1st Charles Reinke was top dog for the second straight week, finishing at 5-0 +396. He welcomed back the returning Mark Kenas with a pair of Collins-dictionary victories: the first one was relatively closely-contested at 441-407, but the second was a proper drubbing, 503-342. Charles had ATEMOYA, DOATING, ATTENDEE, and BETOILS# as his bingos across those two games, while Mark had MERONYM, POLICERS, and RATTEENS (fun note: MERONYM takes a Y for MERONYMY, as well as the S). In a game against Helen Flores, Charles was held well below his yearly average of 439, but nevertheless prevailed in a tightly-fought game, 399-363. Helen got a nice 103-point play of ENQUIRE (pairing nicely with a 101-point SQUIRTER in her previous game); Charles had ONBOARDS for a comparatively wimpy 72 points.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +373, but despite that impressive-looking record, averaged a "lowly" 416 per game (comparing against his yearly average of 449). He started things off with a 410-357 win against Sara McLaughlin where both participants had one and exactly one bingo: FASTENED for Thomas, RUSTING for Sara. However, Thomas' hopes for an undefeated night were quashed early by Mark Kenas, who easily bested in him round two, 484-364. Thomas had the high-probability eight-letter words of TOENAILS and INSOLENT for his bingos, while Mark got a bit more creative with UNENVIED and XEROTIC (fun fact: Mark's XEROTIC is the fourth bingo played at our club since 2011 that starts with an X. The others are XEROXES, XEROSIS, and XEROSIS again). Revenge against Mark was achieved in the final round as Thomas came away with a 430-375 victory, thanks in part to crafty finds of ABOMASI and PHOSGENE.

3rd Richard Lauder went 3-2 -34, performing poorly against players with the last name "Reinke" but otherwise performing admirably against the rest of the field. In a two-on-one match in the second round, Richard overcame stacked odds to win both, 331-319 against Sara McLaughlin and 382-323 against Sue Goldstein. His bingos in those two games were PADRONE, ANNUALS, and PIRATED. After suffering a 305-439 loss against Thomas Reinke, Richard scored his third and final win against the latecoming Dennis Lloyd, 390-311, despite not having a bingo.