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1st Charles Reinke went 3-1 +386, a result befitting the club champion. He won big in his opening-round game against Dave, scoring 511 and bingoing with TOILETS, MASTOID, STATIVE. But in a garbled and tearful retelling, it was revealed that the most notable part of the game was Dave hooking an L onto the front of RHINO for LRHINO*, an error which went unnoticed for up to 30 seconds. The "1" part of his "3-1" record came in the second game, as he lost a close contest to Thomas, 403-413. His bingo of ANANKES (n. ANANKE, a concept of necessity in ancient Greek religion, from the Greek goddess bearing the name) was no match for Thomas' triumphant trifecta of DESCEND, PITIABLE, and EMERITUS. He did manage to keep the game close by using the strategy of "scoring while not bingoing", while Thomas, when he wasn't slapping down all his letters, was playing two-letters words for two points and picking his nose. Against Bryan, Charles won by a nice even 100, with the final being 471-371. Charles played DENARII (n. DENARIUS, a coin of ancient Rome, not to be confused with DENARI, which is the plural of DENAR, a monetary unit of Macedonia), GLEETIER, and CISTERN in that game. His final game saw him drawing the rack EEKINR and a blank, which of course spells out REINKE. Unlike the last time he had that exact rack, about a month ago, he played REKEYING, adding on to his already-played bingos of ROOMIEST and ENDOGEN. Meanwhile, Lynda played the word-of-the-week CUSHIONY, but lost 431-457.

2nd Michael David came in second place at 3-1 +211. His first game was a low-scoring battle against Helen, with the only bingo played being Michael's SENATES. The rules of Scrabble clearly state that in order to win the game, you have to score more points than your opponent, and Michael did that in this game, winning 363-325. Like Charles, the second round was his downfall, with him facing Bryan and losing 275-472. He did play TRIODES for 87, a significant portion of his final total, and Bryan played DEPUTING and ARISTAS. Hopefully someone hooked that last one with a B to make BARISTAS. Things improved a lot for Michael in the third round, as he scored a perfect 500 against Dave. Dave got down KEENERS (n. one that keens, a normal citizen might not think that KEENER takes the S), while Michael had bingos of CANOPIES, BARTENDS, and the stomach-growl-inducing-for-one-hungry-writer CALZONE. In the final round, he scored a decisive win over Thomas, 467-324. All of his bingos caused Thomas mental anguish, drawing a hold on ABETTERS, drawing a real challenge on his phony attempt before his find of EDUCATE, and another challenge (this one in his favor) on YEANING. Meanwhile, he was cool as a cucumber when Thomas played RENDING, the only question being whether it took an S or not (it does not).

3rd Thomas Reinke had a 3-2 +240 record, edging out Lynda for third place and thus the coveted "third paragraph" award. His night got off to a blazing start as he won by a combined 441 points in a two-on-one, scoring 547 against Mary and 537 against James. A full list of the bingos played in those games is too long to type out here. His night slowed down drastically after that, with his next game being a mere 10-point win over his brother. In the third game, he went up against Lynda, who won 487-419. Thomas did play three bingos (a lot for a losing effort, I must say), HELICOID, CLINGIER, and a late ONLOADED to close the gap from "huge" to "if I could somehow draw another bingo out of this empty bag maybe I could win". Lynda, afer an exchange by both players, opened with SKITTER, and added GROSSED to seal the game. Thomas' downward slide continued with his 324-467 loss to Michael, but luckily for him, there were no more rounds left to play. Otherwise, he'd be looking at a 45-832 defeat at the hands of a mysteriously late-arriving Nigel Richards.

Lynda Finn, in addition to playing the word-of-the-week CUSHIONY, also played the third-highest scoring bingo in club history (since records have been kept), SIZINESS for 212 in her win against Bryan. A picture of the play will be posted to the Facebook group so that the club can accumulate more "likes", and for no other reason.

1st Charles Reinke dominated everybody and everything in his path with a flawless 5-0 +407 record. The closest he came to a loss was in the first round, when he defeated Bryan Benwitz in a high-scoring match, 477-449. Both players showed off their bingoing prowess by playing three such plays: Bryan had OUTSETS, DINDLES, and word-of-the-week BAUHINIA; Charles got GAZETTE, REAGINIC, and TRACHEAL. A game against Helen Flores ended with a 426-351 victory for Charles, thanks to his bingos of LATHING and TINKERER (Helen had ISATINE, proving that high-probability word study pays off [although not always with a win]). At the same time as that win against Helen, Charles also took on James Frankki and won handily, 495-356. What followed was a two-game series against Thomas Reinke, and Charles made some progress in closing the yearly-standings gap (a nearly-10% gulf in win percentage) by defeating his brother in both games. The first ended in a 406-367 score, while the second ended at 494-368 (with Charles playing WETLANDS, WOOLSACK, and CASETTE to close the lid on Thomas' winning chances). If a third game had been played, mathematical principles indicate that the final score would have been 582-369. Good thing we stop after four games.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +390, winning his first three before dropping two at the end. In the first round, he took on two players at once and won both. Dave Gilligan was defeated 456-372, while Dennis bore the brunt of the majority of Thomas' wrath in a 521-345 loss. In the latter game, Thomas got down a 110-point YOLKIEST, in addition to UNSURELY and ACEROUS. More wrath was rained down upon Mary Becker, who matched up against Thomas in round two and lost 285-580. Thomas played TEENERS, PICAROS, REPROVAL, and PLASMID for his second-highest score this year. The good fortune came to an end in the final two rounds, both of which were played against Charles Reinke and both of which were losses (367-406 and 368-494).

3rd Bryan Benwitz only played three games, but made the most of them, finishing at 2-1 +251 and averaging 464 points per game. His loss, as previously described, came in the first round against Charles Reinke, 449-477. His bingo of BAUHINIA, while scoring plenty of style points, didn't score enough real points for him to take the win. Bryan rebounded by notching a big win against Dennis Lloyd, 542-288. He bingoed three times in that one, with EBONICS, WAITRONS, and DRATTED. The next game, against James Frankki, was a bit closer, but Bryan pulled it out with a score of 400-275. James played FORESTS (forgetting that playing FORGETS instead would have netted him four bucks for the high G play), while Bryan had RETASTE.

1st Thomas Reinke swept through the competition with a 4-0 +339 record. His first game was his closest, as he narrowly got by Dave Kinzer, 385-367. Thomas' 101-point PITHEADS was vital for the victory. In round two, he faced off against familiar opponent Charles Reinke and got a slightly easier victory, 455-381, propelled by a quad-bingoed onslaught of ANISEED, ORDINALS, MEETING, and DECANTED (Charles had ROWINGS and APERIES). The highlight of Thomas' night came in round three, when he walloped James Frankki by a score of 473-329. James' triple-triple of SIGNALED for 131 points only served to bring his score up from "in the doldrums" to "meager". Meanwhile, Thomas played SCENTED in addition to a double-double nine-letter word-of-the-week IRRIDENTA for 90 points (needs more descriptors). IRRIDENTA is more commonly spelled IRREDENTA and is defined as a region that is ethnically tied to one country, but is politically part of another. Sort of like the upper peninsula of Michigan. Moving on from that geopolitical confusion, Thomas completed his perfect night by defeating Barb Pratzel 409-306. Barb got down one bingo of OUTLINER, while Thomas had SALTERY and INGESTS.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +85 for second place, with his 379-point per-game average being rather sedate by his standards. He started off with a well-fought win over Helen Flores, 377-349, where each player bingoed exactly one time (SOLANIN for Charles, GAIETIES for Helen). This was followed up by a not-quite-as-well-fought loss to Thomas Reinke in round two, 381-455. Round three provided Charles with his most fruitful game as he downed Betty Hasselkus by a score of 408-278. A pair of 63-point bingos, RADIANS and UNROPES, helped him seal the deal. In the final round of the evening, with a write-up paragraph on the line for both players, Charles went up against the formidable James Frankki, and the result couldn't have been closer, as Charles won a low-scoring contest 349-348. Again, both players had a singular bingo: EARNINGS for James and PINERIES for Charles. A recount overseen by neutral third parties was not undertaken.

3rd Dave Kinzer only stayed for three games, but made the most of it by going 2-1 +167. A first-round loss to Thomas Reinke, 367-385, put Dave in the "loser's bracket", but from that position he found enough success to be counted a winner in the end. In round two, he scored a comfortable win over Helen Flores, 402-291, partially thanks to a 63-point bingo of GEARINGS. With this win, Dave gets closer to equalizing the lifetime series, which now stands at eight wins for Helen and seven for Dave. He carried that success into round three, where he sparred with Barb Pratzel and emerged triumphant from the fray, 393-319. Barb played GUILTIER for 77, but Dave's FAUCETS for 82 was worth just a little bit more (and some of his other plays certainly helped widen the gap as well).