Andy Bohnsack Will Beat You Up for Your Blanks

1st Andy Bohnsack was the proverbial rolling stone with the proverbial moss being losses, as he went 4-0 +327 and beat both players directly below him in the night's standings. His evening started off well with a 436-259 win over Dave Gilligan wherein bingos of ACTINIAE, STERLING, and REANOINT were played. Peter Schmiedicke was able to wisely rein in Andy's bingo production, but his success on that front proved wasted, as Andy won that game as well, 417-343. It's safe to assume that Andy's sole EUPHORIA for 104 points was a deciding factor in a way that Peter's REALLOTS and STRINGER weren't. In the final game of the night, the two 3-0's butted heads, but Aaron Bader fell just short, losing a high-scoring 459-470 match that ended with five bingos on the board (BILAYER, RIOTERS, and NOTICES for Andy; WATERIER and VERMIAN for Aaron).

2nd Thomas Reinke put together a solid 4-1 +299 record to make some early headway towards the top spot in the yearly standings. His confrontation with Andy Bohnsack was the only one that did not end in Thomas' favor, 359-414. Thomas rebounded nicely against grizzled Scrabble vet Richard Lauder, defeating our club director 518-332. Richard got down FEATHERS and REPLICON (the latter showing off his years of accumulated word knowledge), but Thomas outbingoed his opponent as he so often does, playing TRIMNESS, IGNITORS, and IRATELY (anagrams: REALITY and TEARILY). Peter turned those tables on Thomas in their fourth-round matchup, playing three bingos to Thomas' two, but Thomas prevailed neverthless by a score of 435-415. Maybe this proves that bingoing isn't everything. Gasp.

3rd Aaron Bader finished at 3-1 +168, beating Gail Salm by twenty-some spread points for third place. His raucous final-round scuffle with Andy Bohnsack is chronicled above, but the rest of his games resulted in a more favorable outcome. He unleashed the full power of his bingo knowledge against the similarly-knowledged Charles Reinke, winning by "just" a score of of 430-383 despite outbingoing Charles 4-1. Those bingos were FINAGLES, FAINTER, LAMENTER, and HUISACHE, the last of which being selected as word of the week (it's apparently a type of tree or bush found in Texas). Mary Becker was also able to put up a brave fight in the face of Aaron's bingoeyness, playing two of them herself (SPEARING and INWARDS) in a 372-468 loss. Aaron had EATABLE, INTRIGUE, and EATERIES, making everybody in the vicinity hungry.

Two triple-triples were played: Gail's 149-point RANDIEST and Bryan's 122-point OTALGIES.