Mark Kenas Dominates - The Rest of Us Can Only Hope to Be Spared His Wrath

1st Mark Kenas finished as the only undefeated player with a 4-0 +324 record.  He started off the night in classic Mark fashion by slapping around Richard Lauder 510-328.  Richard got all four S's and both blanks (using them to play EMULATED and OVERRATE), but such good fortune was nought in the face of Mark's might, a might which yielded bingos of SANCTIFY and TADPOLES.  Andy Bohnsack suffered a similar fate, losing 338-419 and being held to zero bingos (more on Andy's bingo situation later).  Mark, meanwhile, played three: OUTCLIMB, SERVANTS, and LANGUOR.  Mark is seemingly making a habit of spoiling other players' perfect nights, handing Charles Reinke his only loss in an extremely tightly-fought contest, 423-420.  Another tri-bingo effort was the key to victory, with Mark playing EROSIVE, RAINOUTS, and SALIENCE.  With his perfect 4-0 performance, Mark overtakes Thomas Reinke for second place in the yearly standings.

2nd Andy Bohnsack went 3-1 +650, in the process averaging an easily club-leading 485 per game and playing an even dozen bingos.  He handed Thomas Reinke his largest club loss ever, 576-236, a 250-point margin!  Thomas played HORSTES (n. HORSTE, a portion of the Earth's crust), but this feeble effort barely impeded Andy's easy journey to victory.  "Mr. B." ended up with four bingos: HIDEOUS, MODERNE, BREWING, and the triple-triple LIGHTING.  However, this goodly amount of bingos was not enough for the maniacal Andy, who craved even more.  He got his wish when he unleashed a stunning five bingos against a dumbstruck Bryan Benwitz: DAMPENS, NOTARIES, INERTIAS, LATICES, and OUTSANG.  The outcome of that game was predictably a blowout in Andy's favor, 549-298.  However, Bryan still owns the lifetime series 11-8, having won four straight prior to this crushing loss. 

3rd Charles Reinke finished with a 3-1 record and a modest (for him) +118 spread.  He beat Peter Schmiedicke in a close match, 409-387, his PRETENDS and TETANIES (n. TETANY, a muscular condition) outscoring Peter's ENLIVEN and ENTASES (plural of ENTASIS, a slight convexity in a column).  Peter understandably missed his 10-letter bingo of REFILTERED (through ERE) to win the game.  Charles also was played extremely tight by Richard Lauder, who got things off to a hot start with his 100-point double-double SHADIER, and later made a calculated one-tile fish for TURBIDLY, which he played for 101 points.  However, Charles played ASTRINGE (v. to bind or draw together) to win the game 410-386.

Aki Miura Doesn't Quite Dominate - But, Hey, First Place!

1st Aki Miura finished 1-1 -59.  Susan Vergeront put him in a hole too big to dig out of when she beat him 406-259.  However, Aki made a valiant effort to regain some of that spread when he defeated newcomer Betty McMurry 340-252 for his highest game this year.