The Peter Schmiedicke Train Has No Brakes

1st Peter Schmiedicke went 4-1 +188 to capture 1st place in the Experts.  He didn't manage to break the 500 barrier in his five games, but he did come very close when he beat Helen Flores 497-359 in a bingo-heavy contest.  Peter played ANOINTED, OVERSEA, and SCRAPING while Helen played HUTLIKE and DEVIOUS.  His only loss came against Gail Salm, 346-428.

2nd Thomas Reinke had three wins and a rare tie to place second.  The 400 mark was crested in all four of his games, with his lowest score being his 412-412 tie against Richard Lauder.  In a last-round matchup against Bryan Benwitz, Thomas scored his highest point total of the night with a score of 476-399.  Bryan played OVERNICE and SINGABLE; Thomas one-upped him with AUDIENT, ARENITE, and NONFOOD.  That marks the second time in the past month that NONFOOD has been played as a bingo, despite its low probability.  It is defined as "pertaining to something other than food."  As in, "this blog post is nonfood."

3rd Andy Bohnsack was 3-1 with a gigantic +602 spread.  He was having a great evening, eclipsing 500 three games in a row (514, 517, and 548) until he ran up against Peter Schmiedicke.  He ended up losing that game by one tiny point, 359-360.  Just one point separated the immortal glory of first place and the not-as-immortal-or-glorious glory of third place, but Andy can take solace in the fact he still averaged 485 on the night.

This writeup wouldn't be complete without mentioning Richard Lauder's 640 point game.  This is by far his highest score since we began the modern era of record-keeping in 2011.  It is also the third highest game played by anybody since that time!  He had five bingos, all of them seven letters in length: OPHITES, SOUNDED, DAUNDER, BERATED, and SOIREES.

Sue Goldstein Supplies Plentiful Servings of Punishment

1st Sue Goldstein finished 3-1 +209, good enough for first place in a larger-than-usual intermediate division.  She started her night off with a bang, defeating Aki Miura 379-274 and getting down the bingo TAILLESS in the meantime.  All of her scores were in the 370 range, excepting her 293-343 loss against June Scott.

2nd Harwinder Dowd ended her night at 2-1 +111.  Her best showing was a 376-243 victory against newbie Rachel Conner.  

3rd June Scott also went 2-1, but with a smaller +74 spread, to finish third in the intermediate group.  Her 385-272 drubbing of Sharlie Miura was certainly the high point of her night.