Aaron Bader's Decree: Acquiesce, or be Destroyed

1st Aaron Bader breezed by a veritable "killer's row" of opponents with a 4-0 +393 record, causing one to wonder, how unstoppable would he be if his brain wasn't overfull with British words?  Thomas Reinke was the hapless victim who came closest to grasping the tantalizing fruit off the tree of victory, but he still fell well short, losing to Aaron 357-388.  Thomas played perhaps the easiest bingo of the night with EASIEST, whereas Aaron had to work a little bit harder for his own bingos, getting COSTIVE and ANGINAS.  Aaron's dominance was thoroughly proven as he handed three otherwise-undefeated players their only losses.  The highest-scoring of those was a dismantling of Andy Bohnsack, 521-402, giving Aaron his first win in five attempts against this particular opponent.   MORTALS and TRIODES were Andy's rack-clearing plays; Aaron had ENLARGER, OLDSTER, and Word of the Week TURBOFAN.  The yearly standings now show Aaron holding a commanding lead over the competition, but there is plenty of time to change that state of affairs.

2nd Andy Bohnsack topped the list of players with three wins, going 3-1 +188.  Richard Lauder put up a token amount of resistance, playing CYANITE and SADIRONS before succumbing to Andy's might (as well as his bingos, DITTIES and LUNETTES), 443-346.  Even more heinous than that, Andy whomped Leslie Seltzer by a score of 504-298, this time getting three bingos: SATIRIZE, ERUPTED, and CREASING.  In the last game of the night, the fear of god was deservedly put into Andy as he barely escaped with his life against Charles Reinke, 387-383.  High-level expert word knowledge was fully on display in that game: Andy played STARTLER and GAINERS, with Charles contributing WISTERIA. 

3rd Lynda Finn entered into the top three by a mere seven spread points with her 3-1 +134 record.  She stifled the normally bingo-prone Bryan Benwitz, beating him 378-369 and preventing him from bingoing for the whole game (it didn't hurt that Lynda got two bingos of her own, TUNNELS and SCARIER).  Versus Mary Becker, Lynda accomplished a similar feat, holding her opponent bingoless while bingoing a number of times herself: GLAZERS, OUTSLEEP, and FEATURE.  That game ended with a more distant 447-310 final tally.  Her final win was against Dave Gilligan, who was unable to withstand Lynda's triple-triple of REGRATED for 140 points.  Now, in cheese country, that word might be interpreted as "to grate again", but to REGRATE is "to buy up so in order to sell for a higher price in the same area".  By way of consolation, Dave played SPEEDERS for 83 points, but the final score was still well in Lynda's favor, 408-320.

Two other triple-triples were played and rewarded with $5: Leslie Seltzer had BINDINGS for 140, and Peter Schmiedicke scored 167 with his play of HARSHENS. 

Dave Gilligan Just One Point Away From Three Wins (or Two Losses Depending on How Optimistic You Are)

1st Dave Gilligan's final record of 2-1-1 got him first place in the intermediates.  A rare tie against Bryan Benwitz, 332-332, was more welcome than a loss but less welcome than a win.  Dave had INSIDER to Bryan's SPLINTER, and a "creative" miscount of either of those plays could have easily swung the game in either direction.  A match against June Scott ended more convicingly in terms of a discrete outcome, with Dave's MAINTAIN leading the way to a 340-280 victory.