1st Jeff Clark, an itinerant wanderer from a faraway realm known as "Michigan", paid a visit to our club and showed us how it's done, going 4-1 +187 and coming in first place. He started off with a decisive 492-375 over the reigning club champ, Charles, playing bingos of CAROTIN, JOUSTER (for 114 points, accounting for almost the whole difference), and ODONATES. His hopes of defeating both Reinkes were quickly dashed when he lost 318-458 to Thomas, able to do naught but watch the person across the board draw all the good tiles. In the third round, he was introduced to the common club challenge of playing two at once, and passed the test with flying colors, beating both opponents. He had his high game of the night against Gail, winning 506-336 with bingos of RINGERS and SANTERA. Simultaneously, he beat the still-slightly-rusty Andy, 413-386, passing up AVOIDER for the fancier AVODIRE (n. an African tree). In the final game, he withstood Richard's triple-triple EGESTION and eked out a 451-438 win. UNDRAPE and NIDUSES helped, as did his phony of ADOPTAGE*. All told, his 80 percent win rate should be enough to become the new club champion, so if we don't see him again, now we know the reason.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +506, best among all Wisconsinites in attendance. He scored 585 in his opener against Gail, playing CABOVER (n. a truck with the cab over the front axle), ISLANDED, TINNERS, and NOTARISE. Against Jeff, he opened with MODERNE (later extended to MODERNER), later added TALESMAN (n. a person summoned by a tales (a writ to fill jury vacancies)) and LIERNES, and cruised to a 458-318 win. Normally when Thomas is 2-0 +427, he gets to play Charles, but tonight, Helen was next up. Things went slightly better for her than Thomas' other opponents, but it was still a 426-331 victory for Thomas. Again, normally, when he is undefeated and hasn't yet played Charles, the fourth round is the time for the weekly twin matchup, but it just wasn't meant to be as he ended up playing Bryan instead. It was a high scoring game, with five bingos combined, but Bryan managed to win 455-439. The key play was Bryan's QADI for 50+ late in the game, a possibility that was not spotted by Thomas because Thomas is world-renowned for his inability to track tiles. Relatedly, Bryan is world-renowned for his perfect ability to track tiles. Seriously. Does he ever mess up?

3rd Bryan "Perfect Tile Tracking God" Benwitz tallied a 3-1 +129 record, edging out Mark for the final coveted paragraph. Things didn't get off to a great start for him as he lost 288-390 to Helen. Details are scarce, but analysis of his scorecard indicates that he didn't play any bingos. That's gonna be something he needs to work on if he wants to beat Helen ever again. After that game, though, things immediately got a lot better for him, starting with a 490-295 win versus Dave. He played BONUSES, ENURETIC, and OWLIEST (which Dave then played in his next game). After that, he squeaked by Mary 422-402, despite Mary's bingos of ORANGES and RELATION and her bingo-like JOSH for lots of points. We already know about his 455-439 win against Thomas, but what you don't know is that he played three bingos while executing it: ANNUALS, GUTSIER, and DESTINE.

Good luck to everyone playing in the Wisconsin Dells (but actually located in Middleton) tournament this weekend!