1st Charles Reinke reigned supreme with a pristine 5-0 +642 record and a per-game average of 467. Beating Sara McLaughlin by a score of 445-252 in round one was a good way to start the evening. That momentum directly transferred into the second round, where Charles eclipsed the 500-point barrier in both games of a two-on-one; 502-307 was the score against Richard Lauder, thanks to bingos of LENTOIDS, GREASING, and SWITCHER. 511-445 was the score against Mark Kenas, and Charles had another three bingos proudly adorning his scoresheet: UREDINE#, GEOCODED#, and ENNOBLES. Round three saw a welcome win against Bryan Benwitz, 422-349, and then the undefeated night was secured in a 456-338 rematch against Mark which featured Charles' 97-point find of CONELRAD. A CONELRAD is a type of warning system that was used during the Cold War, standing for CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation.

2nd Lynda Finn completely reversed her unfortunate 1-3 record last week to finish 4-1 +559. Her game average of 457 was also a large improvement over the previous week's 391, although, if one digs back through the bountiful archives of club statistics, we find that she was still somewhat short of the 478 she averaged on April 13, 2016! It wasn't a good start for Lynda as she lost her first game of the night, 412-434 vs. Richard Lauder (who had WORSENED, PIOLETS, and DIVOTING* against Lynda's TACRINE). However, Lynda's fortunes quickly changed as she dropped four bingos (KNOTTERS, RESTORAL, AGNATES, and STAGIER) in a masterful 504-300 win against Beth Amos. The bingo assault only slightly slowed when Lynda faced off against Karl Armstrong; she played FATTIES, RADIATED, and REQUEST to waltz into a 471-387 win. The finishing touch was a two-on-one match against husband-wife pair John and Wendy Bialek; both games were decisively taken by Lynda, 415-315 vs. John and 484-291 vs. Wendy.

3rd Thomas Reinke's 4-1 record matched Lynda's, but his +187 cumulative point spread was nowhere near enough, relegating him to a respectable third-place finish. Thomas played his customary two-game Collins-lexicon match against Mark Kenas, and while the first game was a favorable result for him, 457-362, the rematch was anything but, with Thomas getting his clocks cleaned, 303-503. Thomas did not bingo in that one (a rare occurrence for him, even more rare when playing with the larger Collins list), while Mark had DECENTER, UPROARS, and TOEIEST#. It's worth noting that DECENTER is defined both as a verb (DECENTERS, DECENTERED, and DECENTERING are all good) and as a comparatve (meaning DECENTEST is a word as well). Thomas did regain his bingoing mojo at the end of the night, playing SANDING, GENERAL, NOCTUIDS, and SPONGER en route to a 518-374 win against John Bialek, then immediately playing four more bingos (ROADEOS, SEMIOTIC, PANELED, and IONOMER) while beating Bryan Benwitz 499-385.

Also of note was the 592-point game Bryan Benwitz had against Helen Flores, achieved with "just" four bingos: PAYMENTS, SABOTAGE, RAGWORTS, and a 118-point TOXEMIAS.

We welcomed newcomer Ryan Sinner to our ranks, and while he did not win a game (the skill level of our club means new players rarely do), he did find a bingo of TRUSTEES against Dave Kinzer!