1st Thomas Reinke bolstered his campaign for 2023 club champion with another fine outing, going 4-1 +533 and averaging 477 points per game. He racked up a huge amount of spread in the first round when he had the good fortune of being the "one" in a two-on-one match against Mark Kenas and Richard Lauder. He cleanly dispatched Richard with a 570-334 victory, but saved most of his scoring power for his game against Mark, where he won 575-437. Against Mark he played five bingos: FEATOUS#, TURNHALL, CONSUME, STIRRER, and DARTING. Mark got his revenge a little bit later in the night, as a rematch did not go Thomas' way, the final score being 385-429 in Mark's favor. A quite relevant bingo of BULLYING as played by Mark, in addition to BERLINES and REGRATED; Thomas found VALIDATE but was not able to get a second bingo which he dearly needed. The bingo mojo returned for Thomas in the final game as he played four bonus plays (TURNABLE, UNHAIRED, STOPGAPS, DELTOIDS) in a 475-324 victory versus Dennis Lloyd.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished at 3-1 +305, and his impressive 438-points-per-game average in the four games actually LOWERED his yearly average, which stood at 440 before Wednesday's slate of games. Bryan got off to a hot start in the very first game when his three bingos of IGNORER, EXTOLLS, and RADIUSES launched him to a 426-338 win against Charles Reinke. Reinke honor was upheld in the next game when Bryan suffered his only defeat, a 330-482 loss to Thomas Reinke. However, that Reinke honor was partially squandered thanks to Thomas' 102-point phony of FORESAY*, which is acceptable in the international Collins lexicon but not the American lexicon. Bryan finished strong with a 505-305 win over newcomer Margie Van Handel, as well as a 492-323 win against Richard Lauder, who, as the founder of the club, is the exact opposite of a newcomer. Bryan's bingo list in those two games was CANDIDA, MANSION, RELETTER, EVERSION, and MARCHESI. MARCHESI is a good word to know simply because it serves as an I hook onto the word MARCHES (MARCHESE and MARCHESA are also valid).

As alluded to earlier, we welcomed Margie Van Handel as she bravely made her first trip to our club. She displayed considerable skill in defeating Sara McLaughlin 400-398 in her first game, playing STINTER for 72 points in her winning effort. Welcome Margie!