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1st Charles Reinke notched first place by a margin of just sixteen spread points over a similarly-monikered foe, finishing 4-0 +429. His customary two-game Collins set against Mark Kenas went exactly according to plan (well, maybe not Mark's version of the plan), as Charles won both, 469-417 (playing CHARTERS, FOLATES, and DELETION) and 432-399 (playing CLOUDIER and LAETARES#). Mark did have the nice nine-letter SAGENITES# to ease the suffering in the second game. Charles got down three more bingos (HERNIAE, DERRISES, LAITANCE) while bulldozing Sara McLaughlin, 566-274. The relentless scoring assault slowed down for the final game, as Charles downed Bryan Benwitz in an atypically low-scoring game, 370-318, thus finishing 4-0 for the second time in three outings.

2nd Thomas Reinke fell just short of first place, going 4-0 +413 and averaging 477 points per game. The combined undefeatedness of the Reinkes might seem spectacular, but the feat was also achieved two weeks ago, so it's not spectacular at all, and might even be commonplace now. Thomas was thrown right into the proverbial fire for round one, facing off against Bryan Benwitz, where, despite the unceasing torment of proverbial flame, he prevailed 457-416. Bryan's sole bingo was BEEPING for 106, while Thomas had HEROICS, TANSIES, and DULLARDS. Seamlessly switching to Collins mode, Thomas beat Mark Kenas 453-325 on the back of FORSLOE# and STOVAINE#. Large amount of spread was accumulated in a 498-293 stomping of Andy Bohnsack, where Thomas monopolized the bingo output with OUTRAVES, BALDRICS, FEROCITY, and DEVISEE. Reinke domination was concluded with a high-scoring 498-459 bout against Mark Kenas, where each player had three bingos: ANEURINS, NAMASTE, and STEEVER# for Mark, RETIRAL#, AGATOID, and BACONERS# for Thomas.

3rd Andy Bohnsack finished 3-1 -56, proving that he can still win games even if he doesn't bingo a bazillion times (he only got four bingos total across his four games). He got a revenge win against Steve Hartsman after a loss the previous week, scoring 438 to Steve's 399 and getting down DISROOT (Steve had RINGTOSS). His game against David Kinzer was quite close, but Andy prevailed 375-366 despite Dave's word-of-the-week find of BUSHMEN. Words won't be wasted on Andy's spread-obliterating loss to Thomas Reinke, 293-498; instead, those words will be spent describing Andy's fourth-round 414-313 win over Helen Flores. Andy provided a lesson in the utility of high-probability seven-letter words, deploying AERIEST (probably 57) and ANEROID (probability 1), and also provided a lesson in the utility of reviewing high-probability eight-letter words, as he challenged Helen's valid SHOUTIER.

1st Bryan Benwitz averaged 470 points per game on his way to a slightly abbreviated, but still flawless, 3-0 +336 record. He barely got past Steve Hartsman in round one, winning their match 377-360. Only one bingo was played between the two players, Bryan's DISTRICT. Things heated up in round two as Bryan got a big win against Richard Lauder, 470-406; this time around, both players bingoed three times: IMAGOES, TUITION, and RELIERS were Bryan's, while Richard got LADRONES, SOOTIER, and CODDLER. Bryan's third and final game was a dominating performance against Andy Bohnsack: Bryan found TINWARE, GREMIAL, HOVERERS, and ANTLIKE to snag a 563-308 win.

2nd Thomas Reinke crammed in six games of Scrabble in a single session, a rarity, and while he missed out on a 6-0 record, his performance wasn't too much worse than that at 5-1 +184. The first of two two-on-one encounters resulted in Thomas' only loss, as he was smashed flat by Andy Bohnsack, 332-517. A win against Richard Lauder in the other half of the two-on-one, 391-337, helped ease the pain. In round two, Thomas went up against Mark Kenas and in the process set a new record for the year's highest combined score, their combined total of 1048 being one point higher than the previous record of 1047. The final score was 596-452, with Thomas providing six bingos (SARKIER, RATABLY, GATCHING, RADIALS, DUODENA, and POLONIE#) and Mark providing two (BIOTITE, HEADIEST). That combined total of eight bingos also ties a yearly record. Thomas went on to pick up wins against Carol (380-239), Charles Reinke (468-458) and Mark for the second time (420-400) to pad out his substantive collection of wins.

3rd Steve Hartsman overcame two early losses to finish 3-2 +305. He was held bingoless in a round-one loss to Bryan Benwitz, 360-377, and achieved that unfortunate distinction again in round two where he lost to Charles Reinke 272-485. But Steve came roaring back with a vengeance in the third round, playing a total of seven bingos in a two-on-one match that resulted in two huge wins, 492-303 against Sara McLaughlin and 553-251 against Richard Lauder. Against Sara, Steve got SWEETIE, VALERIAN, and TOMBACS, while his bingos against Richard were ENTWINED, FRESCOS, RETAINS, and COTTONED. Steve carried that momentum into the final game as he felled Andy Bohnsack 406-362, getting INDORSE and FABRICS to Andy's ATRESIA.

We welcomed new player Randall and welcomed back Jess to our ranks. Hopefully they found the competition invigorating and the raucous Yu-Gi-Oh! players not too distracting.

Carol's SNOOTFUL was word of the week.

1st Thomas Reinke basically crushed everybody who had the misfortune of being paired with him, as he finished at 5-0 +813. That +813 spread feels close to some kind of record; since this website does not keep track of such things, all we can do is wildly speculate. He smoked Steve Hartsman in round one, 528-321, getting NATURES, PLEACHES, and AIRIEST (that last one getting AIRIEST quite close to overtaking ETESIAN as the most commonly played bingo at club, 44 to 46). Switching over to the Collins dictionary, Thomas got a nice win over Mark Kenas, 472-383, while also adding three more bingos to his illustrious bingo total: LITHARGE, AUXESIS, and OVERLIT (Mark had CANOODLE and LEGLENS#). The bingoing slowed down somewhat for the third round, but even with a single bingo of TIDEWAY, Thomas took Richard back to school, 443-261. For the final round, Thomas put his undefeated record in jeopardy by playing two games at once, but when all was said and done, he had bingoed eight times and his undefeated record remained intact: he beat Mark Kenas again by a score of 492-328, but saved the majority of his wrath for Sara McLaughlin, whom he beat 557-286 while playing five bingos, all of them on the more probable end of the spectrum: FANTASIE, SLITTER, REDATES, OUTHEARS, and SOIGNEE.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-0 +341, resulting in total Reinke domination. It was a slow start for Charles as he won his first game against Mark Kenas 369-345, an uncommonly low score when playing in the lexicon that has words like ZE and JA. Charles' knowledge of top-100-probability bingos came in handy as he plopped down ARENOSE to secure victory. He improved on that score, but not by much, when he beat Andy Bohnsack in round two, 382-360. Both players were not their usual selves and played just one bingo: INFLAMED for Andy, WHITELY for Charles. Charles got things going in round three when he beat Mark again, 507-385, finding EPHEMERA, ADVENES#, and CALIGOS# (EPHEMERA takes an E, L, and S at the end, since it is a type of fly and not just the plural of EPHEMERON). Charles faced strong opposition in the final round, with Bryan Benwitz representing a significant obstacle towards the goal of a perfect record, but Charles dispatched him handily, 488-315.

3rd Lynda Finn went 4-1 +352 to achieve her third one-loss session in a row. Her round one match against Dave Kinzer saw just one bingo hit the board (Lynda's ESTUARY), but it was her win, 374-314. In round two, Lynda suffered her only loss, 314-413 to Sara McLaughlin (playing FEASTING in the losing effort), but as consolation, she won the second game of her two-on-one, taking down Dennis Lloyd with a final score of 414-383 (playing LEATHERS and DESTINE). Lynda also got a big win against second-timer Carol, playing FEEDING and SINNERS (church joke goes here) for a final tally of 411-247. Cementing her third-place effort was a 418-405 victory against Richard Lauder.