1st Charles Reinke averaged a nifty 505 points per game as he strolled to a perfect 4-0 record. Creepily, his point spread of +505 was the same as his per-game average (cue X-Files music). By far his closest game, and also his only game below 500, was in round one against Gail Salm. She stayed even with him for most of the way and equalled his bingo output, playing AERIEST and TINDERS against Charles' SURGEON and SAVORING. It was then that the carnage truly began; Charles had three 500-point games in a row and played at least three bingos in all of them. He felled expert-level nemesises Bryan Benwitz (500-390) and Thomas Reinke (554-407) in rapid succession, although the latter game was spoiled by a phony AMMONIAL* on Charles' end. The perfect record was sealed with a 549-319 victory over Dennis Lloyd, whose early bingo of DUALISTS was no match for Charles' torrent of bingos (PENTANOL, IRONIZED, GAUNTER, and the new word HANGRIER).

2nd Aaron Bader played his customary four rounds of Collins-fueled Scrabble against Mark Kenas and performed well enough to snag second place with a 3-1 +219 record. His first game, a 446-364 win, was the only one in which he got to play a Collins-only bingo, REMEDIAT# (players of the American dictionary should note that DIAMETER and DIATREME are available in those letters). Mark answered back with a 442-385 victory where both players stuck with high-probability American words (BLEATER and TENNIST for Mark, SOARERS and REARGUED for Aaron). That was where Mark's good fortunes ran out, as he dropped the next two to Aaron by scores of 377-485 and 373-459. In that last game, Mark got away with the phony-in-every-dictionary FELDGANZ* (GANZFELD is good), but justice was served as he met defeat in the end (thanks to Aaron's bingos of URINATES, GRUELER, and UNIVERSE).

3rd Richard Lauder beat out Thomas Reinke for third place by just 40 spread points, finishing at 3-1 +53. He started the night with a 387-365 victory against Helen Flores, who at least got to play the strange-looking ERRATICS (while Richard got GRANTEES). The nascent dreams of a perfect night were dashed, however, in round two, as Richard lost to Thomas Reinke 312-411. Richard did achieve some sort of victory in that one as he outbingoed Thomas two to one, getting down COLORISE and INSNARE to Thomas' singular UNADOPTED. In the next round, Richard notched his first victory against Bryan Benwitz since September of last year, 434-407. HAYWIRES and STORMING were Richard's bingos. Seeing a spot in the writeup close at hand, Richard clinched a top-three performance by taking down Gail Salm in the final round by a score of 424-321. Being mentioned in the writeup confers a level of celebrity that few mortals can ever hope to reach, so Richard's probably feeling pretty good about himself right now.

Also of note is the fact that three nine-letter words were played during the course of the session: Thomas Reinke's UNADOPTED, Aaron Bader's TINCTURES, and Dave Gilligan's REFIGURES. Nine-letter (and longer) bingos only comprise 0.64% of the bingos played at our club, so 3/70 (or 4.29%) is way above average!