1st Charles Reinke wrapped up the club season with a tidy 5-0 +400 record. His customary two-game set against Mark Kenas was fruitful, as he scored wins of 456-415 and 431-391, getting down high-probability sevens of LASERED, ENTASIA, BERLINE, and AGITATE. Charles also got a Collins-lexicon win against Thomas Reinke, 481-397, deploying more high-probability bingos with RETINOID, SOUTANE, and WASPIER (Thomas had HOMELIKE). Charles' big win was a 479-316 win against Dennis Lloyd, where Charles was able to overcome Dennis' BLASTERS with his own bingos of ESTRONES and UNWIELDY. With second place in the yearly standings still up for grabs, Charles closed the book on 2025 with a 455-383 win against rival Bryan Benwitz, holding Bryan to one bingo (AROYNTED) while taking three for himself (SENARII, TALESMAN, UNTOWARD).

2nd Steve Hartsman unwrapped an early Christmas present in the form of his first-ever undefeated record, finishing 4-0 +351 with a 452 per-game average and eleven bingos. That total package of Scrabble success certainly eclipses any real-life gift that one could possibly receive. He started with a pair of solid wins against Sara McLaughlin (429-346) and Dennis Lloyd (403-300), flexing his word knowledge with bingos of RETAPING, ROSEBAY, RETOOLED, SIDEBAR, and NARRATED across those two games. Steve then matched up against his favorite opponent, Bryan Benwitz, and halted Bryan's three-game streak against him with a commanding 526-417 victory. Bingos flowed in abundance that game, as Steve had four (WAITERED, STIMYING, REAVAIL, REDDING) to Bryan's three (RETIRED, ACAUDATE, LIGATES). The night ended with Steve ending another three-game streak against him as he felled Andy Bohnsack 451-395.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 4-2 +205, playing two separate two-on-sets due to poor planning of the pairings, but being so assured in his club championship that nothing really mattered anyway. A 350-496 loss to Bryan Benwitz was not the way Thomas wanted to start off the last session of the club season, and a subsequent 397-481 loss to Charles Reinke didn't help much, but Thomas' crushing 541-386 victory over Mark Kenas (bingoing with VOMERINE, OSTIOLE, RAVAGED, and GRANTEE) helped dull the pain of earlier failures. Thomas also romped against Dave Kinzer (448-335, getting COADMIRE, NEARSIDE, and NEBULAS) and Sara McLaughlin (487-327, getting DIHEDRAL, COURANTO, and BORSTALS). Going against Mark again in the final game, Thomas pulled off a close 433-426 win; Thomas' NIDATES, TROUGHED#, and SITULAE# were just enough to fend off Mark's CARRELS and RAMPICKS#.

Dave Kinzer got word of the week with a word that certainly didn't seem to be in the holiday spirit (unless you hate your family) with SHITHEAD. Bryan got a 641-point game against Andy, setting the record for highest score of the year right as 2025 ended. He hit RAINIER, NARROWER, MAILBAG, CAVEOLAE, and SNOTTIER to reach that score.

With holidays putting an end to the club season a few weeks early, the Club Championship (and its metaphorical trophy) is ready to be handed out. Leading the club in winning percentage with a 70.4% was Thomas Reinke, taking the championship back from Bryan Benwitz, who had won it in 2024 and 2023. His 449 points per game was tied for best in the club (guess who he tied with), and his 2.36 bingos per game was also club-best (not surprising for somebody who won more games than everybody else). Thomas won in 2021 and 2022, so his re-ascendence to the throne (again, this is a metaphorical throne) comes as no surprise.

In second place, making a last-second surge to get himself out of third place, was Charles Reinke, winning 67.0% of his games. He also averaged 449 per game, and his 2.32 bingos per game was just a bit short of his brother. His last club championship was 2019, so he might be looking for revenge heading into 2026 (there are rumors of an intensive word-study regimen involving a sparsely-furnished "study cave" wallpapered with pages from the dictionary).

Third place belonged to Bryan Benwitz at 66.4% wins and a 436 average. His 2.06 bingos per game was third-best in the club, although two other players (Andy Bohnsack and Mark Kenas) averaged over two per game, a fact that once again demonstrates the strength of our club.

In terms of other statistical notes, Bryan's 641 was high score of the year, topping five other 600-point games (two more from Bryan, two from Charles, and one from Andy). Bryan's 212-point SPEEDWAY in April was the highest-scoring bingo of the year, although Charles' 203-point IODIZERS in May was pretty close. The most common bingos played were ANDESITE, ISOLATE, and TEASING, each getting played four times - this demonstrates more overall creativity in the club's bingo-finding abilities, as ISATINE was played six times last year, and ATONIES and ERASION were played five times.