Lynda "Infinnite Points" Finn Scores Many, but Not Quite Infinite, Points

1st Lynda Finn went 4-1 +134, coming in first by taking advantage of a programming feature which sorts players by total wins, not win percentage. She phonied in both of her closest wins, proving that 1.) phonying is fun and 2.) sometimes you need to do it if you want to win. Against Dennis Lloyd, Lynda won by a score of 415-407, playing the valid CALDERAS to go along with GOSSIMER (GOSSAMER is the correct spelling); Dennis had SPRINTED and OUTLINED. Later, in a game against Mary Becker, Lynda barely came away with the victory, winning 423-421 thanks to an impossible-to-challenge PIROGHIS. PIROGHI is valid, and most variations of that tasty Russian dumpling do take an S, so it's not surprising that it stayed on the board. Lynda did not need to utilize any fake words in her first-place-clinching victory over Thomas Reinke, 539-387. All four of her bingos were legit: MARLIEST, FLAVINE, PURITANS, and TONSURE. Thomas got down ARIETTA and ETRIERS, but all he managed to accomplish with those bingos was a 150-point loss instead of a 250-point loss.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-0 +263, then went home, forfeiting his chance for a helping of that four-and-oh undefeated glory. He started off his evening strong with a revenge win against Charles Reinke, 498-371. His high-scoring bingos of BIOCIDE (81), INWEAVES (80), and SHOUTER (90) were more than enough to trump Charles' DIESTRUM (84). After a prosaic 388-317 game against Helen Flores where Aaron's INTERNE was the only bingo on the board, Aaron defeated the previously-though-to-be-undefeatable Lynda Finn 404-339. It was another sad day for bingo fans, as there was only a single bingo on the board (RETURNED for Lynda) before the last two plays. Lynda bingoed with FUMIEST for what she thought was enough to squeak out the win, and instantly Aaron says "you aren't going to like this" and bingos out with APNOEAS for the win.

3rd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +357, some 100 spread points ahead of some other guy who shares his last name. Charles lost to Aaron Bader in his first game (the gory details of which are outlined above), but rebounded quickly with a 457-250 win against Sue Goldstein, made possible by bingos of ACETATE, IMAGINED, and INDICTED. Gail Salm managed to get a bit closer to defeating Charles with a 363-425 final score in their matchup. She even outbingoed him, playing two (GLANDERS and SINCERER) to Charles' one (ENTRAPS). Another three-bingo output for Charles, in the final game of the night, resulted in another 200-point victory; Charles played ELOIGNED, ANODISE, and TOREADOR to beat Richard Lauder (who got down ASSURED) 518-303.

With the last session in August comes the end of the club season. Charles ended the year strong and finished with the club's highest winning percentage at 75.8%, a comfortable 1.2% ahead of Thomas at 74.6%. Aaron rounded out the top three with a 67.5% mark. Charles also averaged a lofty 450 points per game, easily tops among regular players.