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1st Thomas Reinke was flawless (literally without flaw), posting a record of 4-0 +445. The starting point for his literally-without-flaw evening was a 442-309 win over Mark Kenas, finding SYRINGAS and PRESSMEN to Mark's GILTHEAD and DUOLOGUE (the latter bingo being the kind of word that would only ever get played after your rack management has gone horribly awry). Thomas then beat Richard Lauder 457-392, getting the nine-letter RETAILERS in addition to MISLEARN. A rematch against Mark Kenas was slightly closer than the first encounter, but still a comfortable victory for Thomas, 497-428; Thomas added to his hefty bingo total with SNATCHER, CIRRATE, and LAIRISES#. To cap off a perfect night where any accusation of flawedness can be summarily denied, Thomas defeated Ron Malzer 460-282, pummelling his opponent with bingos of OUTLINE, PURITIES, and GERUNDS.

2nd Richard Lauder went 3-1 for the third time in four sessions, this time with a +190 spread. He got his highest game of the year with a 524-369 clobbering of Ron Malzer; WEDGIER, CHEAPLY, and WASTREL were Richard's bingos, while Ron gamely fought back with SEMANTIC and AMORTISE. Richard found two more bingos, LUSTILY and ENTAILED, in his round two match against Thomas Reinke, but was felled for his only loss, 392-457. Richard recovered for round three, where he beat Lynda Finn in a lower-scoring game, 376-341. Lynda's phony of SHANDIE* stayed on the board (only SHANDY and SHANDIES - ADEHINS does not have a word in it, although one could argue it should), while Richard's UGLIEST was perfectly valid. In the final round of the night, Richard was matched against last year's club champion Bryan Benwitz, and rose to the occasion, prevailing by a score of 443-378 and getting two nice bingos, PHISHES and INFECTED (Bryan had ROSARIES and GRANDER).

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +137 and had a club-leading per-game average of 472. He wasted no time racking up the wins as he defeated Lynda Finn in round one, 488-321, bingoing with VINTNERS and FOURTEEN (insert joke about how FOURTEEN scored more than fourteen points). He upped his bingo output with EVICTING, EMULGENT#, and RATIONAL in a high-scoring Collins-lexicon battle against Mark Kenas, which he won 510-473. Not content with a single 500+ game, Charles went for 500+ again in the very next round, beating Bryan Benwitz 560-436 on the back of PARTAKES (80), ZINCATES (122!) and PITHEADS (149!!). Bryan had some nice plays of his own, getting GHERKIN, ETALONS, and UNDERBED* (UNDERBID is a word). Charles' hopes of undefeatedness (not a word) were snuffed out in the final round, as his rematch against Mark resulted in a sizable loss, 369-520. Charles got down NICKERS, but Mark fired back with SIRLOIN, ENTERAL, and AMITIES.

We welcomed new player Carol, who went 2-1 and bingoed in all of her games. With such a promising start, we hope she returns soon!

1st Charles Reinke ran the table with a 5-0 +284 record. His long-ago study of high-probability words paid off in a big way as he plopped down DARTLES, TOONIES, and TOASTIER in a 433-387 win over Andy Bohnsack, who had the slightly-less-common MUSICALE. In round two, Charles' lexical proficiency was put to the test as he battled Mark Kenas in the Collins dictionary and Bryan Benwitz in the NWL dictionary at the same time; in the end, Charles won both, 439-348 against Mark and 490-459 against Bryan. In the latter game, Charles had a trio of nice bingos: AGUELIKE, EARTHPEA, and BEHOLDER. Sticking with Collins for the rest of the night, Charles beat Thomas Reinke 458-361 (getting ZENAIDAS and NEATENS), then wrapped up his perfect record by fighting off Mark once again, 423-404.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +34, and with all his games being decided by 31 points or less, he's probably still recovering from elevated stress levels. He continued a run of close games against Richard Lauder by winning again, 401-380; His last three wins against Richard have been by two, five, and now nineteen points, and Richard's most recent win in the matchup was by just eight points. Bryan went on to get his highest score of the night in round two; sadly, all this effort resulted in his only loss, as he was felled by Charles Reinke 459-490 despite bingo finds of RESILED and TUTORAGE. A much-anticipated match against Andy Bohnsack resulted in fewer fireworks (of the bingo variety), as each player just had one (Bryan's DINOSAUR vs. Andy's ETERNISE), but it was neverthless Bryan's win, 378-362. Bryan finished up another successful club session by beating Thomas Reinke 439-411, getting SCANTED, REGALES, and TREADING as his bingos.

3rd Andy Bohnsack went 3-2 for the second straight week, this time with the marginally superior spread total of +357. An early loss to Charles Reinke, 387-433, put Andy in the losers' bracket early (maybe we could call it the "non-winners' bracket"), but he quickly nullified that loss with a 517-314 victory over Helen Flores, where his 86-point nine-letter find of REFORMATS was star of the show (he also got DETAINS and ATRESIAS, which were not stars of the show). Losing to Bryan Benwitz 362-378 was another setback, but Andy found his stride in the final round, winning both games of a two-on-one quite convincingly: 403-323 against Lynda Finn and 493-357 against Ron Malzer.

Ron's IMBECILE was Word of the Week in addition to being an exceptionally fine example of tile-based name-calling.

1st Bryan Benwitz continued to make incremental progress towards retaking the club's #1 spot with a 3-0 +132 record. His first-round matchup against Ron Malzer featured plenty of fireworks: Ron triple-tripled late with INTEREST for 131 points, but Bryan took the win with his out-bingo of QUAGMIRE. Final score: 457-410. For the next round, Bryan pulled off an impressive feat, scoring that same exact amount of points in a 457-377 win over Charles Reinke, finding bingos of CAJOLING, MADUROS, and VENERATE. Scrabble tip of the day: if you can score exactly 457 points in every single game, you'll probably win a lot of games. Bryan's final game was a close 418-413 victory against Richard Lauder, landing ORDINAL, RECASTS, and DROSERA to Richard's COTTAGE and IMPORTED.

2nd Thomas Reinke suffered just a single loss for the third consecutive week, this time going 3-1 +228. That single loss happened right at the beginning of the night, as he fell 450-469 to Charles Reinke. Reinke vs. Reinke games are often bingo-heavy, and this game was no exception, with Thomas getting CASIMIRE, TORTURED, and XYLONITE# to Charles' ATONIES, GARBLED, and SAGUINS#. The rematch was kinder to Thomas as he got DECAMPS, ORIENTAL, and ENSEALED# to win 468-365. Thomas also scored a win against Dennis Lloyd, 428-315, getting PHLOEMS and CENTURY vs. Dennis' singular STOMPED (Dennis probably wishes that "STOMPED" was a more accurate description of what he did to Thomas in that game). In round four, Thomas got to play the bucket-list word of GADZOOKS (in addition to two other G bingos, GUARDED and PORTAGE) in a 415-384 win against Andy Bohnsack. The club's quest to play every single bingo in the dictionary has overcome a significant roadblock, but words like ZYZZYVA and PIZZAZES and PIZAZZES still loom large.

3rd Richard Lauder got his second-straight 3-1 performance, this time with a spread of +131 and a 411 per-game average. Things started slow with a 368-311 victory against Dave Kinzer where the only bingo on the board was Richard's phony MOONEYED* (MOONEYE is a word, but it's a type of fish - FROGEYE to FROGEYED is an example of an EYE word that takes the D). Richard picked up the pace in round two, getting three bingos (IGNITOR, BOSQUES, RETIRED) to beat Andy Bohnsack 408-381, and his ascent continued when he downed Lynda Finn 453-401, getting a punishing 114-pointer of PREVIEW in the process. Sadly, Richard's 4-0 aspirations were dismantled at the last, as Bryan Benwitz took him out, 418-413.