The Clouds Bring the Rain, Thomas Reinke Brings the Pain

1st Thomas Reinke enjoyed a flawless 4-0 +323 performance to take first place. His opponents, however, may not have enjoyed it so much, as he ruined two other players' perfect nights. His biggest victory came over Gail Salm, a lopsided 513-298 affair which was marred by Thomas' phony of GAWPIER (GAWPY isn't even good by itself, just GAWKY and GAWSY). His two other bingos were TERATOID and LEAGUERS. In a game against his sworn enemy Charles Reinke, the two brothers battled it out until the very end, and the result was Charles notching his highest-scoring loss of the year as Thomas was victorious, 469-466. Thomas got down NOYADES and BORRELIA to Charles' REPINES, ROADKILL, and SCUNGILE (the meat of a conch, plural SCUNGILI). In the final game, Thomas wrapped up his perfect night with another win in which he got outbingoed: Bryan played JETTIED, INFORMER, and STONIER, but was felled by Thomas' superior scoring (as well as his bingos of VAMOOSE and RENAMES), 452-415.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged 455 points per game on his way to a 3-1 +259 record, but he didn't even have a 600-point game like he did last week, so who cares? His first game was against the formidable Lynda Finn, defeater of world champions, but Bryan was unfazed by her newfound clout as he defeated her 430-395 thanks to bingos of FORELAND and CONSUMES. Bryan then had another relatively close game, this one against Dennis "Mr. Bowtie" Lloyd. Bryan prevailed by a score of 449-378, utilizing some high-probability "A" bingos to great advantage: ANEROID, ARSENATE, and AIGLETS. Dennis had SQUARED and a late ANORAKS to make the game competetive. Tired of this middling margins, Bryan then took on Richard Lauder, and the end result was a 526-328 drubbing. Six total bingos were played; the losing side had INSIDER and TACTION, but the winning side had TIDELINE, TOUPIES, GOATIER, and ESTRONE, the first three of which are new to the dictionary as of 2014. Unfortunately for Bryan, being 3-0 after three games usually means a tough match in the final round, and he wasn't able to attain the perfect 4-0.

3rd Gail Salm went 3-1 -67, a swift turnaround from her winless excursion the week before. Her loss to Thomas negated the spread she accumulated in her wins, but she scored well and bingoed often in all of them. Gail needed three bingos (MOUSING, INLIERS, and SLIDERS) to come away with a 393-350 win over Mary Becker (bingoless), but it took just two to beat Lynda "The Nigel Neutralizer" Finn. The score in that game was 418-349; Lynda had WARIEST, but Gail countered with SMIRKIER and AIGLETS (where have we seen that one before?). In the final game, surely fighting off fatigue, Gail matched up against club leader Charles Reinke and came away from the fracas with a strong win, 448-412. Bingos of WHEREBY, ENTAILED, and OVERSALT netted enough points to overcome Charles' UNRAVEL and SALTIER.

Charles' FEDAYEE, played against Sue Goldstein, was picked as word of the week. A FEDAYEE is a Middle-Eastern fighter or commando, and it only pluralizes to FEDAYEEN.