1st Peter Schmiedicke shook off an accumulated five years of rust in his long-awaited return to club play, going 4-1 -8. After being warmly welcomed in a 322-479 loss to Charles Reinke, the intricacies of playing winning Scrabble started to trickle back into his brain, and he won his next four games. Along the way he scored a one-point win against the tougher-than-he-was-in-2017 Bryan Benwitz by a score of 372-371. A phony BESETTED* along with a valid ARTERIAL propelled Peter to the win in that one. His best game was another nailbiter, 434-421 against Helen Flores. Peter's long-disused bingoing skill came back in full force with plays ouf DOUBTER, ADVENTS, and AERIEST.

2nd Charles Reinke played an even two bingos in each of his five games as he finished with a 3-2 +347 record. His two losses came simultaneously, as he battled vainly against both Thomas Reinke and Bryan Benwitz in a two-on-one. He did come close to beating his brother, as their game ended with a final score of 469-471. Thomas' four bingoes of ANTIGENE, PRECLUDE, GLISTENS, and OUTEDGED* (not even good in Collins) were each crucial in securing the two-point win. Charles would later get his revenge in the final round, defeating his brother by a more comfortable margin, 440-389 thanks to a pair of high-probability bingos, ETALONS and TOLIDINE.

Of note was Sara McLaughlin's 502-423 win over Thomas Reinke, her first 500 game at our club. Of even more notable note, her opening bingo of SMARTED in that game (with a blank S) was exactly duplicated by Peter Schmiedicke when the two of them faced off in round four. A team of expert astronomers are currently analyzing exactly which stars had to be in alignment for that to happen.