1st Andy Bohnsack crushed most (but not all) of his opponents with a 4-1 +449 record. His two-on-one set in round one was an unqualified success, as he vanquished both Lynda Finn (436-364) and Dennis Lloyd (516-324). The only blemish was a phony of RONDEAUS* against Dennis - RONDEAU only pluralizes to RONDEAUX (meanwhile, a word like TONNEAU pluralizes both ways). Phonies struck again when Andy beat Bryan Benwitz 404-337 with TRIGONAL and ALENCONE* (ALENCON is valid). All eyes will be on Andy's scoresheet in future weeks as we try to figure out if he has become a serial phonier or if this is a one-off anomaly. Andy dominated Thomas Reinke in the next game, getting down BRASSED and FUSIONAL for a 555-367 win. Sadly, success against Reinkes was fleeting as a loss to Charles Reinke in the final round, 394-464, ended Andy's hopes of remaining undefeated.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +135, losing his first game before reeling off four straight. That first-round loss was to Mark Kenas, 414-469; Mark's triple-triple of ESCAPADE for 140 proves once again that playing triple-triples is a Very Good Idea. In round two, Charles crawled to a 328-292 win against Carol Ormand, where he played the game's only bingo, HAULIERS. Finds of ENTICES and YEARLIES (the latter for 95 points) delivered Charles a win over Dave Kinzer, 422-375. Facing off against Mark for a second go-around, Charles prevailed in a high-scoring bout, 502-465, thanks to ISOGRIV, VERATRUM, and DEARIES. A 464-394 victory against Andy Bohnsack in the last game was nice, but Charles would have liked to win by more (like, 160 more) to snag first place.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished 3-2 with a negative spread of -82. He got an early win against Richard Lauder, 386-313, despite allowing Richard's phony DASHOON* (DAHOONS and DASHEEN are both good). A high-powered Collins matchup against Mark Kenas in round two ended 475-466 in Thomas' favor, despite Thomas being outbingoed (ISOLATED and POTHEENS vs. SEELING, DOWNRATE, and REELMAN#). Thomas' point spread was obliterated in round three as he fell to Andy Bohnsack, 367-355. For the final game, Thomas played two at once, and he performed adequately against tough competition, downing Bryan Benwitz 414-272 but losing to Mark 373-491. Mark's bingos in that game (VINOUSLY, SKIORERS, and word-of-the-week CROWFEET) show the benefits of studying deep into the dictionary.