Lynda Finn Starts her Year Perfect - Can She Keep it Up? (Meanwhile Everybody is Playing Triple-Triples)

1st Lynda Finn had her first-ever 5-0 performance, and her 100% winning percentage places her neatly at the top of the year's standings. Her perfect record did not include wins over either of the notorious Reinke twins, but her accomplishment should not be diminished as she beat some of the club's top players on her way to first place. A phony of LIVIDEST, played in a 435-348 win against Helen Flores, was a dark spot on her scoresheet, but the remainder of her nine bingos were valid, leaving her with a perfectly acceptable 11% phony rate. She downed Aaron Bader by an even hundred points, 443-343, thanks to her successful application of the "don't let your opponent bingo" strategy. Meanwhile, she had three bingos of her own: MANTLES, HEAVIEST, and SCULLER. A final game against Bryan Benwitz came down to the last play (and the last few seconds of Bryan's clock), but Lynda was again victorious, 430-416. Bryan had a 99-point REDEEMS, but Lynda's two bingos of TZARIST and TENPINS were just enough to take the win.

2nd Aaron Bader went 3-1 +259, with only a loss to the provably unstoppable Lynda preventing him from attaining the glory of an undefeated record. He started by taking out Thomas Reinke 426-396, playing RAMULOSE, TRAINMAN, and RATIONED. The three-bingo theme continued when he matched up against Richard Lauder and showed not a trace of mercy, winning that one 506-256 and getting down INTERTIE, DORSERS, and REFUSALS in the process. A fourth-round encounter with Gail Salm seemed to be another runaway victory for Aaron, with an early triple-triple of SORRIEST for 122 points putting him in a comfortable position, but Gail's counter-triple-triple of RELATION, also for 122 points, got her right back in the game. The final score ended at 476-398, so the impact of the "never give up" moral was slightly diminished, but still...never give up!

3rd Charles Reinke snuck into third place with a 3-2 +657 record. After losing his first two games by a combined total of 22 points to Bryan Benwitz and Gail Salm (I believe this technique is called "sandbagging"), he reeled off three huge wins to end up averaging 488 for the night. He started his comeback with a 479-337 win versus Richard Lauder, playing VESTMENT and the damaging 99-point RECODES (Richard got down UNMIXES and WASTRIE). Charles followed that up with the highest score of the nascent club season, a 583 against Helen Flores. His bingo list was substantive: GOVERNOR, GUNBOATS, HITLESS, and a 104-point TRUCKMAN (is that like a TRAINMAN?). Similar ruthlessness was displayed against Dave Gilligan, who had beaten Thomas Reinke earlier in the night and was thus due for some brotherly payback; Charles won their game 557-273, playing BULGARS, SPLICED, and a 104-point BEYONDS.

In total, four triple-triples were played, perhaps a club record (nobody really knows): Aaron's SORRIEST (122), Dave's ENLARGER (140), Gail's RELATION (122), and Gail again with MONTAGES (131). In other news, the club has to fold because there's no money left after all these $5 triple-triple prizes.