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1st Bryan Benwitz found himself at the top of the Scrabble player heap thanks to a 3-1 +473 record, now the fourth week in a row where he finished with that exact record (well, not that exact spread, but you know what I mean). He walloped fellow 3-1 finisher Richard Lauder by the lopsided score of 527-315 in round one, bingoing with DUALIST, REVELING, and VENALITY. He wasted no time rejoining the "500 club" with a 509-371 win against Thomas Reinke, finding some high-probability sevens in ENTRAIN, VIATORS, and EIDOLON (Thomas found the low-probability TOPCROSS). Bryan, who is apparently cursed to never go 4-0 again, suffered his single loss to the other Reinke, as Charles beat him 376-437. An accurately-spelled find of TROILITE (it's tempting to play TRIOLITE*) helped Bryan out, but not enough. In the fourth and final game, Bryan made quick work of Helen Flores, winning their match 457-274 with bingos of ELONGATE and TONIFIES.

2nd Mark Kenas went 3-1 +103 against a tough lineup of only Reinkes, the expected fate of a staunch Collins-only player. Things started off poorly with a 403-486 defeat at the hands of Thomas, but Mark got him back (plus a little extra) with a later 517-411 victory where a CSW-only DROGHER#, along with ETHICIAN, got Mark to the finish line. Interspersed with those two games, Mark picked up two victories against Charles. The first was a high-scoring 512-474 match with both players plunking down three bingos: COLOGNED, PROVABLE, and SOURDINE for Mark; TOPLINER# (non-Collins players should remember the anagram TERPINOL), BEADSMAN, and WRATHIER for Charles. In the second game of the set, Mark won again, 443-401, playing three more bingos: UNBLAMED, UNROPES, and ECHIDNAE. However, since everything is a bingo in Collins, one wonders why Mark didn't bingo seven or eight times instead of a piddly three.

3rd Richard Lauder returned to winning ways with a 3-1 -13 record. That negative spread can be attributed to his 315-527 loss to Bryan, where his single bingo of RUINATES seemed quite appropriate. Richard came back with a 379-342 victory over second-timer Lloyd Stohler, who played ESCAPED and MEANDER to Richard's ORIENTED and TINDERS. Richard's bingos took a turn for the mythical as he played GNOMISH, FAERIES, and DESCALE (alright, the last one kind of ruins the theme) to take down Helen Flores 467-308. Facing off against Andy Bohnsack in the final round, Richard kept his hot streak going with a hard-fought 391-388 win, racking up big scores with TANGLERS and SULLIED.

1st Charles Reinke finished in first place for the third time in as many weeks, going 5-0 +677 and averaging a lofty 489 points per game. He quickly racked up 300+ points of spread in the first round thanks to a particularly successful 2-on-1 set against Andy Bohnsack and Richard Lauder. Richard got down the Word of the Week, ELDRICH (also spelled ELDRITCH, meaning "weird"), but lost big to Charles, 293-296. Charles' game against Andy was closer, but still not all that close at 465-362; Charles had MARATHON, DETERGES, and TORQUATE to Andy's RADIANCY and HIREABLE. Playing his regularly-scheduled two games against Mark Kenas, Charles had his bingo switch permanently stuck to "on" as he got down a total of eight bingos: INOSITES, NANOTUBE, SENSUAL, FIANCEES, UNPROVEN, GILBERTS, ANODIZER, and DALGYTE#. The two games were both sizable wins for Charles, 486-407 and 558-376. For his fifth win, Charles played a sole bingo of SPLINTER to win 438-328.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 for the third straight week (don't forget, the Y in BrYan stands for "consistencY"). He squeezed out a win over Dave Kinzer in round one, needing every bit of his bingos of INTITULE and SEGMENT to prevail 403-385. His next game was even closer, as he barely made it past Thomas Reinke, 431-429, getting RANDANS and PRINTED to Thomas' MONTERO and SIGNORE. For his efforts, Bryan was immediately paired with the other Reinke, and lost 328-438, finding just one bingo of RURALITE. In the final game of the night, Bryan went up against Steve Hartsman, and while both players had three bingos, somehow the scoreboard didn't reflect that fact, and Bryan won handily, 505-361. Bryan landed SEMIMAT, ROARINGS (notable as the more challengeable anagram of GARRISON), and DIVORCEE; Steve got RASHNESS, EROTICS, and SEIZING.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +107, incrementally lowering his yearly win% from 73% and making the club championship race somewhat more exciting. He duked it out with Mark Kenas in the first game, and the result was a scoreline typical of the more expansive Collins dictionary, 476-445. Thomas had JAPONICA, EDITING, and UNEARED# to Mark's PRANCING and TANGRAMS. Their later rematch was also high-scoring, although not in Thomas' favor, as he lost 463-548 despite the stylish CSW-only find of UMWHILE#. In between those two Collins games, Thomas faced a tough two-on-one of Steve Hartsman and Bryan Benwitz; the end result was a partial success, as he lost to Bryan 429-431 but whomped Steve 477-324 (I guess since the total spread change was significantly in the positives, the level of success lands somewhere between "partial" and "rousing"). Thomas finished the night's activities with a close 439-429 victory over Andy Bohnsack, getting QUAKIEST, PARENTED, and MEIOSES vs. Andy's GROUPED and SOFTIES.

We welcomed new player Lloyd to our ranks, and he performed admirably for a first-timer, averaging 365 per game over three games and getting a win over Dave Kinzer, 388-356, thanks to an out-bingo of NURTURES.

1st Charles Reinke stood at the top of the weekly standings for the second week in a row, this time finishing at 4-1 +438 despite averaging just one bingo per game (a far cry from his yearly average of roughly 2.25). He got the year's fifth 600-point game when he defeated Mark Kenas 601-271 in the first round. Perhaps even more notable was the fact that Mark actually bingoed the same amount of times as Charles did in that game (MYNHEER and LAITIES for Charles, STEEVING and REDREAMT for Mark). That game was one half of a two-on-one; the other half got off comparatively lightly as he beat Dennis Lloyd 401-356. Charles picked up another big win when he defeated Steve Hartsman 471-263, again not needing much in the way of bingos (just a sole SOILING) to rack up the points. He got a generous helping of Mark's revenge in their third-round rematch, which Charles lost 359-557 in the face of Mark's PAINTURE#, PUNDONOR#, UNITAGE, and CYANITE. A 450-397 victory against Bryan Benwitz, featuring a bingo of THIONINE, completed Charles' first-place run. (THIONINE is notable for taking an E for ETHIONINE, a word which is itself notable for taking an M for METHIONINE).

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +501 with a 459 average, highest among all players. He handily defeated Helen Flores in round one, 438-304, playing ANTISAG and MONIKER to Helen's WILDEST. For round two, he made good use of his expansive word knowledge (which is the whole point of having expansive word knowledge in the first place), slapping down four bingos (CORRADE, OSTEOID, SHELTIES, and QUANTING) for a crushing 563-293 triumph over Dave Kinzer. Dedicated write-up readers will remember John Bialek's upset win over Bryan last week; history was given a chance to repeat itself, but a repeat wasn't in the cards as Bryan won a remarkably vengeful matchup 439-289, thanks to OUTDARES and VINTAGER. Bryan's 4-0 chances were snuffed out in the final game, as his TRANSHIP and LENTILS weren't enough to overtake Charles Reinke, the final score being 397-450.

3rd Steve Hartsman had another strong showing, going 3-1 +242. He picked up a large spread advantage early by defeating Carol Orman 533-299, landing bingos of SWEATER, SQUIRES, and GORDITAS (Carol found DOUGHIER, which could possibly be a way to describe your gorditas). However, most of that spread advantage was negated by a 263-471 loss to Charles Reinke. Things got back on track with a 458-318 win against Helen Flores, where Helen's RADIXES (fun fact: RADIX can also be pluralized to RADICES) was bested by Steve's PILOTING and RENTERS. Steve finished his evening by taking down John Bialek 416-340; when the dust cleared, the one bingo on the board was Steve's TEENAGE.

Mark's nine-letter FROTTAGES, played through the R and the first T, was word of the week, simply because his finds of GIFTSHOP# and PUNDONOR# were disqualified for only being good in Collins.