Andy Bohnsack Proves Versatility by Not Bingoing That Much but Still Winning Them All

1st Andy Bohnsack "only" bingoed seven times en route to an undefeated 4-0 +263 performance. He handed Mary Becker her only loss, 445-374 despite only getting one bingo (TOPLINE) to Mary's two (ENLARGE and WRENCHES). A subsequent game against Gail Salm was higher-scoring still, ending at 494-365. Andy got down HEARTILY and SOPRANI to counter Gail's WACKIER and SOOTIER. Then, the bingo drought returned in a compelling matchup between the two remaining 3-0 players. Andy ended up prevailing over Thomas Reinke by a score of 401-382 and made the most out of his singular bingo, a 140-point 3x3 of UPRAISES. Thomas was able to play GOATIEST and SOLATED in his losing effort. After enduring somewhat of a slump recently, Andy has bounced back to win thirteen of his last fifteen games.

2nd Richard Lauder got down an impressive thirteen bingos and averaged 448 points per game (70 points above his yearly mark) to finish 4-1 +467. He did not start off his night quietly, dismantling Leslie Seltzer 463-293 with words like INSPIRED, GLOSSIER, and DREARIER. They weren't many points by themselves, but those bingos will add up fast. Richard got a taste of his own medicine when he was soundly defeated by Thomas Reinke, 332-519. Watching helplessly as his opponent pulled DUOTONE, AEROGELS, CERATINS, VIOLATER, and ANDESITE out of the bag, Richard could only muster SPARKED from his own rack because somebody else was hogging all the bingo tiles. Thankfully, the spread lost in that game was gained back and then some in a last-round matchup between Richard and Dave Gilligan. Richard found TARRIES, RESONATE, BATTLES, and FRIGGED in a 566-223 victory which is his largest this year, both by score and point margin.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +400, finishing ahead of three players who had identical records but smaller spreads. A large chunk of that spread came against the ever-gracious Sue Goldstein in a contest that ended with a final score of 516-257. Charles cruised with CANTEENS, TREATED, and DREARIER being his bingos for the game. Three more bingos were on tap for a throwdown against Peter Schmiedicke, and the outcome was similarly positive for Charles: 489-349 was what the scoresheets read after the fists stopped flying. EPOXIES was Peter's lone bingo and it was easily surpassed by Charles' CRUNODAL, GREISEN, and TARDIVE. A matchup against Thomas Reinke was as ill-fated as the previous four had been, with Thomas clearly coming out ahead, 432-374. For two players who average over two bingos per game, there weren't many bingos played: Thomas had CLARIES and OUTDRANK while Charles only had FIGTREE.

Mark Kenas, Thomas Reinke, and Mary Becker also had 3-1 records. Mark Kenas should be commended for hitting the 600-point mark in a 617-334 Collins-dictionary win against Aaron Bader. Mark played DATEDLY, STABLES, NONHERO, EROTISE#, and ERINITES#.

Lynda Finn ended up playing the Word of the Week, VLOGGERS, in a loss against Richard. VLOGGERS was only recently added to the dictionary and means "One that blogs video material". The other new words played were GOATIEST (Thomas), FIGTREE (Charles), and COLORISE (Peter).