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1st Charles Reinke dominated everybody and everything in his path with a flawless 5-0 +407 record. The closest he came to a loss was in the first round, when he defeated Bryan Benwitz in a high-scoring match, 477-449. Both players showed off their bingoing prowess by playing three such plays: Bryan had OUTSETS, DINDLES, and word-of-the-week BAUHINIA; Charles got GAZETTE, REAGINIC, and TRACHEAL. A game against Helen Flores ended with a 426-351 victory for Charles, thanks to his bingos of LATHING and TINKERER (Helen had ISATINE, proving that high-probability word study pays off [although not always with a win]). At the same time as that win against Helen, Charles also took on James Frankki and won handily, 495-356. What followed was a two-game series against Thomas Reinke, and Charles made some progress in closing the yearly-standings gap (a nearly-10% gulf in win percentage) by defeating his brother in both games. The first ended in a 406-367 score, while the second ended at 494-368 (with Charles playing WETLANDS, WOOLSACK, and CASETTE to close the lid on Thomas' winning chances). If a third game had been played, mathematical principles indicate that the final score would have been 582-369. Good thing we stop after four games.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +390, winning his first three before dropping two at the end. In the first round, he took on two players at once and won both. Dave Gilligan was defeated 456-372, while Dennis bore the brunt of the majority of Thomas' wrath in a 521-345 loss. In the latter game, Thomas got down a 110-point YOLKIEST, in addition to UNSURELY and ACEROUS. More wrath was rained down upon Mary Becker, who matched up against Thomas in round two and lost 285-580. Thomas played TEENERS, PICAROS, REPROVAL, and PLASMID for his second-highest score this year. The good fortune came to an end in the final two rounds, both of which were played against Charles Reinke and both of which were losses (367-406 and 368-494).

3rd Bryan Benwitz only played three games, but made the most of them, finishing at 2-1 +251 and averaging 464 points per game. His loss, as previously described, came in the first round against Charles Reinke, 449-477. His bingo of BAUHINIA, while scoring plenty of style points, didn't score enough real points for him to take the win. Bryan rebounded by notching a big win against Dennis Lloyd, 542-288. He bingoed three times in that one, with EBONICS, WAITRONS, and DRATTED. The next game, against James Frankki, was a bit closer, but Bryan pulled it out with a score of 400-275. James played FORESTS (forgetting that playing FORGETS instead would have netted him four bucks for the high G play), while Bryan had RETASTE.

1st Thomas Reinke swept through the competition with a 4-0 +339 record. His first game was his closest, as he narrowly got by Dave Kinzer, 385-367. Thomas' 101-point PITHEADS was vital for the victory. In round two, he faced off against familiar opponent Charles Reinke and got a slightly easier victory, 455-381, propelled by a quad-bingoed onslaught of ANISEED, ORDINALS, MEETING, and DECANTED (Charles had ROWINGS and APERIES). The highlight of Thomas' night came in round three, when he walloped James Frankki by a score of 473-329. James' triple-triple of SIGNALED for 131 points only served to bring his score up from "in the doldrums" to "meager". Meanwhile, Thomas played SCENTED in addition to a double-double nine-letter word-of-the-week IRRIDENTA for 90 points (needs more descriptors). IRRIDENTA is more commonly spelled IRREDENTA and is defined as a region that is ethnically tied to one country, but is politically part of another. Sort of like the upper peninsula of Michigan. Moving on from that geopolitical confusion, Thomas completed his perfect night by defeating Barb Pratzel 409-306. Barb got down one bingo of OUTLINER, while Thomas had SALTERY and INGESTS.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +85 for second place, with his 379-point per-game average being rather sedate by his standards. He started off with a well-fought win over Helen Flores, 377-349, where each player bingoed exactly one time (SOLANIN for Charles, GAIETIES for Helen). This was followed up by a not-quite-as-well-fought loss to Thomas Reinke in round two, 381-455. Round three provided Charles with his most fruitful game as he downed Betty Hasselkus by a score of 408-278. A pair of 63-point bingos, RADIANS and UNROPES, helped him seal the deal. In the final round of the evening, with a write-up paragraph on the line for both players, Charles went up against the formidable James Frankki, and the result couldn't have been closer, as Charles won a low-scoring contest 349-348. Again, both players had a singular bingo: EARNINGS for James and PINERIES for Charles. A recount overseen by neutral third parties was not undertaken.

3rd Dave Kinzer only stayed for three games, but made the most of it by going 2-1 +167. A first-round loss to Thomas Reinke, 367-385, put Dave in the "loser's bracket", but from that position he found enough success to be counted a winner in the end. In round two, he scored a comfortable win over Helen Flores, 402-291, partially thanks to a 63-point bingo of GEARINGS. With this win, Dave gets closer to equalizing the lifetime series, which now stands at eight wins for Helen and seven for Dave. He carried that success into round three, where he sparred with Barb Pratzel and emerged triumphant from the fray, 393-319. Barb played GUILTIER for 77, but Dave's FAUCETS for 82 was worth just a little bit more (and some of his other plays certainly helped widen the gap as well).

1st Bryan Benwitz put on a clinic regarding the fine art of defensive Scrabble, holding his opponents to a 328 average and winning the night with a 4-0 +333 record. His first game was a chance for revenge against Barb, who had beaten him in the last game of the previous week. The revenge he so desired was his, as he won 378-334 with bingos of GROANERS and PLUCKED. Barb did get down REVISORS, which drew a challenge, but no word on whether either of them extended it to PREVISORS. Against Helen in the second round, he played two quick bingos, UNITARD and SWORDMEN, and coasted the rest of the way to a 399-311 victory. The third round saw him face a similarly undefeated Dave, but Bryan was undaunted, and won decisively 421-261. We already mentioned his "defensive Scrabble" clinic, but we forgot to mention his secondary "play two bingos every game" clinic which was being held in the same location. It goes without saying that he played two bingos against Dave, MOTHIER and LITIGATE. Bryan's fine game was also his closest, with him winning 447-406 against Charles. Charles played BONDMEN late in that game to take a decent lead, but Bryan even later in the game played HALLOOS (v. to shout "hello", also HALLOA, HULLOO, HULLOA, HOLLOO, HOLLOA, HULLO, HALLO, and HOLLO. Did I miss any?) to seal/steal the victory.

2nd James Frankki enjoyed his Spring Break by kicking some booty over the Scrabble board, finishing at 3-1 +260. He started off with a big win against the visiting Warren, and showed him some good old-fashioned Madison hospitality by beating him 511-255. James had three bingos that game, DIALOGER, STINKIER, and GOETHITE (n. an ore of iron, named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). He cooled off a bit in the next game. Unfortunately, cooling off against Charles is rarely a good idea, and he lost 433-456. Charles played AEONIAN, TITIVATE for 95, and FRANKEST for 92. That last one came as a reponse to James' sole bingo of FONDLED, and was the key play in the game. He played a bingoless game in the third round but still squeaked out a win against Barb 378-358, despite Barb's bingo of WAISTED. WAIST is not a verb, but WAISTED (adj. having a waist of a specified kind) and WAISTING (n. a type of dressmaking material) are both good, so it might as well be for our purposes. For his final act, James had another close win, this time against Thomas, 367-360. A rather low-scoring game, but a win is a win, unless it's not a win, in which case it's actually a loss.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +162, not enjoying his Spring Break because it already ended for him. The weekly Reinke versus Reinke matchup was played in the first round, and Charles won easily, 459-358. He played the ever-useful ETESIAN, as well as NAPROXEN (which had been played by Thomas just a few weeks ago) and IRONCLAD. We already read all about his second-round win against James, but I have one other note to add about that game: TITIVATE is a really fun word to say. The third round saw him matched up against Mary, with him winning 426-347 with a bingo of DEUTERON. Mary kept it close with a bevy of high-scoring power-tile plays, but Charles was able to keep the game out of reach. His 406-477 loss against was also already read about in a previous paragraph, but what I didn't mention is that he somehow found the brainpower to hook a K under an O to make OK, one of the new two letter words. That's why he's been a multiyear club champion, I guess.