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1st Steve Hartsman topped a diminished field of six players with a 3-1 +128 record. In game one, his poor luck against Bryan Benwitz continued; after all was said and done, it was a 505-304 win for Bryan, who had SPUMANTE, RARITIES, and SIDESMAN to Steve's REGRATES. The best remedy to losing a game by 200 points is to win the next game by 200 points, and Steve put that old adage into practice with a 512-299 win over Helen Flores in the second round. He piled on bingos of RELOANED, PAESANI, ENAMOUR, and the phony GRISTLED* (a phony common enough that it was played at our club once before, in 2015). Steve wrapped up his first-place effort with a 391-308 win over Dave Kinzer (getting ESTUARY and DILATION) and a 413-380 victory against Richard lauder (finding the ultra-common SERIATE, which is the sixth-most common bingo played at our club, with 29 occurrences since 2011; its anagram, AERIEST, has been played 26 times).

2nd Helen Flores went 3-1 -133, timing her strike for exactly the week when certain high-level players were absent to secure a coveted writeup paragraph. She started off with a tight two-point win over Dave Kinzer, 364-362, countering his Word-of-the-Week PARFAIT with her own GROANER. Helen's luck took a nosedive as she was steamrollered (Steverollered?) by Steve Hartsman 299-512, but she quickly recovered to get a big win off of Dennis Lloyd, 442-381. Helen found DERISION and WARDENS in that one, while Dennis had PALLIATE and FIDGETS. But Helen's signature win waited until the last round, as she felled the bingo-knowledge titan Bryan Benwitz by a score of 412-395, making her the winner in two of their last five contests. Bryan was held to a single bingo of REMORSE, while Helen had SNAKIER and DEMONIC, proving once again that "bingoing early and often" is never a bad strategy.

1st Bryan Benwitz rose to the top of the weekly standings with a 3-1 +497 record and a stingy 339 per-game average for his opponents. A 504-368 win over Helen Flores was a nice way to start the evening, and his bingo list had a bit of flair to it with a nine-letter NEMATODES (to go with the more mundane METERING and LEAFIEST). Sadly, in the next game, Bryan would run into the commonly-encountered obstacle named Andy Bohnsack, and that was where Bryan picked up his only loss of the evening, 396-419. It was a totally different story against Richard Lauder, as Bryan got his second exactly-600-points game of the year, winning 600-239 thanks to bingos of EXPIRING, PYRITISE, and FLINTED. Strangely, that 600-pointer wasn't even the highest game of the night, as Andy had a 616 in a separate game (buoyed by AGONISED for 149), good for highest score this year. Bryan concluded his evening with a less bombastic 354-331 victory against Dave Kinzer.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +326 with a sizzling 475 per-game average. He scored very close to that average with a 474-362 win against Steve Hartsman in round one, finding TRUEBRED and DANCIEST to Steve's DATELESS. Thomas was (deservedly, some might argue) smothered by bingos in round two as he lost 437-461 to Charles Reinke; his valiant NOVATING was no match for ISOGONY, RECOILER, UNITEDLY, and AVIATES from his opponent. A later rematch saw the tables turned, as Thomas had five fully vengeful bingos (EXHORTED, TAPIOCA, FOOTLES, SNOUTING, RESILES) to Charles' meager REBELLED in a 532-430 win. Thomas also beat Dave Kinzer 457-321 to add to his win total.

3rd Steve Hartsman overcame early adversity to finish 3-1 +95 and snag third place by forty spread points. That alluded-to adversity was a 362-474 loss to Thomas Reinke which put Steve in a sizable hole early. However, he climbed right out of that hole with a 451-324 triumph over Helen Flores, with a 104-point PESKIER being his single, albeit potent, bingo (Helen had TANGIEST). Steve's success continued as he found PINNULA and DEMOTES while beating Sara McLaughlin 409-346. Squaring off against Andy Bohnsack in round four, with a middling-to-moderate amount of glory at stake for both sides, Steve managed to seize the means of bingo production, holding Andy to zero bingos (a rarity) while getting three himself: ARIETTES, HEEDING, and TEASING. The result was a closer-than-perhaps-expected 423-406 win.

Dave's 101-point LEATHERY, which also won him some prize money, was word of the week.

1st Thomas Reinke flat-out dominated the competition with a 5-0 +474 record. He was thrown into the fire early with a two-on-one set against Dave Kinzer and Bryan Benwitz, but rose to the occasion, scoring 500 points and getting four bingos in each of the games. He beat Dave Kinzer 542-339 (IMPALES, BOODLING, MENHADEN, ENTITLED) and Bryan Benwitz 515-408 (AUTOGENY, BIRDSHOT, SAINTLY, SURFSIDE). That uncommon bingo frequency proved not to be sustainable as he had just one (GOURDES) while defeating Steve Hartsman 419-315. Thomas would come very close to a loss in round three, as he beat Lynda Finn by one point (the smallest margin possible until somebody contrives a way to score fractions of a point), 462-461. The perfect record was finalized with a 433-391 win against Mark Kenas, where Thomas got KINDEST and ISOLEADS to Mark's ENABLER and CENTAGES#.

2nd Charles Reinke finished 4-1 +78, finding himself well behind his brother in both the wins column and in point spread. Unlike Thomas, who was 2-0 +threehundredwhatever after round one, Charles was 0-1 -99 after losing to Mark Kenas 396-499. Mark's four-bingo assault, which included valid plays of NUCLEON, DAIRYMEN, and DELISTS, was marred by a phony MEGATRON*, an unholy combination of MEGARON, MEGATON, NEGATRON, MAGNETRON, and some vague knowledge of the Transformers movies. Charles recovered quickly with a 446-387 win against Bryan Benwitz, turning away Bryan's nice finds of FUSTIANS and PLUMERIA with his more pedestrian IDONEOUS, BARITONE, and ESTRONE. A two-on-one match against Mark Kenas and Buffy Hogan (blessedly both Collins games) resulted in two wins for Charles, 431-429 against Mark and 400-372 against Buffy. Charles wrapped things up by taking down Steve Hartsman by a score of 467-379, getting a singular BALLSIER against Steve's SERRANO and BASINET.

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-2 +73, winning her first three before running out of steam at the end of the night. She started with a 406-331 win against the rarely-seen Buffy Hogan, who was bravely switching between NWL and Collins; Lynda's high-probability bingo find of ALIENEE was the difference-maker in that one. Lynda followed that up with a strong showing in a two-on-one against Sara McLaughlin and visiting Ohioer Ryan Adams. Against Sara, bingos of ORIENTAL and PINTOES paved the way to a 428-340 win; the game against Ryan was somewhat lower scoring, as Lynda played TRIUNES for a 362-315 victory. Round three saw her lose a heartbreaker to Thomas Reinke, 461-462; as expected with such a close score, the bingo situation was roughly equivalent, as Thomas had ORANGES and NATATION against Lynda's HISTORY and SCANNER. Lynda fell to Bryan Benwitz 347-483 in the last game of the night, but with five players bunched up at 2-2 unable to pick up a third win, Lynda escaped with the grand honor of a writeup paragraph.

Mark's WOODLORE was word of the week.