1st Thomas Reinke was almost entirely unimpeded in waltzing to a flawless 5-0 +477 record. His most formidable challenger turned out to be Richard Lauder, but Thomas pulled out a close one, 373-358, thanks to cat-themed bingos of MIAOUING and FELINES. At the same time as that game was going on, Thomas gave Lynda Finn a sizable "welcome back to club" present, playing four bingos against her (HALITES, SEVERAL, BINATELY, INGULFED) and winning 518-378. But Thomas is nothing if not an equal-opportunity bingoer, and he demonstrated that core characteristic of his by playing four more bingos against Dennis Lloyd in the course of a 484-373 victory. Those four bingoes were PHONEME, SCOOPING, BOATLOAD, and SENEGAS, while Dennis got YEARLIES.

2nd Charles Reinke finished in a strong second place, going 4-1 +526. He picked up a quick 200+ points of spread in the first round when he demolished Mark Kenas, 518-313, getting down bingos of FAMINES, OMITTING, and LINGERIE in the process. Charles broke the 500-point barrier one more time when he cruised past Richard Lauder, 502-279, adding three more bingos of DATARIES, TARRIEST, and OVERSUDS to his overflowing list of bonus plays. Sadly, Charles was denied the immortal glory of a first-place finish when Mark Kenas beat him solidly in a rematch, 355-468. Mark's fun Collins-only find of GUICHET#, among many other high-scoring plays, delivered him a comfortable victory.

3rd Lynda Finn returned to club after a year-plus hiatus and proved that her in-person Scrabble abilities were not rusty at all, as attested to by her 3-2 +137 record and 411 average score. She quickly proved the basic functionality of her bingo-finding ability by making three such plays (WRASTLED, HEADMEN, and WITNESS) while defeating Helen Flores 473-260. She did suffer a loss to Richard Lauder, 364-406, but immediately recovered to vanquish Beth Amos, 450-355. Beth got a sole bingo of OPERATED, which fared poorly against Lynda's ABLEIST, ANEROIDS, and NAIADES.

We were happy to see the return of last week's newbie, Tara Kadium, as well as Beth Amos, a long-time club player who last graced our doors all the way back in 2007! Beth went 2-2 in her return to serious Scrabble competition, not bad after a thirteen-year absence.