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1st Andy Bohnsack fully recovered from his slow start to the 2026 club season with a dominant 5-0 +452 performance. In round one, he administered a severe whupping to last year's club champion, beating Thomas Reinke 417-296 and finding WATERBUS and RUINABLE in the process (note that the total of two bingos Andy played in that game would end up being his lowest single-game bingo total of the night). A regularly-scheduled bout against Bryan Benwitz was well-fought, but the end result was another Andy win, 477-435, thanks to RIVALED, DEBONAIR, and DETRAIN. A two-on-one match against both Dennis Lloyd and Lynda Finn resulted in more bingos and more wins for Andy: against Dennis, Andy cruised to a 516-324 win (FOLKIEST, TURNSOLE, OESTRONE), while his game against Lynda ended 442-373 in his favor (COADIES, TENERS, EPIGEES* [APOGEAN, EPIGEAN, APOGEES, no EPIGEES*]). Andy put the fifth and final jewel in his crown with a 464-436 victory against Charles Reinke, finding LINGUIST, LAMBASTE, and LEOPARDS (what's with all the L's?) to Charles' UTOPIST, PREVAILS, and DETONATE.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished 3-2 +275. It was a slow start for him as Andy Bohnsack dispatched him early, 296-417, but he immediately recovered with a 475-317 trouncing of Mark Kenas, finding DALGYTES# and BOURREE. A round three encounter against Bryan Benwitz ended in sad defeat, 388-446, despite bingos of CORSAIRS and ENTHETIC (Bryan one-upped him with ESTUARY, IBOGAINE, and DOUTING). To end the evening, Thomas found himself in a two-on-one match; Mark Kenas was sent away with ease for the second time, 541-294, while Dennis Lloyd put up more of a fight but still lost, 413-364. Across those two games, Thomas had bingos of SNEERED, RIPENED, FLAVOUR, RANCORED, and ESTRIOL.

3rd Lynda Finn enjoyed a 2-1 +140 record, her late arrival preventing her from getting a third win and sneaking into second place. She welcomed newcomer Jennifer with her first-ever (but hopefully not last-ever) club loss, 390-309. Lynda paid for this lack of midwestern hospitality with a 373-442 loss to Andy Bohnsack, putting her losing streak against Andy at nine games. In her last game, she won big against Kelsey Stanczak, 410-282, thanks to her bingo of GUILTIER.

Bryan's REUPTAKE was word of the week.

1st Bryan Benwitz returned to form with an unsullied 4-0 +535 record. He cruised to a round-one win as he demolished Dennis Lloyd by a score of 449-281, getting TULADIS and WORDIES (a WORDIE is "a lover of words", and is a much more agreeable descriptor of us than its anagram, WEIRDO). In round two he added more bingos to his rapidly-expanding list, finding STRAFED, UPGATHER, and LESBIAN for a 481-365 win against Andy Bohnsack, who got RESIFTS (for more than one reason, always resist the urge to play FISTERS* out of those letters). Bryan's closest game ended up not being very close at all, but Helen Flores put up a better fight than most in a 423-328 encounter. As most players were winding themselves down for the night, Bryan was winding himself up, as his round four match against Richard Lauder ended up being his highest-scoring of the night, 554-398. Richard fought valiantly, making nice finds of GENDARME, SPITFIRE, and REBEGAN, but Bryan's bingoquake of GUILDER, ESTRONES, SINUATES, and NEPOTIST was simply too much to overcome.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +431. As is often the case, Charles opened the night with a match against Mark Kenas, which he won 496-421. His TRUDGEON and POMFRETS were matched by Mark's YERSINIA# and DRACONES#. Eagle-eyed website users will note that Collins bingos are now noted with a pound sign in the stats rather than outright marked as phony, which will help reduce some inflated phony percentages in the yearly stats. Charles followed that up with two wins simultaneously, besting Helen Flores 421-324 and Ed Nawrocki 487-264. Sadly, Charles' streak of good fortune came to an end, and his rematch against Mark Kenas ended in defeat, 348-428. Mark played PETITES, TRANSMIT, and the appropriate MARKMEN# for his win. Charles recovered at the end with a big 489-373 win against Andy Bohnsack, getting ELAPINE (it's an adjective! Don't put an S on it!), PROETTES, and ANURETIC.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +142 with a lower-than-his-usual-but-still-pretty-good per game average of 416. He fended off Sara McLaughlin in round one, 404-375, playing one bingo (RANDIES) to Sara's two (FURRIES, POTTERS). Despite some deep bingo knowledge on display against Mark Kenas (BRIGUING#, TRANTER#, SEMIMATT), Thomas lost his second game 418-467. Three bingos ended up being enough in the next game as he got ISOMERS, INVADERS, and FLAGPOLE to beat Richard Lauder 414-330. For the final game of the night, Thomas got his revenge on Mark, winning 429-351 with the aid of UNREASON and CRABWISE (Mark had DONNEES and ANOTHER). With CRABWISE now crossed off the list of "CRAB" words, Thomas can get to work on playing CRABMEAT.

1st Steve Hartsman made good on his (assumed) New Year's Resolution to not lose any more games of Scrabble, as he went 4-0 +794 and averaged a perfect 500 points per game. When taken in combination with his 4-0 record to end 2025, he now has an eight-game winning streak. He started with a 480-329 win against Charles Reinke, playing the nine-letter OVERCOUNT in addition to the two-U UPROUSED. Charles' score of 329 ended up being the most that any of Steve's opponents would score. Steve dominated his second game as he prevailed 552-288 over Andy Bohnsack; a phony triple-triple of STRIVENT* for 140 points was an apt homage to a beloved financial services company, but was unfortunately not an actual word. In round three, Steve again held his opponent under 300 points in a 467-286 win against Richard Lauder; LIRIOPE, ANTIWEED, and AEROGEL were Steve's bingos there. A 502-304 win over Sara McLaughlin, with bingo finds of WEDGIES, INHOLDER, and ASSAILED, completed Steve's strivent quest for perfection (is that how we're using that word?).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +384, demonstrating the level of Scrabble proficiency that gave him the 2025 club championship. He tried to start off on the right foot, but unfortunately chose the wrong foot as his first game was a loss to Mark Kenas, 401-414, getting GETTING (heh)and ARRANGES to Mark's ELOIGNER and URAEUSES (URAEUS and AUREUS are both good, and both pluralize with -EI [URAEI, AUREI], but only URAEUS pluralizes with -ES). Thomas recovered with a pair of wins in a two-on-one set, beating Lynda Finn 421-293 and Carol Ormand 489-316. A rematch against Mark was an improvement over the first go-round as Thomas prevailed 488-431, hitting on NIGELLA and ETALONS. The evening ended with Thomas defeating rival Bryan Benwitz 395-356, overcoming Bryan's nice find of JACINTHE with his own bingos of RELOANS and SKILLET.

3rd Sara McLaughlin went 3-1 +163 and averaged a nice 410 points per game, considerably exceeding last year's average of 356. She took down Ed Nawrocki in game one, finding PULPITS and COSIGNER (to Ed's EIDOLON) for a 431-359 win. A 442-229 win over Dora Kilburn in the next game allowed Sara to continue racking up spread. Facing Lynda Finn in the third round, Sara got a double-double of QUACKING for 142 points for a 461-385 win. 142 points for a non-triple-triple isn't quite a record, but is pretty close; Bryan's 150 for ZEMSTVO back in 2016 seems to be the best we've been able to do while not hitting two TWS's simultaneously. Sara was sadly not able to turn her 3-0 record into a 4-0 record as she was flattened by Steve Hartsman in the final  round, 304-502.

Charles played the word of the week when he found the nine-letter TROPAEOLA, which is the plural of TROPAEOLUM, a type of plant. He evidently forgot to cash in his 100,000 style points for 62 real points (at current conversion rates), and lost the game to Dave Kinzer, 465-404.

Two players played the word ANTERIOR, which gives it a head start on the most-played bingo of 2026, and also puts it ahead of its own position in 2025, where it was only played once.