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1st Charles Reinke was the only undefeated player, going 4-0 +319 and averaging 473 per game. He prevailed in round one against Andy Bohnsack, 497-343, holding his bingo-oriented opponent to just one bingo (the awkward-looking DIGITISE) while getting three for himself: REREMIND, FONDLERS, and SOBRIETY. Switching to the Collins lexicon, Charles took advantage of all the extra words by playing STOITER#, UNLOOKED#, and AMUSETTE# to beat Mark Kenas 542-424 (Mark had LOITERS and MASOOLA#+). After that point, Charles turned down his bingo output just a tad (to his opponents' relief), but this didn't interrupt his winning ways (to his opponents' non-relief): he beat Lynda Finn 430-386 and Mark (again) 424-421, playing one bingo in each game (ENDPOINT and ATEBRINS#).

2nd Dave "King Kinz" Kinzer followed up his 2-1 performances each of the previous two weeks with a new-and-improved 3-1 +147 outing. Holding three of his four opponents below 300 points, Dave had by far the lowest opponent average of the night at 327. In the first round, Dave had a nice game against second-timer Ed Nawrocki, winning 415-292 thanks to a bingo of DISTRACT (Ed found GREATER to counter). The next game saw scoring levels take a precipitous drop, and while we can all agree that scoring more points is more fun than scoring fewer points, there's still some minimum amount of fun to be had in a winning effort, fun which belonged to Dave as he pulled out the win over Helen Flores, 309-278. Dave faced off against Andy Bohnsack in round three, and sadly let Andy's Halloweenish phony of DEMONIFY* slip by him in a 316-447 loss, dashing hopes of that elusive perfect record. Happily, two bingos (TOUSELED*, TILAPIA) led to a big win against Carol Ormand, 413-327, enough to vault Dave ahead of other 3-1 finishers for second place on the weekly standings.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +140 against some of the toughest customers that the club has to offer. He dropped into the losers' bracket quickly with a 338-450 loss to Mark Kenas, who casually dropped CENTAGE#, EXPANDS, and DIABETIC to Thomas' singular RENNASE. Collins-lexicon tendencies didn't quite wear off in time for round two, as Thomas scored a 464-393 win against Bryan Benwitz partially thanks to a phony-but-exceptionally-wordlike PLIOSAUR* (good in CSW). His other bingos of DUALITY, LEMONIER, and BANTIES were perfectly valid. The bingo frenzy continued with four more bingos (JEOPARD, NITHERED#, FUNNIEST, LINGIER) to get a revenge win against Mark, 463-401 (for his part, Mark found AMASSER and the nice GLUTAMIC#). A productive night of Scrabble ended with Thomas being Andy Bohnsack 510-391, laying down IVORIES and PEYOTLS to Andy's INTERNEE, PIEHOLES, and STONIER.

Helen's GUNWALES was word of the week because bingoing with a U and a W is always commendable. (Ron Malzer's UNBOWED back in early August is the next-most-recent UW bingo)

1st Thomas Reinke was top dog for the second straight week, going 4-0 +569 and averaging 503 points per game. A 548-271 win against Carol Ormand got him off to a good start; her NOTATES was dwarfed by his TEMPING, GORILLAS, and nine-letter DEIONIZED. Thomas continued to pummel his opponents, showing few (if any) outward signs of remorse as he thrashed Mark Kenas 495-368 (playing ANTIRAPE and GLORIFY) and Andy Bohnsack 476-350 (playing SPORULE and ENURETIC). It wasn't until the final round where Thomas was substantially challenged, but he was still able to get another win off Mark, 494-455, bingoing with ANTARAS#, ACINOSE, and UTILISER, while Mark had TOUKING#, FORELIE#, and MANLIEST.

2nd Richard Lauder also went 4-0 but with a more staid spread total of +113. Game one against Steve Hartsman was a subdued affair, as neither player bingoed; in the end, Richard pulled out a 351-327 win. The action picked up a bit as Richard was able to fend off Andy Bohnsack in round two, 387-380. Richard got OUTRANGE and PUNKIEST, while Andy had ENTRANTS and ZLOTIES (one of many plurals of the Polish currency ZLOTY - the others are ZLOTE, ZLOTYS, and ZLOTYCH). The trend of too-close-to-be-comfortable wins continued as Richard felled Bryan Benwitz 389-374, outbingoing Bryan two to one (MANLIER, URINATED vs. STROBES). Showing remarkable consistency, Richard again score in the 380 range as he put the finishing touch on his perfect evening by defeating Sara McLaughlin 386-319.

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +283, but with only four bingos (well below his yearly average of 2.07 per game), one feels that he could have done much more damage than he actually did. Bryan did not bingo in a 406-319 win against Helen Flores, while Helen was able to get down TAGLINE (but not before an appropriate amount of mourning for an unplayable GELATIN). In round two, Bryan overcame Dave Kinzer's 88-point PLAYABLE with his own 76-point EMPTIED to win 408-352. A 374-389 loss to Richard Lauder was a temporary setback, but Bryan made up that lost ground (and then some) by taking Andy Bohnsack to school, 487-332. Bryan found DISOMIC and COOKERS to Andy's LABIATE and ANTIRED.

We welcomed newcomer Ed Nawrocki to our ranks. He scored his first-ever club win with a nice 429-215 win over Kelsey Stanczak, thanks to bingos of AIRTIME and SANDERS. We were also happy to have seasoned tournament player Mary Parrish join us from out west.

1st Thomas Reinke came in first place yet again, going 4-1 +202 and strengthening his first-place spot in the yearly standings with roughly two months to go in the year. He took on two at once in the first round and collected two victories, creaming Steve Hartsman 458-278 and fighting off Helen Flores, 423-385. Thomas then went up against Mark Kenas, and, typically for their Collins-lexicon matchups, it was a high-scoring affair; sadly, it was a loss for Thomas, 400-520, despite some neat bingo finds of MYOSOTE and BESPRENT (Mark had INACTIVE, INTERIOR, and PERIDOT). Staying true to his club-leading 2.36 bingos per game, Thomas piled on the bingos in his round-three match against Bryan Benwitz, slapping down PARADES, SILICATES, LEGATINE, and NOCTULE on his way to a 479-443 win. For the final game, Thomas got revenge against Mark, winning 477-409 with bingos of FUNKIER, ANCONAL, and OREADES#.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +327, nicely making up for the previous week's 1-3 record. A week's worth of pent-up craving for Scrabble domination was unleashed fully in round one, as Bryan bulldozed Richard Lauder by a score of 516-263, bingoing with MATINEE, TURNABLE, and MANGONEL. Bryan got down three more bingos (MAENADS, ALEURONS, GRIMNESS) while defeating Charles Reinke 447-391. Immediately faced with the other Reinke, Bryan suffered his only loss against Thomas, 443-479, while only bingoing once with ICINESS. Bryan got back to his bingoing ways for round four, getting LYDDITES, TALCIER, and RESTING in a 437-383 win against Steve Hartsman, who had CLARINET and OPSONISE.

3rd Dave Kinzer went 2-1 +24, prevailing in the standings over a large contingent of players who had 2-2 records. In round one, he squared off against Andy Bohnsack, and while he did not bingo himself, he also prevented Andy from bingoing; the result was a completely bingoless 363-346 win for Dave. Future Andy opponents, take note. Dave suffered a setback in the second game, losing handily to Lynda Finn, 313-461; again, Dave didn't bingo, and his strategy from the first game failed as Lynda got down HANDSET and VIRGATE. Dave's night ended with a 392-237 win against newcomer Kelsey Stanczak, 392-237, thanks to his find of INDOLES. (Kelsey's other game worked out better for her, as she beat Carol Ormand 326-253 and had the nice find of POINTES).

Steve's TURBOCAR was word of the week.