1st Bryan Benwitz took over the top spot in the yearly club standings with his 4-0 +373 record, thanks to a 3-2 outing from his primary competitor, Thomas Reinke. Could the Reinke streak of dominance which has been ongoing since 2007 finally be at an end? We'll find out over the course of the next month. Bryan established his primacy in round one with a decisive 517-389 win over Charles Reinke, getting down four bingos: EROTIZES, LIFETIME, PALSIED, and LECTORS. Charles, meanwhile, was held bingoless. The bingo situation reversed for Bryan when he faced off against the other twin, but it was still a win for Bryan, 427-404. Thomas had BULIMIC and SALTERN while Bryan was forced to find high-scoring non-bingo plays (such as ZEINS for 91) to stay in the game. Bryan had another 500-point game against Lynda Finn, and as usually is the case when a player scores above 500, he cruised to victory, 503-311. Lynda did find the nice SPICATED, but was drowned (figuratively) by Bryan's FOAMIER, LEGALISE, and MARSHALS. The undefeated night was capped by a lower-scoring 399-369 win over Richard Lauder.

2nd Charles Reinke played six games (thanks to a combination of Thanksgiving-induced low turnout and an odd number of players), and while the stats algorithm had him in first place (given that he had more wins than Bryan), this writer is assigning him to second place with a 5-1 +373 record. After a loss to Bryan early in the night, Charles did not lose another game. In fact, at the same time he was losing big to Bryan, Charles was winning big against Mark Kenas, the final score being 572-377. Charles unleashed four bingos in that one: TOONIES, JIGGIEST, SHIFTER, and ACTURES#. Their rematch in round three was also a big score for Charles, 518-501, and again the bingos were plentiful as he found plays of PLENTIES, SEALERY, and word-of-the-week SYNANON. Synanon was a religious movement/cult for recovering drug addicts, popular in the 1960s, and why it's in the dictionary is anybody's guess. Charles finished his night with another two-on-one where he beat Lynda Finn by a comfortable margin, 447-393, but barely escaped against Ron Malzer, 366-359.