1st Bryan Benwitz was the sole undefeated player out of fourteen combatants, going 4-0 +397 and averaging an impressive 477 points per game. A first-round matchup against Richard Lauder went very well for Bryan, as he took a decisive victory, 544-365, playing bingos of INVOCATE and RIVULETS (Richard had BACTERIN and LANTERN). Lynda Finn fared slightly better, but Bryan still won by a large margin, 463-351. Bryan increased his bingo output by getting three rack-clearers: BLEATED, DERISION, and NIGGLES. His proclivity for fearsome bingoage was on full display against Charles Reinke, where four bingos (STREAKED, INTEGERS, LIAISING, and NEOTENY) led him to a 460-383 win. Bryan's flawless night of Scrabble was completed with his most closely-contested victory, 441-412 against Thomas Reinke, a game which not only gave him a shiny 4-0 record but also gave him wins against both Reinkes in a single club session, the vaunted "anti-Reinke".

2nd Lynda Finn prevailed among a cluster of 3-1 finishers (Finnishers?) with a 3-1 +163 record. Similarly to Bryan above, Lynda got her best game out of the way early when she took Sara McLaughlin to school, 450-253, a score achieved with the aid of just one bingo, TACONITE for 90 (TACONITE is a good word to know simply for the fact that it serves as a T hook for the word ACONITE). A loss to Bryan followed, but Lynda recovered with a solid 389-358 win against Dennis Lloyd, where her DARNEST withstood Dennis' WOODIEST and GRAFTERS. The bingo floodgates opened in the fourth round when both her and her opponent played three bingos, but in the end, it was Lynda's win over Charles Reinke, 447-400. Lynda had TIRELESS, DURIONS, and TALKIEST, while Charles had FATTEST, OVERALL, and MORONITY.

3rd Ron Malzer played his first session of the young club season and made a quick impact, going 3-1 +106. He have John Bialek his only loss in round one, winning 398-325 and trading high-probability bingos (Ron's DEALING against John's INSTEAD). He then squared off against Francesca Lazio and prevailed 379-313 in another game where each player had one bingo; Ron got SHOWERS for a nice score, while Francesca had the nice play of UNTRULY with two blanks. Ron stumbled a bit against Thomas Reinke, losing 347-446 and failing to bingo (Thomas had QUICKEST, SILVERN, and TANAGERS), but recovered to beat Dennis Lloyd in the final round, 379-313. CORNEAL and WIRIEST were Ron's bingo finds in that game.

4th John Bialek also went 3-1, but his smaller +31 point spread left him on the outside of the writeup, jealously looking in.

We were joined by new player Cooper, who didn't manage to win a game, but hopefully enjoyed his visit nonetheless!

Helen Flores' FRENETIC, played against Sara McLaughlin, was chosen as word of the week solely because of her own self-advocacy at the time the play was made (the term "flippin' genius" may have been uttered more than once). Note that future riggings of the word of the week selection will have to involve money to receive consideration.