1st Thomas Reinke laid waste to all those who were unfortunate enough to be paired against him; his 5-0 +838 record tells some of the story, while his sixteen bingos and 529 per-game-average tells the rest of it. His 5-0 record also mathematically guarantees him the club championship (unless we manage to fit ten games in our next session and he loses them all), but he'll get his fawning writeup next week. As per usual, Thomas played two Collins games against Mark Kenas, and cruised in both of them, winning with scores of 525-307 (OMITTING, UNISEXES, ONSTEAD#) and 574-288 (AEQUORIN, ANCONOID, MANHOLES, FIERCEST). His only sub-500 game was in round two where he beat Andy Bohnsack 464-408. In the final round, Thomas scored 500+ in both games of a two-on-one. Helen Flores didn't put up too much of a fight, as that game ended 554-303 (thanks in part to Thomas' 137-point TOPAZINE), but Richard Lauder put up enough of a fight for the both of them, as he got his highest-ever losing score (by far) in a 527-500 slobberknocker. That 500-point loss is the third-highest losing score this year, and the two higher ones were both Collins games, so do they even count? Richard's 185-point triple-triple outbingo of DITHERER also clocks in as this year's fourth-highest-scoring bingo (behind a 212, 203, and 186).

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +226, continuing to battle Bryan for second place in the yearly standings. His first game was a 558-265 drubbing of Lynda Finn, with bingos of RETURNEE, CHIVAREE, ATABALS, and ATONERS. He also scored two Collins-lexicon wins against Mark Kenas, 444-378 and 442-441 (for those doing the math at home, that latter game was indeed a one-point margin). Charles stacked up bingos with INPOURS, LEARIER, TORSADES, ROYALET#, METALIST, and SARSNET in those games. A crucial match against Bryan Benwitz ended in a 404-384 for Charles, thanks to OOLITES and AUREOLA. But perfection was denied by Andy Bohnsack and his bingoish ways; in a 363-517 loss, Charles got down FLEABAGS while Andy romped with OUTLIES, SOVRANS, CREATIVE, and SIENITE

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished with a somewhat standard (for him) 3-1 +367 record. Facing relative newcomer Ed Nawrocki for the first time, Bryan managed the win, 412-297, playing SIDEBURN to Ed's tasty RIGATONI (truly a top five pasta shape, if not top three). Bryan didn't manage to make much use of his bingo knowledge in game two as he was bingoless in a 384-404 loss to Charles Reinke, but he got back on track with three bingos (CREATOR, PACIFIST, PENNIES) to defeat Richard Lauder 505-300. Bryan finished another successful night of tile-based combat with a 459-392 win against Andy Bohnsack, demonstrating the potency of the -ING combo with BARRING and SUITING; meanwhile, Andy demonstrated the potency of learning high-probability sevens with AITCHES and TRAILER.