Peter Schmiedicke Unveils Title of New Memoir: "I am a Scrabble Deity: Pay Me Tribute or Face Punishment Such as You Can Never Fathom"

1st Peter "The Defeater" Schmiedicke enjoyed a rare 5-0 night en route to first place in the expert division.  A first-round victory over longtime nemesis Charles Reinke, 482-443, bestowed upon Peter the momentum to topple an additional four adversaries.  That game featured bingos of REESTING, VENENATE (v. to poison), and LEERIEST by Peter; MOTIONER and the phony OCTOADS (just OCTADS) were played by Charles.  The Defeater also achieved one of his highest club games ever when he bested Bryan Benwitz 535-326.  He got off to a great start in that game by opening with XEROSIS (n. abnormal dryness of the skin), a word so odd-looking that it drew a challenge from the normally unflappable Bryan.  XEROSIS was only the second bingo played in the past two years that started with an X; the other was also XEROSIS played in 2011 by Charles.

2nd Charles Reinke ended up at 4-1 +276, good enough to snag second in the weekly standings and the top spot in the newly-reset yearly standings.  In the most recent installment of the epic "Reinke vs. Reinke" showdown, Charles came out on top 412-382, but alas, the victory was tained by a phony BRAILERS (a BRAILLER is a machine that writes braille, but needs two L's).  Charles' valid bingo in that game was SEROSAE, and Thomas managed UNWARNED on his end.

The word of the week, the nine-letter VACCINEES (n. one who is vaccinated) was played by Charles in his 427-362 defeat of Barb Besadny.

3rd Andy Bohnsack averaged a staggering 466 points per game, but a loss to Peter Schmiedicke relegated Andy to third place with a 3-1 +443 record.  500-point, four-bingo games are a relatively uncommon occurance, but Andy somehow strung together two such games in a row, against Lynda Finn (500-379) and Thomas Reinke (516-375).  Now that such a feat has been attained, we are all waiting for Andy to put together four games in a row of that magnitude.

Harwinder Dowd Unleashes Wrath, Bingos on Way to Undefeated Night

1st Harwinder Dowd started her year with a bang, not needing to utilize her scorecard's "loss" column with a 3-0 +207 performance.  Aki Miura was the only opponent of hers to get somewhat close; he lost 328-360 in the face of Harwinder's LISTING.

2nd Matt Rust averaged a robust 374 in his three wins, but a loss to Harwinder left him with a 3-1 +243 record.  Matt conquered expert Helen Flores 359-293 despite being held bingoless (Helen played SALINES).

3rd Sue Goldstein went 2-2 +42 for third place in the intermediate division.  Her best win was a 359-306 affair with Sharlie Miura where Sue's bingo of RELENTS was likely the difference-maker.  Sue, despite being besotted by cookies courtesy of the Reinkes, almost managed to beat expert player Gail Salm, losing by a mere eight points (358-366) and playing the phony UNSHAVE (which was not even the most egregious phony of the evening).