be smooth sailing. He used dubious tactics to defeat Barb Besadny, playing the phony INTERLIE along with his valid play of SNEERED on his way to a 512-302 clock-cleaning. Meanwhile, no shady plays were attempted as Andy won a clean bout against Thomas Reinke, 446-359. Thomas watched with envy as Andy played a trio of bingos: INCENSED, HURLIES, and  TOILETED.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +283 to beat out two other players who had 3-1 records. Missing out on "highest score of the evening" by one point, Charles romped over Susan Vergeront, 511-307. Susan got down ASTERIA (the third time she's played that word!), but Charles one-upped her with LENITED and SNOUTING. The bingo spigot ceased to run when Charles matched up against Dave Gilligan, but even getting out-bingoed 0-2 (Dave had SHOWMAN and OVEREATS), Charles eked out the victory, 430-343. Thomas Reinke AKA "The Good-Looking One" was once again the disruptor of Charles' perfect night; the fraternal fistfight concluded with a 401-376 final. Charles did outdo his brother from a bingo perspective, playing SPINULAE and LEARIER to Thomas' INTERBED, but his efforts were for nought.

Both Peter Schmiedicke and Gail Salm also went 3-1. Peter played the word of the week with ZOOPHILE.

Sue Goldstein The Only Undefeated

1st Sue Goldstein averaged 343 per game, well above her yearly average, on her way to an undefeated 3-0 +211 bulldozing through the Intermediate group. Her one bingo came against Steve Busalacchi, RESOLING for 62 points. Sue only won that game by 59, 370-311, so the bingo's appearance on her rack was definitely appreciated. Most of Sue's spread came against the returning Michael Siebers, whom she beat 363-214.

2nd Steve Busalacchi finished 2-1 +128 and averaged an expert-level 377 per game. He took down June Scott 388-346 in what is June's highest-scoring loss this year. Taking the momentum from that game and transferring it to his next, Steve got down two bingos (TEENIEST and NOSIEST) en route to a 433-288 victory over Michael Siebers.

New words played this week were PRATIES (Aaron), EGOTIZES (Peter), and STOVING (Bryan).