1st Bryan Benwitz put on a clinic regarding the fine art of defensive Scrabble, holding his opponents to a 328 average and winning the night with a 4-0 +333 record. His first game was a chance for revenge against Barb, who had beaten him in the last game of the previous week. The revenge he so desired was his, as he won 378-334 with bingos of GROANERS and PLUCKED. Barb did get down REVISORS, which drew a challenge, but no word on whether either of them extended it to PREVISORS. Against Helen in the second round, he played two quick bingos, UNITARD and SWORDMEN, and coasted the rest of the way to a 399-311 victory. The third round saw him face a similarly undefeated Dave, but Bryan was undaunted, and won decisively 421-261. We already mentioned his "defensive Scrabble" clinic, but we forgot to mention his secondary "play two bingos every game" clinic which was being held in the same location. It goes without saying that he played two bingos against Dave, MOTHIER and LITIGATE. Bryan's fine game was also his closest, with him winning 447-406 against Charles. Charles played BONDMEN late in that game to take a decent lead, but Bryan even later in the game played HALLOOS (v. to shout "hello", also HALLOA, HULLOO, HULLOA, HOLLOO, HOLLOA, HULLO, HALLO, and HOLLO. Did I miss any?) to seal/steal the victory.

2nd James Frankki enjoyed his Spring Break by kicking some booty over the Scrabble board, finishing at 3-1 +260. He started off with a big win against the visiting Warren, and showed him some good old-fashioned Madison hospitality by beating him 511-255. James had three bingos that game, DIALOGER, STINKIER, and GOETHITE (n. an ore of iron, named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). He cooled off a bit in the next game. Unfortunately, cooling off against Charles is rarely a good idea, and he lost 433-456. Charles played AEONIAN, TITIVATE for 95, and FRANKEST for 92. That last one came as a reponse to James' sole bingo of FONDLED, and was the key play in the game. He played a bingoless game in the third round but still squeaked out a win against Barb 378-358, despite Barb's bingo of WAISTED. WAIST is not a verb, but WAISTED (adj. having a waist of a specified kind) and WAISTING (n. a type of dressmaking material) are both good, so it might as well be for our purposes. For his final act, James had another close win, this time against Thomas, 367-360. A rather low-scoring game, but a win is a win, unless it's not a win, in which case it's actually a loss.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +162, not enjoying his Spring Break because it already ended for him. The weekly Reinke versus Reinke matchup was played in the first round, and Charles won easily, 459-358. He played the ever-useful ETESIAN, as well as NAPROXEN (which had been played by Thomas just a few weeks ago) and IRONCLAD. We already read all about his second-round win against James, but I have one other note to add about that game: TITIVATE is a really fun word to say. The third round saw him matched up against Mary, with him winning 426-347 with a bingo of DEUTERON. Mary kept it close with a bevy of high-scoring power-tile plays, but Charles was able to keep the game out of reach. His 406-477 loss against was also already read about in a previous paragraph, but what I didn't mention is that he somehow found the brainpower to hook a K under an O to make OK, one of the new two letter words. That's why he's been a multiyear club champion, I guess.