475-444 against Mad. This was a good game as the scores attest. I played BANDINGS (76), ISODOSE (81) and FAINTER (73) and Mad played OVERtIP (82) and EJEcTING (110). After Mad’s massive second bingo I was not far behind and kept the game open and drew well. I had plenty of time to think out the endgame and knew that I had to play as many tiles as possible to block all high-scoring opportunities. I rejected two moves and settled on MATURED (28), which took out Mad’s scoring chances.
385-474 against Eric. I played EqUALING (70) and Eric played WAITERED (64), EARSTONE (77), OUTtAKE (77) and PORTSIDE (80) which I challenged unsuccessfully. Eric had a marvellous four-bingo game where he was able to play three of them after making minuscule fishy plays immediately beforehand. Those one- or two-tile plays signalled volumes to me, but plays that are obvious fishes do not mean that they will translate into bingos on the next move. In Eric’s case, though, ED (6) led to WAITERED, REB (8) led to EARSTONE, and a single letter F-drop (18) led to PORTSIDE. Three fishes = three bingos. It worked for him!
341-293 against Dave K. Dave played the game’s only bingo, sOONERS (70). He also had the second blank, which he used in an outplay which I challenged off.