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1st Thomas Reinke ran the table with a 4-0 +359 record. He was thrown straight into the fire in round one, facing Bryan Benwitz, but pulled out the win 407-347 with bingos of ERODENT and a nifty nine-letter ORALITIES (quick quiz - what is the anagram of ORALITIES?). Thomas had a bit more breathing room in the next game as he used four bingos (CLAXONS, ENTITLED, SINUATED, INTERWAR) to take the win against Charles Reinke, 472-377. Against Richard Lauder, Thomas cruised to a comfortable win, 449-259, nullifying Richard's NARDOOS with his own finds of SQUIRED and NOVICES. For the final game, Thomas faced a tough challenge from Steve Hartsman, but secured his undefeated record with a 479-465 victory, finding RETABLO and ANEARING to Steve's EYEHOLE and MEDICINE.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 and averaged a club-leading 460 points per game. Things could have gone better to start the evening, as the aforementioned 347-407 loss to Thomas Reinke put Bryan in an early hole that he would have to climb out of. He wasted no time in his ascent, dispatching Helen Flores 453-282, getting 104 points for NEMESES in addition to another bingo of FISHERS. He then set a scoring record for the 2026 club season by dropping a heavy 581 points directly on Charles Reinke's head, although Charles, in his dazed state, still managed to supply 443, making their matchup the first game of 2026 to reach 1000 combined points. Bryan got ALLUDES, DOOZIES, CINERIN, RECOILER, and DENTURES, while Charles got PREGNANT...and DISABLER, and NIOBATE. That total of eight bingos ties a club record as well. To complete his comeback tour, Bryan fought off James Rollins in a high-scoring (but not as high-scoring as some other games) 460-400 bout. James found INFESTS and EUPHORIA, while Bryan had REACHED and ENCOMIA.

3rd Steve Hartsman beat out four other 2-2 finishers by virtue of his superior spread total, going 2-2 +157. He went up against Richard Lauder in round one and, showing proper courtesy to the club's founder, gracefully lost, 383-403. Less graceful was his 522-354 win over James Rollins, which was marred by phonies of CERUMAN* (CERUMEN is good, but it's the medical term for earwax, and not a man who CERUs) and DURRAHS* (looking for DHURRAS, but who can remember all the alternate spellings of DURRA anyway?). Steve also got the valid ENGROSS, while James found LOOTING. In round three, Steve bested Andy Bohnsack, 387-364, bingoing with SLAVERS (Andy had WASPIER and GALLETED). Steve put up a good fight in the final game against Thomas Reinke, but fell just short in the end, 465-479. That 465 losing score is the highest in his Madison Club career, as well as the highest loss so far this year.

1st Bryan Benwitz got his second undefeated performance of the year with a 4-0 +363 record. He cleaned up in round one with a 458-288 win over Richard Lauder, finding ENVISION and PRIORATE against Richard's RETIMES. Things were a lot closer against Charles Reinke; Bryan used his sole bingo of EVACUATE to salvage a win out of their low-scoring encounter, 366-355. Against Andy Bohnsack, Bryan regained his scoring mojo, winning 467-352 thanks to bingos of MIDSTORY, RERAISE, and GLIADINE. Bryan finished his night (and swept all available Reinkes) by defeating Thomas Reinke 423-356, getting a huge play of SARCOID for 104 points in addition to PREFIRES.

2nd Andy Bohnsack finished at 3-1 +157, continuing to improve his W/L record after a slow start to the club season. He got a much-needed win against Helen Flores in round one, 382-367, needing every bit of his three bingos (EROSIONS, RUINABLE, FRIENDLY) to pull it out. The bingos continued to flow with abundance as Andy plopped four of them down on the board against Steve Hartsman: SEMIGALA, FORTUNE, DIARIST, and TONIEST. Somewhat expectedly, it was Andy's win, 509-401. Round three saw Andy lose to Bryan Benwitz, 352-467, with his bingo of OUTRACE sadly not holding any prophetic power whatsoever. Andy made up for that loss and more with a big 486-337 over the returning James Rollins; James had DEHORNS, but was buried by Andy's NOVATES and LAMPIONS.

3rd Charles Reinke went 2-2 +306, floating to the top of a group of six players who finished with 2-2 records. He got a high-scoring 520-435 win against Thomas Reinke in round one, getting FILAREE, HAUTEST, LOUSIER, and DEMOTING as his bingos. The bingos dried up in the next game as he got just one (TRANCES) while losing to Bryan Benwitz 355-366. The losses continued as a rematch against Thomas resulted in a 393-410 loss (Charles' ANOPSIA stood no chance against Thomas' VESTLIKE, PINNATED, and OBSEQUIE# [he missed BEzIQUE for 126 on that turn though, just saying]). Charles turned his sad 1-2 record into a happily neutral 2-2 record by winning his final game against Richard Lauder, 496-247, bingoing with VINTAGER, RUPIAHS, and SPIRALED.

Lynda's nine-letter DISTURBER was word of the week.

1st Andy Bohnsack stood proudly at the very tippy-top of the weekly standings for the second week in a row, thanks to a 4-1 +427 showing. His two-on-one match against Helen Flores and Ron Malzer in round one was only halfway successful; the 438-324 win against Ron was nice, but Andy probably wants a do-over on the 381-435 loss to Helen, where his SECTION and LACERATE were countered by her ANISOLE and ENRAGING. Andy romped in round two, playing four bingos (ERIGERON, ATLANTES [plural of ATLAS, somehow], TOADIES, DUNNITES) en route to a 506-347 win. He subsequently handed Thomas Reinke his only loss of the evening, 405-350, finding PORTALED and ENTASIA, the latter out of a rack of AINST?? - as of this writing, we have not received an exact count of how many of the 213 available seven-letter words were actually identified. Andy put the final gold star on his sticker chart with a 482-329 victory over Richard Lauder, finding the stylish EXERGUE, accompanied by the less-stylish LINTERS and ATRESIA.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +374, continuing to improve on his strong start to the nascent club season. He exercised his knowledge of high-probability bingos by getting down SERIATES and TERTIAN in a 414-357 victory against Lynda Finn, then continued to exercise that same knowledge with CAROUSE, ENDORSEE, and AUREATE to beat Helen Flores 472-303. In round three, Thomas faced a tough two-on-one set against Andy Bohnsack and Charles Reinke. As previously described, Thomas lost to Andy 350-405, but was able to beat his brother 459-386 thanks to an onslaught of four bingos: GELLANT, FAINTERS, SALINES, and ROMAJIS. This writer is not able to come up with a more intense word than "onslaught", but whatever that word is, that's what Thomas did to Bryan Benwitz, as he got down five bingos (INGESTA, REPAVES, OREGANOS, RAVISHED, and AUDITOR) to beat Bryan 523-393.

3rd Richard Lauder finished 3-2 -96, a pair of big losses negating some otherwise healthy victories. The less said about his 317-479 loss to Charles Reinke, the better, but Richard immediately turned it around with major success in round two, defeating both Sara McLaughlin (476-400) and Ron Malzer (412-281). Richard bingoed thricely in each game, getting UNITERS, EGALITES, and DETAINS against Sara and RELATION, HAIRLIKE and ISOLATE against Ron. Richard was also able to pick up a tightly-fought win over Helen Flores, 356-344. His run of wins came to a sad end in the final game, and the session ended much in the way it began with a 329-482 loss to Andy Bohnsack.

Sara's POULTICE was word of the week.