Gail Salm Sets All Kinds of Personal Bests

1st Gail Salm waltzed through four games of Scrabble combat without so much as a scratch to show for it, finishing 4-0 +189 for her first-ever undefeated performance in the expert ranks. Her eleven bingos through four games and her 426 average were both personal bests. She took down Lynda Finn by a score of 416-381, playing GRITTIER, BRUISED, and NEEDIER to great effect. She repeated that three-bingo performance with another trio of bingos in a clean 448-348 win over Helen Flores. In that one, her bingos were INGRATES, INQUESTS, and VIOLATE. Showcasing nerves of steel, she did not waver in her final game against the similarly undefeated Andy Bohnsack, and notched the upset victory, 409-381. The normally bingo-happy Andy was denied any chance to bingo as Gail, yet again, had three of them: DENIALS, ROASTING, and RIVETERS.

2nd Andy Bohnsack enjoyed a 3-1 +247 record that was rendered slightly less enjoyable when he lost the "championship" game against Gail Salm. He defeated Oshkosh club regular Terry Hope, 434-355, proving once again that good old-fashioned Midwestern hospitality has no place in Scrabble. Andy played bingos of ATONIES and AGNOSTIC in the win; Terry, meanwhile, got down INVADES. Andy's defensive side was displayed in a bout with Bryan Benwitz which Andy won, 391-332. No bingos were to be had for Bryan, while Andy got down two low-scoring bonus plays: ENROOTS for 63 and MANAGERS for 59, the latter of which must have had at least one blank in it.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +182. His singular loss came courtesy of Andy Bohnsack, who cleaned Thomas' clocks quite thoroughly, 305-442. Thomas managed the sole VENENATE as a bingo, while Andy had EGOISTS and SUNDIAL. However, Thomas did enjoy some big wins of his own, the biggest being a 493-316 victory over Mary Becker. TEARERS and VEINOUS were Thomas' bingos in that contest. A 490-371 win over lifelong nemesis Charles Reinke may have been Thomas' most enjoyable win of the evening, as the tile gods saw fit to bestow upon him bingos three: VENTAILS (later hooked to make AVENTAILS), TURFSKI, and LIPREAD. Charles did manage to get the nine-letter AERATIONS down, played through the second A and the N.

Richard Lauder's VAQUEROS was chosen as word of the week, played in a loss to Helen Flores. Richard also receives the "bingoing in the face of adversity" award for playing a bingo with a V and a Q in it. Any bingo with a U in it is also eligible for this award, which pays $0 to its winner.

The only new bingo played this week was Thomas' VEINOUS. It has two anagrams, ENVIOUS and NIVEOUS.