Charles Reinke Brought a Broom for Sweeping, and He Used It

1st Charles Reinke swept through his competition with an immaculate 4-0 +385 record. He played an even three bingos in each of his games, so the expectation is that he will continue to play exactly three bingos in every game...forever. Charles' closest game, and his lowest score, was a 441-414 victory over Aaron Bader; Charles showed great compassion in allowing Aaron to bingo with a phony REOBLIGE, but also showed ruthlessness by bingoing himself with RIDABLE, TOOTSES, and PRINTED. Richard Lauder, like Aaron before him, also put up a good fight against Charles; their game ended with a score of 509-447, setting a new high-loss record for the club director (he has twice lost with a 445, both to, you guessed it, Charles). Both players had three bingos: MODERNER, UNSOCIAL, and INSERTS for Richard, GAITERED, INTRORSE, and DIALOGER for Charles. The final round against Dave Gilligan was a true clash of the titans, both players being undefeated going into the game and knowing full well that one had to fall. Charles ended up running away with it, 505-290, thanks to plays like OUTGROW, COEQUATE, and REQUITES. You know things are going well when you bingo with the Q twice in the same game.

2nd Thomas Reinke didn't quite sweep like his brother did, but he did go 4-1 +520. His first round matchup was actually two matchups, as he was the lucky one appointed to do a two-on-one. The result was mixed; he scored exactly 600 points (his second 600+ game this year) against Helen Flores thanks to bingos of REFUTED, UNTANGLE, ATONERS, and DILATED, but also registered his only loss of the night against Dave Gilligan, 356-444. The subsequent game against Aaron Bader did not see either player attain the lofty scores that we expect from them, but it was still a win for Thomas, 351-334. Thomas' scoring mojo was revitalized in a 425-349 triumph over Bryan Benwitz, and culminated in a 503-295 victory over the 2-1 Dennis Lloyd. Dennis got down LAUNDERS, but Thomas had FARSIDES, INFERNAL, and INEPTEST to seal his second-place finish.

3rd Dave Gilligan bounced back from a rough couple of weeks to go 3-1 -34. He was 3-0 +181 going into the final game, but, as described above, took major body blows against Charles Reinke and ended up with a negative spread. He started off strong by taking out Thomas Reinke, 444-356, playing STILLER to Thomas' SANTOUR but also letting Thomas get by with the phony NOPES. His patented "one bingo is enough" strategy again paid off against Lynda Finn, whom he defeated by a score of 380-340. Lynda had RESPITE and SPEARING as her bingos, while Dave just had SLANTED. Dennis Lloyd also was struck down by the might of Dave's single bingos; this time, Dave's BADGERS (winner of the unofficial Wisconsin Word of the Week [WWotW]) led him to a 381-328 win.

Aaron's TEPEFIES (v. TEPEFY, to make tepid) was chosen as word of the week.