1st Thomas Reinke bingoed 15 times on his way to a first-place-earning 4-1 +706 record. He got the losing out of the way early, falling to James 412-456. He did bingo three times, with DAMSELS, AIRDATE, and AUTISTS, but James had two bingos of his own, DECIARE and NOTABLES, as well as a bevy of other high-scoring plays. Concurrently, he faced Helen and won 451-300, playing STEARIC and RESHOES (passing up the more stylish SHEROES (n. SHERO, a woman regarded as a hero)). He faced Barb in the second round, and was delighted to see that bingos kept magically appearing on his rack. He ended up playing five of them, FIGTREES, LISTERIA, COTHURNI, TALLIES, and AIRSOME on his way to 572 points. His good fortune continued against Lynda as he got an opening bingo of TENFOLD. For reference, only TWOFOLD and TENFOLD take an S; all the other number-FOLD words do not. For more reference, ELEVENFOLD, TWELVEFOLD, TWENTYFOLD, and THIRTYFOLD were just added to the dictionary in the last update. FORTYFOLD, FIFTYFOLD, and SIXTYFOLD were already good. But back to Scrabble: Thomas won that game 505-289, once again preventing his opponent from bingoing. In the final round, he faced a distracted Charles (who was also playing Lynda at the same time), and used his opponent's distractednesses to his advantage, winning 457-342. He played two lame bingos in that game; so lame that they will not be typed out here so as to not infect this writeup with their lameness.

2nd Charles Reinke also went 4-1, but his +67 spread was way, WAY lower than his brother's, so he came in second. In the first round, he was paired up against Bryan and won 463-412. Bryan bingoed with CRAFTER, while Charles got down SEALING, GUNITES, and GONIDIA. In the next game, he beat James 371-293. He only got one bingo, ENSUITE, but also challenged off James' phony bingo attempt. That was a strategically sound move, because James never ended up bingoing. He then went up against Helen, who put up a valiant fight but lost 384-427. She played SCAMMER and PRESORTS, and Charles played HOLYTIDE (n. a time of religious observance) and TAILRACE. In the final game, he played two, Thomas and Lynda. He wasn't able to take down Thomas, receiving his only defeat of the night, and was only barely able to squeak by Lynda, 440-430. Lynda had bingos of INERTIA and DOORMAT, while Charles had TRESSEL and a tight-fitting late-game LEUCONS that scored just enough to earn him the victory.

3rd Mary Becker went 3-2 -8, beating out Lynda by 80 spread points to capture the coveted third paragraph. She started off with a 355-390 loss to Lynda, but the game was not without excitement: she played the word-of-the-week 9-letter double-double DIAPERING through an IN already on the board for 102 points. If she could do that every turn, she'd score 1000 in no time! That 35-point margin would be her largest of the night, win or lose. In the next round, she lost 344-368 to Bryan, her bingo of BARMIER not being enough to counter Bryan's INVADERS and CONDUITS. Knowing that her place in the writeup was on the line, she then won her next three games. It helps when you can play two at the same time, and that's what she did in the third round, facing Dave and Barb. Barb got out to an early lead in their game, opening with RELINED and later playing JUNKIEST, but Mary played a high-scoring OUTDATE for 99 and won 425-398. In her close 385-376 win against Dave, she challenged his valid TINSELED (to be fair, TINSELLED does look a little better), but bingoed with BEAUTIES and SHIRTED for 101. Club veterans will remember the dark times before the fifth dictionary update when SHIRTED was phony and if you had those letters you had to play DITHERS instead. Her third win came against James, 372-357. James bingoed first with FROWNING, but that gave her a perfect place to play OPTIONS, and she was able to squeak out the win.