THOMAS REINKE RUNS ROUGHSHOD OVER EXPERT OPPOSITION AS LIGHTNING FLASHES DRAMATICALLY IN THE BACKGROUND

1st Thomas Reinke's 4-0 +342 showing secured him first place in the expert division.  He showed off his word knowledge with DOGNAPS and ASEPTIC in a 427-336 victory over Shayla Dunn, and also had an impressive bingo-less win over Susan Vergeront, whose dual bingos of ENABLER and SILAGES were not enough to overcome Thomas' balanced scoring assault.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +207, conquering one Reinke 392-353 but falling to the other, 346-437.  The most generous contributor to her cume was Mary Becker, when Lynda's bingos of DANCING and ATRESIA propelled her to a 473 score versus Mary's 298.

3rd Charles Reinke lost against Mary and Lynda, but racked up an obscene spread of +566 while averaging 477 over the course of the night and going 3-2.  His cume was mostly due to two games against the ever-stoic Peter Schmiedicke, a 572-321 three-bingo dismantling in round two and a 576-346 follow-up shellacking at the end of the night.  In the latter game Charles threw down bingos with abandon, unleashing four of them (INFLAME, ENFORCER, ADMIRING, ATLANTES, to Peter's sole BROACHES) in his quest for victory.

SUE GOLDSTEIN SHOWS NO MERCY WHILE SWEEPING INTERMEDIATES

1st Sue Goldstein held her opponents to an average of 272 points per game while going 4-0 +397 for first place in the intermediate group.  Her closest victory was an 11-point squeaker over Aki Miura 361-350 in the first round, after which point she clamped down on the defensive end; Aki was the only opponent of hers to score above the 300 mark.  Sue also averaged a handy 371 on the night.

2nd Sharlie Miura went 1-1 -100, felling June Scott 337-274 before being felled herself by eventual first place finisher Sue Goldstein.

3rd June Scott finished at 1-2 -128, her win coming against Aki Miura, 322-300 in a tightly fought contest.

Twelve Scrabble fanatics met on a stormy night, with cookies and cake to aid in their wordsmithing.  SPAHI was the word of the night, defined as "a Turkish cavalryman".  Peter Schmiedicke made off with $4 when he played the word SPEARING (an appropriate word, I'm sure many cavalrymen used spears of some sort...), Sharlie Miura got the low A play, Susan Vergeront's non-bingo FINCH flew for the high H, and Lynda Finn played an I for five points to end up four bucks richer.  Shayla Dunn played the word of the week with her 9-letter find of MIGRAINES through AI, receiving 50 extra style points in addition to the normal 50-point bonus.