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1st Charles Reinke flourished with an unblemished 4-0 +478 record. Things almost went wrong for him in a round-one matchup against Dennis Lloyd, but in the end he squeaked out victory, 396-384. A more comfortable winning margin was established against Richard Lauder as Charles won that one easily, 488-328, thanks to finds of ARTISTRY, FRIVOLED, and INDICANS (Richard had COUNTRY as his sole bingo). Charles' other two victories were a pair of 500-point games against Mark Kenas, 500-369 and 521-346. The bingo-finding part of Charles' brain proved to be in good working order as he found a combined seven bingos in those two games: SNIDIER#, INTINES, REPOSALS, SOGGIEST, LANNERET, CALIBRED, and TRENCHER.

2nd Thomas Reinke made yet another top-three appearance with his 4-1 +400 final record. Fifteen total bingos in his five games feels like it could be some sort of personal record for Thomas, but this writer does not have the inclination to find out for sure. Thomas dropped a whopping five bingos when defeating Richard Lauder 560-397: MISRATED, TOGGLED, AUBRIETA, VOCATIVE, and ENVISION. No word on whether VOCATIVE was ever hooked to make EVOCATIVE. Slightly less impressive (but still very impressive) was his 496-378 over Bryan Benwitz where he got four bonus plays: RETAKES, BONNIER, OXIDASE, and PLEONASM. It wasn't all good news for Thomas as he did suffer one loss, that being 395-459 to Mark Kenas.

3rd Lynda Finn continued her recent streak of strong performances (and writeup appearances!) with a 3-1 +273 finish. Her best game came against Wendy Bialek, 476-336, thanks to finds of ANGULOSE and INCHERS. She also did quite well against Helen Flores, holding her opponent to no bingos in a 460-305 win. Lynda's bingos there were PLANETS, REROUTE, and INDUCTS, all for exactly 70 points (cue spooky music). Her single loss was against John Bialek, 322-352. She played the game's only bingo, ESTATES, but John proved that bingos are strictly optional when attempting to win a game of Scrabble.

4th John Bialek went 3-1 but his smaller spread of +21 kept him out of the top three. Still, a strong performance from one of our newest members!

1st Thomas Reinke prevailed over the field with a 4-1 +175 record. He couldn't have asked for a better start when he notched two victories in round one, 444-263 against Wendy Bialek (playing bingos of FREAKOUT and CELOSIA) and 455-375 against Bryan Benwitz (AURICLE, SLEIGHED, and REGRANT to Bryan's BENZINES and RETAILS). Things proceeded well after that with a pair of well-earned wins over the always-tough Mark Kenas, 445-384 and 484-434. It all fell apart in the final round, however, as Thomas was flattened by his brother Charles, 315-512. Thomas played a single bingo of CESAREAN, while Charles played SDAINES#, RETIREE, and the illogical-but-still-quite-valid UNTHAWS.

2nd Bryan Benwitz didn't quite reach the levels of over-the-board dominance that he displayed the previous week, but still acquitted himself well with a 3-1 +380 record and a club-leading 463 per-game average. He got his loss out of the way early when he was defeated by Thomas Reinke 375-455, but Bryan easily bounced back by taking the win off John Bialek, 437-293. The pattern of escalating scores continued when he handily defeated charles Reinke by a score of 451 to 364, playing SYRETTE and OVERING in his winning effort. But the real fireworks were lit in the final game when Bryan scored an astronomical 589 against Richard Lauder, who had a respectable but not-nearly-enough total of 360 points. Bryan might need a bingo-related nickname after that game ("Bryan Bingowitz" was considered and discarded), as Bryan had five such plays: BETAINE, CLEAVING, SPAVIET, DUNKERS, and DETAINED.

3rd Sara McLaughlin put on a strong showing with a 3-1 record, although her -17 spread total left her far behind Bryan in the quest for second place. She played her first-ever nine-letter bingo at our club when she deployed RENAILING in a convincing 431-320 win over Richard Lauder. SAVIORS was her other bingo in that one, while Richard had ROOTLIKE. Sara got down another two bingos, FOISTED and ENROLLED, while defeating newcomer Ron Malzer 398-351. Ron, a resent transplant from La Crosse, proved to be no slouch as he found BINDERS and SMARTER in that one. Sadly, Sara's tragic 302-508 loss to Charles Reinke doomed her dreams of an undefeated club session.

1st Bryan Benwitz utterly dominated the field with a flawless 4-0 +688 record, twelve bingos, and an average game score of 509. Even in round one, Bryan was firing on all cylinders, as John Bialek found out in the course of a 528-276 win for Bryan which included Bryan's nine-letter find of NETTLIEST. Bryan cooled off, but only barely, in round two, where he defeated Richard Lauder 487-311 thanks to finds of OUTPACED and word-of-the-week WINDPIPE. The session culminated with the fabled anti-Reinke in rounds three and four, as Bryan defeated both Reinke twins in convincing fashion, a feat rarely achieved. He played WEARYING, GATCHES, and ABOITEAU while defeating Charles Reinke 468-436, but three bingos weren't enough to satsify Bryan's twisted depravity, so he upped his bingo output in the final game, playing KITTLES, UNSALTED, EXPLORED, and EROTIZED to topple Thomas Reinke, 553-325. The feat could have only been rendered more impressive had Bryan been overcoming some type of adversity during the games, such as being attacked by feral dingoes or drawing two V's on a two-tile draw.

2nd Lynda Finn followed up her 3-1-1 +300 record two weeks ago with an even better 4-1 +206 record this week. She barely escaped with a win against Sara McLaughlin, needing a phony PLATTERN* to take the 385-380 victory (Sara's sole bingo of GROANERS was perfectly valid). A fourth-round two-on-one game against husband-wife pair John and Wendy Bialek was a bit more comfortable for Lynda as she won both games by fair margins, 416-359 against John and 395-268 against Wendy. Her bingo of ABOITEAU against Wendy should look familiar, as Bryan played that same word against Charles in round three. Lynda's only loss was another nailbiter, 422-425 against Dennis Lloyd. Dennis made the most of his single bingo, scoring 118 points with QUEEREST, while Lynda had SPARING and OVERMANY.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +117, eking out the bronze medal by seven spread points over the other 3-1 finisher, Richard Lauder. He had a pair of high-scoring Collins games against Mark Kenas which had his knowledge of Collins bingos on prominent display. The first was a 534-443 win where he played TRILLOES#, DOUANIER#, ADRENALS, and ERODENTS# (ERODENT is good in the American dictionary but is an adjective and does not pluralize). The second was a 522-364 victory where MELONIER#, GENTIER#, and CAROUSES were his bingos. Thomas also won handily against Sara McLaughlin, 433-337. Sara played TOSSING and GRUNTLED (the opposite of DISGRUNTLED, I suppose); Thomas had the high-probability ACINOSE and DIASTOLE. Hopes of an undefeated evening were trampled, however, by Bryan Benwitz in the final round. The gory, possibly not-safe-for-work details of that game can be found above.