Thomas Reinke Might Be a Hyper-Intelligent Alien Shapeshifter

1st Thomas Reinke was the only undefeated player out of fifteen attendees, rightfully earning first place with his dominant 4-0 +420 performance.  He also averaged 482 over his four games, bumping up his yearly average by a considerable amount.  Bryan Benwitz was treated to an unwelcome beating at the hands of the T-Twin; Thomas' 540 was the highest scoring game of the evening, and the margin of 211 was also not too bad.  Bryan did play INTINES for a cool 90 points, but Thomas unleashed CARLINGS, SPIRULAE, and PARODOI (plural of PARODOS, an ode sung in an ancient Greek drama) to make the game a non-contest.  Against Aaron Bader, bingos were thrown around like lexical confetti; despite a two-to-three bingo deficit, Thomas won out, 461-440.  His bingos were the pedestrian ORIENTAL and REPRISE, whereas Aaron's were more exciting with DEVOUTLY and a pair of nines, BALLERINA and word-of-the-week METAGENIC.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +427, his own undefeated efforts kiboshed at the last when he was taken down by his own brother in a fraternal fistfight, 405-444.  In that contest, Charles was held to just one bingo of COWBIRDS; Thomas had LOONEYS and INDITER.  An earlier contest had Charles defeat Peter Schmiedicke 526-303, using his advanced tile-drawing skills to get bingos of EGALITE, DOZENTHS, and INVOICES.  Peter was able to get OUTSTARE to blessedly break the 300-point barrier.  Of all Charles' wins, his game against Leslie Seltzer was the closest, ending with a difference of only six points, 404-398.  Leslie had the nice find of CAUDATES, which drew a challenge (ECAUDATE is the one which doesn't pluralize), with Charles getting down LEAGUES and DOLESOME.

3rd Dave Gilligan, as the only 3-1 finisher, made the race for third place a no contest.  He handily defeated Mary Becker 381-312 in the last game of the evening, thus securing his top-three finish.  A significant 2-to-0 bingo advantage (SPARSER and OVERLENT) aided him greatly.  Such a bingo advantage was not present in a matchup against Gail Salm, with Dave playing RELINED to Gail's WINTRIER, but this proved not to be a problem as Dave won that one as well, 384-356.  Second-place finisher Charles Reinke was the only thorn in Dave's side, that game ending 491-355 in favor of the C-Twin.

Sharlie Miura Splits Games, but That's Good Enough

1st Sharlie Miura went 1-1 -9 for a pleasingly even evening.  In their first-ever contest, Dave Gilligan won out with a 387-303 victory, but Sharlie rebounded to beat June Scott 373-298.  A bingo of SAILING no doubt contributed much to Sharlie's victory.