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1st Charles Reinke swept through the field with a 4-0 +371 record, his second undefeated outing of the year. Round one saw him escape with a 435-415 win against Mark Kenas, getting down BUTANES to Mark's NOSTRIL and ILEUSES. Charles turned up the heat in the next game as he clobbered Lynda Finn 550-336 with a trio of bingos: OUTWAITS, TRIGONAL, and INNARDS. Lynda got down INDOORS to minimize the damage to the extent possible. Matched up against Mark Kenas again (because who else is Mark gonna play?), Charles prevailed once more, 459-380, thanks to bingo finds of DEEWANS, ENSLAVED, and PRONOTUM (the last of which pluralizes to the more useful PRONOTA). Sitting at 3-0 after three games, Charles faced the other 3-0 contender, John Bialek, for the final game, and duked it out to an uncommonly low final score of 340-282. Charles had the only bingo in the game, INFAUNAE.

2nd Thomas Reinke recovered from the previous week's 1-3 showing to go 4-1 +469, much more in line with his yearly results. Things were a bit dicey in the first game against Steve Hartsman, but Thomas took a 406-397 victory despite being outbingoed (CONNATE vs. MOISTEST and UNDEREAT). A loss to Mark Kenas, 430-484, put a quick end to Thomas' winning ways; the bingos there were MEDRESA# and DIORITES for Thomas, NEUROPIL# and TENDENCE for Mark. Thanks to the immutable mathematical properties of odd numbers, Thomas spent the third round playing two players at once; his game against Dennis Lloyd was uncomfortably close at 383-366, while his game against Helen Flores was quite comfortable indeed, 569-294. Thomas finished the night with another supremely comfortable win, dominating his rematch against Mark 554-332, finding HATFULS, TILERIES#, and CIDERIER. (HATSFUL is also a word. If anybody has a way to remember that things like HATSFUL, JARSFUL, HANDSFUL, and TEACUPSFUL are words, but not PALMSFUL* or POTSFUL* or TINSFUL*, please let us know.)

3rd John Bialek went 3-1 +119. He came out of the gate strong with a 402-331 victory over Carol Ormand, getting a bingo of INSERTS in the process. His bingo output doubled (if only it could double every game...) as he got down SOUTANES and the high-scoring PRETAXED (98 points) to beat Dave Kinzer 382-326. Dave had STREAMER, which is the anagram of John's REMASTER from last week. John's highlight win came in round three as he finally defeated Bryan Benwitz for the first time ever, 441-391. John used a balanced scoring attack, supplemented by a bingo of GRISTLY for 88 points, to achieve his long-awaited victory. One could even say that John was at his...'Witz end! Sadly, John was unable to convert that momentum into an undefeated night, as he lost to Charles Reinke in the final, 282-340.

Helen's AFFIANCE was word of the week, narrowly beating out Richard's COPYEDIT in the voting. 

1st Steve Hartsman conquered all with a 4-0 +433 record, having enough spread cushion to grab first place over another 4-0 contender. He started strong with a 461-366 victory over Andy Bohnsack, getting BECURSED as well as a phony TRIBUTED* as his bingos. In round two, Steve wiped the floor with John Bialek, prevailing 486-269 on the back of TROLAND, INSUREDS, and OUTLIER. Colliding with out-of-towner William Barfuss, who was also 2-0 at that point, Steve got another sizable victory, winning 428-317 with bingos of QUERIES, NASTIER, and LEGATOR (William found SEEDING, and Steve subsequently found out that SEEDINGS* is no good). After a run of three large victories, Steve was put to the test by Bryan Benwitz in the final game, but his inner compulsion to go undefeated could not be extinguished, and Steve squeaked it out, 380-370, playing a single bingo of OUTLEAPS to Bryan's MANTUAS and PRATTLED.

2nd Mark Kenas completed the rare twosome of 4-0 players, finishing 4-0 +333, an even hundred spread points behind Steve but with a superior average of 523 per game (!!!). Week after week, Mark uncomplainingly plays an all-Reinke lineup, and his perserverence paid off, giving him an undefeated record for the first time since July 2025. In round one, he deployed Collins-only bingos of TWITTEN# and NANOWIRE# to defeat Charles Reinke 441-419. He followed that with the year's fourth 600-point game, beating Thomas Reinke 604-428 with bingos of DISFAVOR, COGNISE, and a triple-triple LITTORAL for 122. Not content with just one triple-triple, Mark played the monster ORCHISES for 203 points (+5 for the challenge using the international challenge rule) for a 582-496 win against Charles, who had bingos of URANIUM, PANFORTE, and IMEPTIGO. That losing score of 496 is the highest loss this year, and their combined score of 1078 is also a yearly record. Mark ended his night with a more prosaic 465-416 rematch victory against Thomas, finding LATHIER and PONCIEST#.

3rd Andy Bohnsack played thirteen bingos and averaged 455 per game to end up with a record of 3-2 +247. His night actually started quite poorly with a 366-461 loss to Steve Hartsman and a 387-451 loss to Richard Lauder. Andy showed signs of life in a two-on-one match for round three: he fought off John Bialek 399-396 with a bingo of ITCHILY (was it ever front-hooked with a B?), but saved most of his firepower for a 582-333 win against Helen Flores, where his fivefold bingo barrage of ANODISE, VALIDATE, REELINGS, CZARIST, and BACLOFEN left all witnesses (except his opponent) completely speechless. Andy got another entry into the 500-point club when he welcomed the visiting WIlliam Barfuss to Madison with a 540-386 win. His bingos there were RAPTURE, SIDERITE, INHALES, and another triple-triple, DIGESTOR for 149.

As already mentioned, we welcomed the visiting William Barfuss from out west. William went 2-2 against a tough crowd of players and we hope he'll stop by again sometime!

1st Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +81, not displaying his usual level of spread-based dominance but certainly displaying his usual level of win-based dominance. In round one he immediately got to work punishing his opponents with bingos, slamming down four of them (PLEROME#, REPLANTS, UNRAKED, RELATION) to beat Mark Kenas 529-445 (Mark's OXHIDES for 117 kept the damage from being worse). Thomas carried that momentum into the next game for a 477-393 vs. Steve Hartsman, finding TUATERAS, RADICES, and NEGATION. A tough two-on-one match in round three was Thomas' reward for two early wins; while a rematch against Mark went well (462-440, including a Collins-only find of FINEERED#), the subsequent match against Charles Reinke (no relation) resulted in a big loss for Thomas, 386-512. Thomas managed to squeak out a first-place finish by felling Andy Bohnsack in the final round, 403-386, despite losing the bingo battle with his sole REPLAYS surpassed by Andy's AILMENT and TAURINES.

2nd Charles Reinke averaged 485 points per game against a tough lineup of players en route to a 3-1 +292 finish. Butting heads with Andy Bohnsack for game one, Charles prevailed comfortably, 474-347, thanks in part to bingos of TACHINID, SOFTWARE, and GRITTED. Switching dictionaries to play Collins againt Mark Kenas, Charles won again, 462-416, getting UPMAKING# for 101 points in addition to NONDANCE (anagrams to CANNONED); Mark had SUBERISE and EARTHEN. Encountering Thomas Reinke (no relation) in round three, Charles pulled from his deep well of studied bingos (LABROID, BANNEROL, SNARIER#) to defeat the unrelated Reinke, 512-386. Looking to go undefeated, Charles just had to make it past Mark in a rematch, but instead he got the highest loss so far this year with his 492-499 effort. Bingos flowed abundantly in that one: Mark had TADPOLE, ARMLOADS, and CENTAGE#, while Charles had QUORATE, LADINOS, and TRIENNIA.

3rd Steve Hartsman finished 3-1 in third place for the second week in a row, this time with a +181 spread. Showing off some defensive acumen, he smothered Bryan Benwitz in round one, 397-283, getting down SPIRIER and LUSTIER in the process (Bryan had the nice ARCHFOE). Steve found two more bingos (STOUNDS, DAUNDERS) against Thomas Reinke, but was solidly defeated, 393-477. The ship was righted with a 417-336 win over Lynda Finn, buoyed by another two bingos, OUTVIES and LINTERS. Displaying enviable bingo consistency, Steve again bingoed exactly two times in his third and final win versus Richard Lauder, landing CABINETS and TRITONES to Richard's JARINAS and TERMERS for a 472-402 win.

4th Carol Ormand went 2-0 +69 before calling it quits. She defeated Dave Kinzer 398-333 before beating Lynda Finn 348-344. She also got word of the week for her find of BULLSHIT against Lynda.