Thomas Reinke Terrorizes the Tiles

1st Thomas Reinke averaged 501 points a game, with his undefeated 4-0 record a mere sidenote to his domination.  But, alas, said domination was tainted: in his 580-294 win against Mary Becker, he played the phony triple-triple PETITELY .  In Thomas' defense, it is a very wordlike nonword.  He won his other games with varying degrees of dominance: a 494-343 victory over Lynda Finn was his next biggest margin.  Three bingos were the fuel that propelled Thomas to his win: WIDEOUT (Winner of $0 for most Super Bowl-y word), GUSHIER, and RUSTABLE.  Lynda played DERATED and TWOONIE (n. a Canadian two-dollar coin, also TOONIE), but apparently didn't score enough for them.

2nd Charles Reinke enjoyed a 3-1 +252 performance where his highest-scoring game was also his only loss.  Shayla Dunn bested the C-twin 505-494, with each player playing four bingos.  Brace yourselves: JADEITE, AURICLE, STRAYER, and PREDICTS were Charles', while Shayla played AERATION, BOOKIES, MUSTANGS, and ELOINED.  Their combined score of 999 is good for tops so far this year (beating out combined scores of 991 and 990), and Charles' 494 loss is the highest losing score so far this year, besting (worsting?) Peter's 483 earlier this year.  If only all losses could be so fun.  Charles avenged his loss by beating Richard Lauder 469-386 with the timely assistance of three bingos: SIGHTSEE, NARCEINE, and BATSMEN (n. batsman, a batter in baseball, a totally different definition from BATMAN).  Richard played EPILATE to reduce the damage.

3rd Chris Vergeront used the power of the beard to go 3-1 +18 and bring his yearly winning percentage back over .500.  As evidenced by his spread, all of his games were relatively close.  The beard must convey powers of clutchness as well; Chris bingoed out with the find of ENURETIC (n. one afflicted with enuresis [involuntary urination]) to beat Bryan Benwitz 393-342.  Bryan used his own beard-powers to play OVERSAD and PARRAFIN (PARAFFIN is good).  Chris' only defeat came against, who else, the T-Twin, 342-421, despite Chris' bingos of COURIERS and DAUNTERS.

4th Mary Becker missed out on third place by eleven spread points, and she was sick besides, so she gets a bonus mention in the writeup!  I guess we should be glad she wasn't healthier or she would have been unstoppable.

Andy Bohnsack played the word of the week, the nine-letter OVERLADEN.  Close runner-up as Thomas Reinke's double-double IMPARKED.  It sounds like something that would happen in a parking lot, but it is actually used in reference to animals being enclosed in a park. 

Sue Goldstein No Longer Underdog...Maybe Overdog?

1st Sue Goldstein finished at 3-1 +44, defeating two expert players along the way.  A close 353-347 win against Barb Besadny was a good way to start the evening, but she ended with an even bigger bang: a win against Lynda Finn by the score of 422-373.  Both combatants got two bingos: Sue played UNITERS and THORNIER, with Lynda unleashing RASPING and TOPLINES (n. topline, the outline of the top of an animal's body) in response.