Aaron Ain't Errin'

1st Aaron Bader had a perfect 4-0 +356 record and reversed his recent trend of disappointing bingo totals by playing nine of them in four games. His bingo woes were still present in his first game, however, as his sole SNARLING was kind of lonely in a 396-297 win over Lynda Finn, who played AEROSAT. Things began to pick up steam when Aaron was tasked with playing two players at once, defeating Mary Becker 412-348 (playing word-of-the-week MOHWAKS and URBANISE) and Betty Hasselkus 440-302 (playing COATEES and REGIONAL). All of these efforts culminated in a thrilling 513-458 win over second-place finisher Charles Reinke, where a late nine-letter bingo of TWITCHING for 98 points (preceded by a 60-some point QUIP) secured the win. Aaron's other bingos in that one were OUTGAVE, AUTACOID, and SNARFLED. Charles had MUSKIER, OVERSEEN, and LEADSMAN; his 458 losing score is not quite the highest this year, but it's close.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +461, and, excepting his loss against Aaron, had a very successful evening, with each of his wins having a margin of over 100. He had his own four-bingo game against third-placer Bryan Benwitz, unleashing TERRAIN, HEMATITE, FORESKIN, and SMALLEST upon the board to cruise to a 508-352 win (Bryan had HORNITOS and RELOANED). A game against Dave Gilligan didn't quite score as much, but the margin was much larger as Charles took a 489-254 win, playing AVAILED and STRIGILS along the way. Charles' ability to overwhelm his opponents hadn't faded by the fourth game, as he took down club director and grizzled Scrabble veteran Richard Lauder, 399-275. Richard got away with the phony RAGDOLLS (apparently a type of cat, and also a video game term, but still not in the dictionary); Charles didn't have to resort to trickery when he played the perfectly valid LENTISK (a type of shrub, because everything is a shrub).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +203, overcoming a first-round loss to make an appearance in the top three. After starting -156 in the hole, Bryan quickly extricated himself from said hole by beating Lynda Finn by a score of 472-287. Bryan got down NONRATED, LURKING, and the nice find of FUNCTOR (97 points!); the only thing written down for Lynda's bingos was a sad face. Mary Becker was the one to give Bryan his closest game: a 350-380 loss isn't so bad considering the damage that we know Bryan is capable of doing. Mary got down TRUSSING to Bryan's ANECDOTA and NAILERS (the study of high-probability words paying off once again). Bryan returned to form in the final game by winning easily against Gail Salm, 456-312, again out-bingoing his opponent two to one (OVERBITE and NARROWS for the victor, SILVERS for the defeated).