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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.

1st Steve Hartsman averaged a whopping 471 points per game and played fifteen bingos en route to a 4-1 +430 record. His first game against Charles Reinke was one for the record books, as their eight total bingos tied a club record (and set a new record for this year). Steve won handily, 584-429, despite the bingos being evenly distributed at four apiece (Steve: CELLMATE, EQUINELY, ATONIAS, CERITES; Charles: FRAGMENT, TRIPODAL, SOURDINE, PROFOUND). Steve slowed down a bit in round two, getting "only" three bingos (LABIATES, YPERITE, INANEST) in a 442-326 win against Dennis Lloyd. Round three was a mixed bag, as Steve played as the "one" in a two-on-one match against Lynda Finn and Richard Lauder. The game against Lynda was a comfortable 500-306 win, with bingos of CODEINES, SUITABLE, BEGUINES, and BOISERIE, but against Richard, Steve was held to just a single bingo (DUALIST) and lost 362-438 for his only loss of the night. Steve concluded with a win over the other member of the fearsome Reinke tandem, defeating Thomas 467-426 with the aid of a phony YEANINGS* (YEANLINGS is good), in addition to THEREAT and the new word YEETING.

2nd Mark Kenas played his usual compliment of Collins-lexicon games against fellow Collinsophiles Reinke 1 and Reinke 2, generally prevailing with a 3-1 +148 record. He scored a pair of wins against Thomas Reinke, 465-393 and 469-406. The word of the week, ATAMASCO (a flower of the southeastern US), was played by Mark in this second game, as well as the scarily appropriate bingo of REDEFEAT. Mark also enjoyed a 452-331 win over Charles Reinke, limiting Charles to zero bingos (rare in Collins) and playing three of his own (ATTAINED, EMIRATES, NAIADES). Sadly, Mark's 3-0 record didn't make it to 4-0 as Mark lost to Charles in the final game of the night, 400-508.

3rd Richard Lauder went 3-1 -6, a rare instance of a writeup paragraph featuring a negative spread. He started with a well-fought 385-366 win against Helen Flores, finding HEADMAN while allowing Helen to get away with DISTOLE* (DIASTOLE is likely the word she was thinking of, possibly combined with PISTOLE). Things took a turn for the worse in the next game as Richard was defeated handily by Sara McLaughlin, 289-414, despite Richard's bingo of DODGERS. Richard whipped himself back into form with a 438-362 win against Steve Hartsman, finding that the seemingly unstoppable force of Steve could, in fact, be (temporarily) slowed down; bingos of ARENOSE and WENDING definitely helped in that regard. In the final game, Richard took down Dennis Lloyd, 380-356, getting REDOWAS and DRAGGIER to Dennis' FORFEIT.

Sara McLaughlin played the year's 14th triple-triple with STARLIKE for 113.

1st Charles Reinke's performance wasn't as dominating as some he's had in the past, but the 4-1 +126 record was still good for first place in a field of thirteen players where nobody went undefeated. He was thrown into the fire early with a tough two-on-one match against Mark Kenas and Thomas Reinke. He escaped with a 424-410 win against Mark, playing a single bingo of BESAINT#, but fell well short against his brother, losing 341-447 with his only bingo being SALTIES. Charles' bingo totals started trending upwards as he played two (ENEMIES, UNVARIED) in a 422-327 victory over Lynda Finn, then played four (REALITY, DIABETES, OLEFINS, EGOSURFS#) in a high-scoring 527-453 bout against Mark Kenas, who played ROUTHIER# and TERMINI. Facing the undefeated Dennis Lloyd in the final round, Charles held on for a 415-366 win, thanks to finds of HELOTAGE and PANOCHES (Dennis had VARIOLAS).

Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +317, scoring well above 400 in each of his wins. He got down his first triple-triple since 2023 when he deployed LUSTIEST for 122 points in a round-one win against James Rollins, 440-318. Dennis also had EARNERS in that game, while James had TREATIES. A game against Ron Malzer required no triple-triples for Dennis to win, 458-275, although a 92-point phony EXCELING* certainly helped. Not content with just a single triple-triple for the evening, Dennis played another one, PRENATAL for 140, in a 483-422 victory against Andy Bohnsack (PRENATAL presumably occurred sometime after his challenged-off phony of PALANTIR*, which is an orb from the Lord of the Rings which possessed dangerous yet alluring magical properties). This victory disrupts a recent streak in which Andy had won ten of the last eleven against Dennis. Sadly, Dennis' night ended not with an undefeated record, but a 366-415 loss to Charles Reinke.

3rd Sara McLaughlin overcame a large first-round loss to win her next three and go 3-1 -137. Sara would not have been blamed if she had simply walked out the door after losing to Lynda Finn 285-541, but her perseverence was rewarded with wins in each of her next three games. She defeated Andy Bohnsack 403-369 with a bingo find of STORIES, overcoming Andy's TRAIPSES and PROWING*. Round three saw her fight to a 393-361 win against Dora Kilburn; Sara was again outbingoed, but this time it was her turn to phony, as she played AGONISER* (real word: ORGANISE) to Dora's REASONER and STRANGER. Sara wrapped things up with a 418-365 triumph over Helen Flores, getting BALDIES and RENTING.

Notable was a game between Lynda Finn and Ron Malzer where both players bingoed with LATRINES. Since this is a professionally-penned writeup, the opportunity for potty humor will pass by untaken.

The highly-contested battle for top spot in the yearly standings is now at a deadlock as both Thomas and Charles have identical 66.7% winning percentages. To achieve total statistical purity, Thomas and Charles will no longer play any opponent other than each other for the remainder of the club season.