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1st Charles Reinke took the top spot in the weekly standings with a 3-1 +447 outing. Ready to inflict tile-based mayhem right from the beginning, Charles started with a 555-358 victory over Mark Kenas, bingoing with LADRONES, GNATTIER, and VINTAGES. Barely slowing down for round two, Charles eclipsed the 500-point barrier again when he defeated Steve Hartsman 525-273, this time bingoing with DOPINGS, UNATONED, OUTBLAZE, and TONEARM. Charles bingoed three more times when he faced Mark a second time, forcing another tiresome recitation of his bingo list: RESOAKED, LACIEST, and INDULGES. That game was Charles' win, 436-392. A perfect night was in sight, but those dreams were cruelly snuffed out by Bryan Benwitz, who plunked down RETARDS and PLANKTER for a 410-364 win.

2nd Richard Lauder pushed his "win at least two games in a session" streak to eight straight sessions, this time going 3-1 +16. Richard also had eleven bingos, his first time hitting double-digit bingos since 2024 (writeup readers who are into long lists of bingos are in for a treat). Starting with a 393-345 win against John Bialek, Richard warmed up his bingo engines with RAINIEST, SEROSAE, and PLOWERS. Moving on to Ed Nawrocki, Richard unleashed SORDINES, GROWLED, and the phony TOURABLE* for a 417-357 win (Ed showed off bingo knowledge of his own with NOPALES, the plural of NOPAL). In round three, Richard got smacked down by Thomas Reinke, bingoing two times (INJERAS, SINUATE) to Thomas' four (SOLDIERY, UNNAILED, METAZOON, STINKIER). Saving his best for last, Richard came tantalizingly close to 500 points when he beat Steve Hartsman 499-399. Steve got PENNAMES, SENARII, and INTIMES* (INTIME is good, but is an adjective), while Richard had PODESTA, WORSTED, and a 104-point REFLEXES.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2, or more accurately, "three and Kenas", with a +228 spread. He welcomed back Bryan Benwitz with a 445-413 first-round victory, bingoing with ACOLYTE, RELIANCE, REGILDS, and ACANTHI. A loss to Mark Kenas, 415-440, saw Thomas bingo just once (SOLANOS), and their fourth-round rematch didn't go much better; in fact, it went much worse, as Thomas lost that one 306-494. Mark's bingos in those two games: BANDIEST, ACNODAL#, TETRAXON#, TAWSING, ONLOADED, and CITADEL. In between those two losses, Thomas racked up a huge amount of spread in a two-on-one set against Dennis Lloyd and Richard Lauder. He beat Dennis 527-310 and Richard 555-363, bingoing six times, including a pair of 100-pointers against Dennis: OXIDASE (132) and INOCULA (100).

Bryan's ECYDSIAL (adj. relating to ecdysis, the act of shedding) was word of the week.

1st Thomas Reinke continued his recent trend of simply being better at Scrabble than everybody else by finishing 4-1 +324. However, it certainly didn't seem like he was simply better at Scrabble than everybody else when he lost his first game to Mark Kenas, 440-477. Mark took full advantage of the Collins dictionary with ROKIEST# and UNFANNED#; Thomas played SHORTER, NAEVOID, and AMBERINA. That loss was offset by a concurrent win against James Rollins, 371-313, where Thomas won despite not playing a bingo. Followthing that was a stifling 421-296 win over Steve Hartsman, where Steve's sole bingo of SURICATE failed to stand up against Thomas' ALIENLY and INTITULE. In a rematch against Mark, Thomas prevailed 446-344, his 90-point OVERHEAP allowing him to...uh...overheap points on his prone and defenseless opponent...or something. The bingos continued to get overheaped as Thomas deployed ERODENT, STINTERS, HARDENS, and VINTAGED* (just VINTAGER for some reason) to beat Andy Bohnsack 485-409.

2nd James Rollins played a personal-best nine bingos across four games (inching ever-closer to a double-digit bingo count) and wound up with a 3-1 +86 record. A 313-371 loss to Thomas Reinke wasn't the way he wanted to start things off, but at least he got two bingos out of it: GLARIER and HOARIEST. Realizing that two bingos might not be enough, he decided to play three bingos against Richard Lauder (HEARTIES, MELANIST, TOILERS), and this strategy was rewarded with a 402-380 victory. Richard's bingo of SLITHERS was the only bingo played against James the entire night. At this point fully addicted to the sensation of bingoing (it is, to be fair, quite addictive), James picked up a 385-330 win against Lynda Finn with FURLESS and ENTOILS. The night ended with a 405-338 win against Steve Hartsman where James found OVERNEAT and DECENTLY.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +145. He worked hard for a first-round win against Dave Kinzer, countering Dave's SLINGED* and LATTICE with GLEANER and OPALESCE for a 409-373 win. Switching to the Collins lexicon, Charles used the extra words to dominate Mark Kenas 536-321, finding AEGROTAT, LEISURED, and VAWNTIER#. Round three saw Charles split his two-on-one set; his game against Andy Bohnsack was a scorcher, tying a club record with eight combined bingos (four each), including a stylish LAKEFILL from Charles, and finishing 521-446 in Charles' favor. However, the other half of the set did not go so smoothly, as Charles was upset by Helen "Giant Killer" Flores, 416-351. Helen used bingos of TROAKED and SECONDS to inflict maximum (and ultimately fatal) damage. Wounded and demoralized, Charles trudged into his final game against Mark Kenas and got walloped, 385-501, thanks to some neat bingos from Mark's end: INCHOATE, QUOTABLE, and TURGENCY.

We welcomed visiting player Chani Katz, and while she didn't win a game, she put up a good fight in all of them, and we do hope she will return soon to try to rectify that "didn't win a game" situation.

1st Thomas Reinke found himself in familiar position, placing first once again at 4-1 +518. Fighting the familiar face of Charles Reinke in round one, Thomas prevailed 459-377, getting down ARBOURS, REFILES, and FURMETY vs. Charles' PLAICES and TREPANS. FURMETY is a medieval wheat porridge also spelled FRUMENTY, FURMENTY, FROMENTY, and FURMITY (the Wikipedia article attests other spellings, which you will not attempt to commit to memory if you know what's good for you). Thomas then went on to crush a series of opponents, starting with a drubbing of Ed Nawrocki, 442-289, aided by RETIREES, INFLATES, and TENTERED. The drubbings continued as Thomas rose up to the challenge of a two-on-one against Richard Lauder (471-301) and Dave Kinzer (509-347, including a 102-point WAYLAID). The carnage finally came to a blessed end as Charles managed to take Thomas down in a rematch, 472-423. That game was a bit more Collinsy than the first, with Thomas playing MISSORTS and RABATOES# to Charles' MARRYING, LAMELLAR, and VETTURAS#.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-2 +139. After an initial loss to Thomas Reinke, 377-459, Charles was handed a chance at redemption with a two-on-one match in round two. Redemption was partial; a 478-307 win over Ron Malzer (featuring the uncommon bingo PERSPIRY) was nice, but not-so-nice was a 379-529 loss to Richard Lauder. Charles was able to bingo with TOLEWARE and OUTFAST, but Richard was firing on all cylinders with DITHERS, WHEELING, and the 167-point triple-triple ETAMINES, which is tied for the highest-scoring bingo so far this year. Making sure that all his subsequent opponents knew he was still sore about the triple-triple, Charles came away with a big 528-377 victory vs. Lynda Finn, countering her ALIENATE and RONIONS with ODORLESS, GAVELLED, and UNCREATE. Beating Thomas in the final game, 472-423, gave Charles enough solace that he's (probably) no longer sore about the triple-triple.

3rd Ed Nawrocki snagged third place by virtue of spread, finishing 2-1 -48. His showdown against Richard Lauder saw both players get two bingos (Ed's WADDING and RESIZES vs. Richard's BELTINGS and STOURIE), but Ed was able to take a comfortable win, 441-370. He fared worse against Thomas Reinke, losing 289-442, but at least got a bingo of REPAINTS (losing by 150 with no bingos is much more mentally devastating than losing by 150 with one bingo). For his third and final game, he beat Carol Orman 390-356, withstanding her bingo of UNLOVING thanks to his own SALIENT and CRATERS. (For bingo nerds, SALIENT does seem to be the most-often played bingo out of AEILNST, played twelve times).