The Title is the Hardest Part of These Writeups

1st Charles Reinke, as indicated by the "4-0 +482" next to his name in the stats, must have won all his games. I'll be doing a game-by-game analysis to see if that was really the case. He started off with a close-as-can-be 402-401 against Thomas. Thomas played NEURONAL and INTURNS, but Charles' late ATHEIST gave him just enough points to get the win. Things were not so close against Aaron in the second round, as he won 470-272. His double-double of PARODIES for 94 got him off to a quick start, then he added LEAFWORM and NODALITY. He hit a small bump in his perfect road against Richard, not because he lost or anything, but because he got his potential double-double QUERIDAS (n. a female sweetheart) blocked by Richard's SHIRTIER. QUERIDAS still was played, but for way fewer points. In the fourth round, he once again held one of the club's best players way under 300 points, beating Bryan 465-258. DRIPPER, REOPENED, and COHOSTS were his bingos, while Bryan didn't get any, actually, it's unclear whether he drew any good letters at all. With this loss, Bryan now has the same 36.2 winning percentage against both twins, which makes sort of sense, considering they're just two distinct manifestations of the same being.

2nd Gail Salm went 3-1 +54, coming in second place as the only three-and-oner on the night. She opened her night with a 326-434 loss to Dennis, her HORSIES (n. a cute little horse with cute little legs and ears and a tail (paraphrased)) and PADDIES not enough to overtake Dennis' OUTTAKE and STARVING. She opened her next game, against Thomas, with quick bingos of RIVETED and MORAINE, and used that advantage to secure an impressive 452-407 win. She has now one 4 of her last 9 against Thomas, a pretty record considering the outcomes of the previous 20 or so games with him. Against Helen in the next game, she won 383-344, showcasing her perfect knowledge of the RE- words by playing REBRAND (a word which was somehow only added in the last dictionary update), as well as her perfect knowledge of words containing JANITOR, with JANITOR. She continued her winning ways in the final round, against Dave, winning 428-350. Uncharacteristically for her, she played a phony, INPLANTS*, alongside two other real bingos. That is her second phony bingo of the year; maybe it is time to start being more watchful when she empties her rack onto the board.

3rd Richard Lauder went 2-1 +11, good for third because it looks like everyone went 2-2. He started off with a 433-354 win against Betty. His star play of that game was the triple-triple INDENTED through an already-existing DENT for 100-some points. Remember that the five-dollar triple-triple prize gets awarded whether the play was a bingo or not. Betty undid a lot of that damage with a 96-point FIBSTER, for her part. Richard's second-round match against Dennis turned out to be a barn-burner, with the final being 462-454 in Richard's favor. Dennis played LOMEINS, DEBITORS* (valid anagram DEORBITS, but if CREDITORS is good why not DEBITORS*?????), and UNVESTED, but Richard's triple-triple of TALISMAN for 140 was slightly too much to overcome. He lost in the third game against Charles, 382-458, then took his leave, citing the incredible amount of golf he had played that day.

Helen earned word-of-the-week for the second week in a row, with FLOWERET.