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1st Charles Reinke thoroughly dominated the competition with an unblemished 5-0 +536 record. His first game was a high-scoring slugfest which he eventually won 479-453. The slugfest was, of course, metaphorical, as a "real" slugfest between Charles and Mark would certainly have a different outcome. In round two, Charles took on both Lynda Finn and Richard Lauder; the game against Lynda was relatively close at 413-354, while the game against Richard was a landslide victory for Charles, 522-344. If the victory was a landslide, Charles' four bingos of TWINGES, DECREASE, HADRONIC, and PATTIES were the boulders embedded in the landslide crushing cars and houses in their path. A rematch against Mark Kenas was another high-scoring win for Charles, 537-394; Mark wisely passed up TINDERED* to play DENDRITE as his only bingo, while Charles had AVOSETS, SINGULT#, and SASTRUGI (fun fact: if you have the word GUITARS, the only eight letter words in those letters are SASTRUGI and ZASTRUGI). Charles finished off his perfect night by defeating Sara McLaughlin 438-308, with bingos of ANAEMIAS and CURTAINS.

2nd Sara McLaughlin notched her second-straight three-win night with her 3-1 +115 record. Her first game was a solid 428-273 win over club long-timer Sue Goldstein, aided by bingos of TAPERING and OUTFIRE. She followed that up with a standout win over last year's club champion Bryan Benwitz, 472-400. Sara's bingos in that one were REPOSES and the funny-looking (but very useful) UTILISER, while Bryan's three-bingo outburst (CARTONED, TROIKAS, ENAMORED) proved to be not nearly enough to overcome Sara's relentless scoring onslaught. Sara improved to 3-0 with a lower-scoring 347-329 win against Dave Kinzer where the only bingo on the board when all was said and done was her TARDIES. Hopes of an undefeated club session were sadly snuffed out in round four where Sara suffered defeat at the hands (and tiles) of Charles Reinke, 308-438.

3rd Thomas Reinke averaged 468 points per game, but his opponents averaged 450, resulting in a 3-1 record with a lower-than-expected spread of +71. His night started with a well-contested game against Richard Lauder, 416-399. Thomas had FRONTAGE and ENTASIAS against Richard's NEEDIER and SENOPIA. Against Mark Kenas, Thomas found the unlikely TSADDIQ# (in addition to SIXTEEN and PREAUDIT), but fell 445-505 thanks to Mark's triple-triple of PEDALIER for 149 points and a nifty 80-point EXIGUOUS. It seems somewhat unbalanced that Mark bingoed with two U's and an X while Thomas played a U-less Q bingo, but Mark's probably not complaining. In round three, Thomas scored a needed win against Bryan Benwitz, 483-422, playing VALERIAN and DISTICH. DISTICH is a Greek word for a pair of verses; MONOSTICH, TRISTICH, HEXASTICH, and a bunch of other variants are also acceptable. STICH is also a good word by itself. Thomas concluded his evening with another fireworks-filled brawl against Mark Kenas, which he won 526-473, getting down AWAITED, AVERSION, and COOLANTS in the process.

1st Mark Kenas enjoyed a rare 4-0 performance, the only undefeated player from a full contingent of 16 competitors. As Mark is limited, by choice, to competing only in the Collins lexicon, his only opponents are an endless cascade of Reinkes, whose combined skill means that Mark never has an "easy" game. However, it was only a matter of time until the stars aligned for an undefeated night, and Wednesday night was the night. Mark began with a 454-400 win over Thomas Reinke, getting bingos of GLADIOLE#, OWLIEST, and SATURATE. A rematch went down to the wire, but Mark prevailed again, 451-448, with bingos of FAIRIER and HORNITOS. This loss was made more painful for Thomas by virtue of the fact that he had given Mark five extra points earlier in the game by challenging a valid word - in the Collins lexicon, the penalty for a lost challenge is not losing a turn, but instead giving one's opponent five free points. Given Mark's propensity for fake words, one can understand why Thomas was so flippant with his challenges. Against Charles Reinke, Mark also did well, winning their first game 500-396 (playing SPINNEY, LIONESS, and TOUZIEST# for 131) and their second 452-415 (playing BARFLIES and ESCROLS#).

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 with a monster spread of +632 and a dizzying per-game average of 489. A first-round loss to Charles Reinke, 404-477, put him in the "losers' bracket" immediately - his bingos of SAUTERNE and DROWSIER couldn't overcome Charles' CENTARE, DARKING, RETORTS, and nine-letter UREOTELIC. UREOTELIC is an adjective meaning "eliminating unneeded nitrogen in the form of urea" and was chosen as word of the week by a unanimous vote of one. Bryan recovered from defeat in violent fashion, unelashing a hellish 631 points against Dave Kinzer, who scored decently at 318 but still lost by over 300. Bryan played SUPINATE, PELTERS, RECOINED, and DANCERS in his winning effort, although, with 631 total points scored, I think we all expected Bryan to have five or six bingos in the game, not just four. It's also worth nothing that 631 seems like it would be a record for highest score this year, but that title belongs to Mark Kenas and his 650, a mark which will be hard for anybody to top. Bryan's 421-348 win over John Bialek was more in the realm of normalcy, but then he pulled out all the stops once again to defeat Sara McLaughlin 501-182 for his second 300-point win of the night. Bryan found ZOYSIAS, COLDEST, and BATSMEN to secure victory.

3rd Richard Lauder continued his efforts to average two bingos per game, as he played 10 of them en route to a 3-1 +255 finish. His night started with a three-bingo effort against Helen Flores, playing INSOLES, MADDEST, and OGREISH en route to a 418-336 win. The bingo spigot continued to flow abundantly when Richard faced off against Ron Malzer; Richard propelled himself to a 440-338 win with finds of NOSTRILS, ERGATES, and OUTLINER. Ron, for his part, got down DETAINEE to ensure that Richard didn't have ALL the fun. A match against Charles Reinke proved to be Richard's only loss, 364-401, with his single bingo of CITREOUS not being quite enough. But order was restored when Richard plopped down another trio of bingos (NEUTRON, OUTWILE, ORIENTS) while dispatching Wendy Bialek, 431-323.

1st Bryan Benwitz enjoyed a second straight 4-0 performance, and with those four additional wins, has now reached ten wins in a row. His +446 spread was by far the best of all players, although his average of 471 was not (we'll get to that later). His night was also notable for a multitude of obscure bingos each deserving of word-of-the-week status. Bryan started off strong by deploying three bingos (PERINEAL, OLDSTYLE, DIEBACKS) against Helen Flores in a 472-291 win. He then faced a considerable challenger in Sara McLaughlin, but escaped with a 435-412 win, despite Sara's funereal finds of MOURNED and WEEPING (Bryan had AVIATED and GLUEPOTS, which do not seem to be related thematically). A 442-418 win over Thomas Reinke, who must be getting pretty sick of losing to Bryan (three wins in the last sixteen attempts), saw Bryan get word-of-the-week HELLHOLE in addition to GENOISE and AGITATO. HELLHOLE is notable for being in the bottom 1,000 of eight letter words by probability, right between BUZZARDS and UNCHANCY (ZYZZYVAS is, of course, the lowest-probability eight letter word). Bryan's best was saved for last when he whomped Richard Lauder, 535-317, getting DETAINEE, CORSETRY, PRIVETS, and the odd-looking BAUHINIA.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged 481 points per game despite suffering two losses in a 3-2 +351 effort. His high-scoring ways ensured a finish ahead of two other players who also had 3-2 records. Richard Lauder was again the target of some misplaced wrath as Thomas used four bingos (NIDATED, ATOMISTS, VIRTUOSA, HOLLERS) to beat him 551-311. Thomas followed that up with a two-on-one match where a 483-407 win over the other Reinke was offset by a 433-490 loss to Mark Kenas. Thomas' round two bingos were ESTATED, ANTICKE#, MESSING, TRICLADS, SPLUTTER, and BESTIRS. The aforementioned loss to Bryan Benwitz put Thomas out of contention for first place, but he nonetheless rallied for second with a big 520-404 rematch win against Mark Kenas, this time bingoing with STILETTO, ANILINE, and AXONEME.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +140, well back of Thomas but well ahead of Richard Lauder's identical 3-2 record with a -209 spread. Charles took a big loss early when he was handily swept aside by Mark Kenas, 385-501. While that loss was in progress, Charles managed a 397-345 victory over Francesca Lazio, overcoming a 2-1 bingo deficit where Francesca played INGRATE and SHUSHES against Charles' ESTRIOL. Charles later got his revenge (and then some) against Mark Kenas with a devastating 594 score (to Mark's 359) - a bingo frenzy of CODRIVE, SULFURET, TAPERING, and INTERIOR got Charles to his highest game of the year up to this point, although it is well short of Mark's own 650 as the club's highest score this year. Charles finished the evening with a fireworks-filled 473-428 against the latecoming Dennis Lloyd. Dennis fought valiantly with finds of RANGIEST and BARRIERS, but was turned back by Charles' MIAOUING, ANODISES, and INVEIGLE.