Lynda Finn Lays Waste

1st Lynda Finn finished in first for the second time in the past month, handing in an unblemished scorecard that read "4-0 +256". She started off strong with a high-scoring 456-417 win over Gail Salm, highlighted by bingos of RELATOR, DOGEARED, and GENITORS. A bingo deficit against Richard Lauder (SERIALS and NETTERS vs. UNCALLED) didn't faze the Finninator, and she won that game as well, 417-345. Her three wins in a row against our club director have given her a cushy two-game lead in the lifetime series, 28 wins against 26 losses. "Lifetime" of course meaning since 2011. But her wins in the first three rounds were overshadowed by a dominant 468-334 drubbing of Thomas Reinke, a win which has extended her winning streak against this particular opponent to four. Thomas played the lone PREAUDIT, then challenged PREAUDITS as Lynda got down FAERIES, COATERS, and TURNING.

2nd Aaron Bader went 4-1 +177, a somewhat diminutive spread total for the number of games played, but still good enough for second place. Half of his ten bingos were played in the first round, but they were split between two games: DREAMER and CONGERS against Susan Vergeront (a 406-357 win); AFFAIRES, MOTTLING, CASTERED against Dennis Lloyd (a 431-319 win). Aaron also continued to reverse his generally poor fortune against Charles Reinke with a 425-366 victory, holding the normally high-scoring twin to a lone ANEMONES for a paltry 60 points (Aaron himself got down PORTALED and WAVELIKE [new anagram: LAKEVIEW]). A match against the other Reinke did not go as well; the gory details will be explicitly exposited in the next paragraph.

3rd Thomas Reinke compiled a 3-1 +217 record while averaging a club-best 441 per game. He significantly helped his average by beating Barb Besadny 500-275; each player had exactly one valid bingo (STEERER for Barb, ERASERS for Thomas), but Thomas benefited by getting away with the phony GEUMING, the only phony bingo played the entire night. A 448-395 victory against Aaron Bader was not so marred, and further details are not even that gory; in fact, they are not gory at all. The bingos they played could be considered underwhelming if anything; INSULARS and ROOTAGE for Thomas, RETRACES and ELATIONS for Aaron. Thomas then got his third (and unbeknownst to him, final) victory of the night by defeating his OWN BROTHER by a heinous score of 483-410.