Gail Salm Sweeps, Others Weep

1st Gail Salm unleashed a torrent of tiles upon her four unsuspecting opponents, resulting in a 4-0 +196 performance that gave her undisputed first-place bragging rights. The path to undefeated-dom was not without its obstacles, however. Gail narrowly escaped with the win in the first game of the night, 339-327 against Susan Vergeront, when a loss would have irrevocably altered her destiny. Her bingos in that one were MEANEST and INVERTER. She must have thought that a 12-point victory was too much of a cushion, because her game against Mary Becker ended up being only a six-point win, 343-337. The crown jewel of her victories was a strong 446-379 triumph over the almost-club-leading Charles Reinke. Charles was stymied by Gail's bingoing prowess, and her three bonus plays (OVERWIND, MUSTIER, and BLEARING) easily overcame his sole effort of DIANTHUS.

2nd Charles Reinke put together a solid 3-1 +464 effort that was disrupted only by Gail's victory over him in the final round. He set a personal record in club play by scoring a monstrous 648 against Helen Flores, dropping down bingos of LURCHES, TWINGES, LIFECARE, and ADDICTER (READDICT is good) as well as a multitude of other high-scoring plays. That score of 648 is the sixth-highest all time since 2011, somewhat breaking up the Thomas Reinke hegemony on that list. Charles' other two losses were slightly more prosaic, but still showcased his scoring skills: 477-460 against Aaron Bader (sixth-highest losing score this year) and 520-391 against Thomas Reinke. In the latter game, seven total bingos were played: BIGEMINY, PELAGES, and NORTENAS on the losing side, DEFIANT, CTENIDIA, DEARTHS, and TAILBONE on the winning side.

3rd Lynda Finn was the second-best of four 3-1 finishers with her +305 cume. Her single loss was by just two points to Mary Becker, 376-378. Lynda's bingo (MENIALS for 77) outscored Mary's 70-point IODINES but couldn't find that extra scoring bump to get the win (perhaps too distracted by collecting pokeballs?). She made up for the close loss, however, with wins against the third- and fourth-place players on the yearly standings, Aaron Bader and Bryan Benwitz. The game against Aaron was also quite closely-contested, ending with a final total of 408-398. Aaron found MEUNIERE, but Lynda one-upped him with INERTIA and DISTORT, thereby securing the victory. Bryan was not able to make it as close; he lost to Lynda 347-409 despite an even two bingos apiece (ARRIVES and OUTRATED on Bryan's end; ADORNED and CANALISE for Lynda).

Thomas' LOWBUSH was chosen as word of the week. HIGHBUSH has been a word for a while, but LOWBUSH was just added in last year's dictionary update. In other bingo news, the club just recently crossed the 20% threshold in its neverending goal to play every seven- and eight-letter word in the dictionary. Only 45,348 words to go!