1st Thomas Reinke crushed all his opposition and finished with a neatly-packaged 4-0 record with a blasphemous spread of +656. He toppled the mighty Mark Kenas in a pair of games to get two of his four wins. The first of those games ended with a final of 483-321, despite Mark's nice find of WORKADAY; Thomas, meanwhile, had slightly more conventional finds of SARMENTS and JOLLIERS. Their next game was closer, but still a win for Thomas, 462-388, thanks to another J bingo, JUNKERS, and a 95-point TYPIEST - Mark played DECURIES and AVOCADOS. Thomas also enjoyed a 495-242 win against Helen Flores, getting down RETINAL and GALERES, and probably some other good plays too given that those two bingos wouldn't be enough to get him almost all the way to 500 points.

2nd Richard Lauder had his fourth 3-1 performance in five sessions, going 3-1 +243. His round one game was a squeaker, but he came away with the win against Sara McLaughlin, 371-369. Sara got a bingo of DAILIES, but Richard had AUDITION and NIDGETS. NIDGETS is useful to remember for anybody who draws the letters DEGINST and faces the temptation of a phony STINGED*. Richard's best game was a 492-206 win against Sue Goldstein, perhaps most notable for the fact that the game was played in round four, when Sue usually stays until the end of round three. Richard's three-pronged assault of BESTRID, ANESTRI, and TIMBERED was more than enough to comfortably carry him to victory. Richard's sole loss was to Helen Flores in convincing fashion, 321-450.