1st Richard Lauder stood alone as the only undefeated player of the night, finishing with a 3-0 +97 record. He started the session paired against a tough opponent in Charles, but he showed no fear and won a close one, 376-370. His first bingo of NEONATES scored a mere 58, but his self-descriptive play of TALENTED near the end put him over the top. At his own request, he played as the "one" in a two-on-one in the second round, facing Betty and Helen. Normal club operating procedure is that someone who specifically requests a two-on-one is paired with Thomas and Charles, but an exception was made in this case since he had already played Charles. Anyway, he won his game against Helen 388-320, with bingos of SIDEARMS (v. SIDEARM, to pitch a ball below shoulder level) and RELISHES. Against Betty, he won 361-338. Betty bingoed with REBOUNDS, while Richard had another low-scoring bingo, SALTERNS for 58. Does anyone else things would be more fun with a few more double and triple-word scores squeezed in the emptier spaces on the board?

2nd Thomas Reinke utilized the tactics he learned in the lawless land of Reno to come in second with a 3-1 +416 record. In the first game, he notched the highest game of the club year with a 652-point explosion against James. He bingoed five times, with VISCOSE (n. a viscous solution), UNEARNED, NONENTRY, ATOMIZED, and BIRACIAL. If he thought he was going to average 600 for the club session, however, he was sorely mistaken, as he came crashing back to Earth in the next round, losing 354-378 to Bryan. He rebounded a bit against Charles after that, winning 444-421. He had bingos of PIOLETS (anagram PISTOLE) and MOUCHES, with Charles having DIOXANE and a high-V-winning VOMITIER. For some reason, he was rewarded for this win with another chance to lose against Charles in the fourth round. With Charles' attention divided between him and Bryan, he won again, 440-402. His bingos were lame and not worth noting, unlike Charles' finds of ALTITUDE and PUDDINGY (adj. resembling pudding).

3rd Bryan Benwitz averaged a slick 433 on his way to a 3-1 +349 record. Like Thomas, he earned the bulk of his spread in the first round, in his case by beating Betty 542-280. A score like that implies a large amount of bingoes, which he had: SLATING, MONTIES, LEPROUS, and RIDDLERS. Likewise, a win against Thomas also implies a large amount of bingoes, but that wasn't the case in round two. He won 378-354, playing "only" (he would instead claim that it was exactly the correct amount of bingoes needed, no more, no less) MISDONE. In the third round, he faced Gail and won 461-347. Gail bingoed with MINERALS, and Bryan had bingoes of NIDGETS (n. NIDGET, an idiot), ATTENDS, and UNRENTED. A close inspection of this paragraph will indicate that up to this point, he had not lost a game. Which means you know what's coming next: a 351-413 loss against Charles. Charles played RESEDAS and a double-blank SCALARE, while Bryan's racks were such that he was forced to make up a bingo just to get one on the board: RAGLIKE*, which seems very reasonable to me.

Mark played the Word Of The Week, SAILMAKER. I seem to remember him saying that he had studied all the -MAKER words (LOVEMAKER, TROUBLEMAKER, WIDOWMAKER, etc.), so this play should come as no surprise. Bonus quiz: find the other word in the letters of SAILMAKER.

Congratulations go out to Thomas for coming in fourth place at the National Scrabble Championship in Reno, Nevada!