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1st Charles Reinke's performance wasn't as dominating as some he's had in the past, but the 4-1 +126 record was still good for first place in a field of thirteen players where nobody went undefeated. He was thrown into the fire early with a tough two-on-one match against Mark Kenas and Thomas Reinke. He escaped with a 424-410 win against Mark, playing a single bingo of BESAINT#, but fell well short against his brother, losing 341-447 with his only bingo being SALTIES. Charles' bingo totals started trending upwards as he played two (ENEMIES, UNVARIED) in a 422-327 victory over Lynda Finn, then played four (REALITY, DIABETES, OLEFINS, EGOSURFS#) in a high-scoring 527-453 bout against Mark Kenas, who played ROUTHIER# and TERMINI. Facing the undefeated Dennis Lloyd in the final round, Charles held on for a 415-366 win, thanks to finds of HELOTAGE and PANOCHES (Dennis had VARIOLAS).

Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 +317, scoring well above 400 in each of his wins. He got down his first triple-triple since 2023 when he deployed LUSTIEST for 122 points in a round-one win against James Rollins, 440-318. Dennis also had EARNERS in that game, while James had TREATIES. A game against Ron Malzer required no triple-triples for Dennis to win, 458-275, although a 92-point phony EXCELING* certainly helped. Not content with just a single triple-triple for the evening, Dennis played another one, PRENATAL for 140, in a 483-422 victory against Andy Bohnsack (PRENATAL presumably occurred sometime after his challenged-off phony of PALANTIR*, which is an orb from the Lord of the Rings which possessed dangerous yet alluring magical properties). This victory disrupts a recent streak in which Andy had won ten of the last eleven against Dennis. Sadly, Dennis' night ended not with an undefeated record, but a 366-415 loss to Charles Reinke.

3rd Sara McLaughlin overcame a large first-round loss to win her next three and go 3-1 -137. Sara would not have been blamed if she had simply walked out the door after losing to Lynda Finn 285-541, but her perseverence was rewarded with wins in each of her next three games. She defeated Andy Bohnsack 403-369 with a bingo find of STORIES, overcoming Andy's TRAIPSES and PROWING*. Round three saw her fight to a 393-361 win against Dora Kilburn; Sara was again outbingoed, but this time it was her turn to phony, as she played AGONISER* (real word: ORGANISE) to Dora's REASONER and STRANGER. Sara wrapped things up with a 418-365 triumph over Helen Flores, getting BALDIES and RENTING.

Notable was a game between Lynda Finn and Ron Malzer where both players bingoed with LATRINES. Since this is a professionally-penned writeup, the opportunity for potty humor will pass by untaken.

The highly-contested battle for top spot in the yearly standings is now at a deadlock as both Thomas and Charles have identical 66.7% winning percentages. To achieve total statistical purity, Thomas and Charles will no longer play any opponent other than each other for the remainder of the club season.

1st Thomas Reinke decisively prevailed over all challengers with a 5-0 +488 record. On a night where all of his game could be viewed as "successes", he had the most success against regular Collins sparring partner Mark Kenas, as Thomas won both of their games by impressive margins, 517-413 and 529-364. In those two games, Thomas buried Mark in a veritable mudslide of bingos, eight of them to be exact: REBORING, PALATED#, DENOTES, BEDOUIN, BISCOTTO, SCANNERS, WEENIEST, and HAULMIER. In between those two games, Thomas picked up two wins as part of a two-on-one match, defeating Lynda Finn 433-344 and Ron Malzer 422-411. Thomas finished his flawless evening with a lopsided 438-318 win over Andy Bohnsack, where Andy's COENAMOR and CUTESIER were offset by Thomas' PIEPLANT and STELLAR.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 for the fourth straight week (not a bad pattern to fall into by any means), this time with a spread of +164. He managed a close round-one win against Ron Malzer, playing SEEDIER to Ron's GUTTERED. His next game was more "typically Bryan" as he easily dispatched Richard Lauder, 435-267. Richard played STAINERS, but couldn't get much else going as Bryan laid down IDOLISE, FRESHMAN, and WAGONERS. A 321-418 loss to Charles Reinke dashed Bryan's ever-present goal of going undefeated, but he recovered to end the session with a 431-362 win against Lynda Finn. Lynda got down INSNARER, but Bryan's bingo mojo (bojo?) returned as he found three bonus plays: SOOTHED, AIRDATE, and CARNIES.

3rd Charles Reinke finished at 3-2 +348. Unlike his brother, who had much success in Collins games against Mark Kenas, Charles had no such luck; both of his losses were to Mark. Despite a low-probability find of MISKICK, Charles lost game one of the series 403-467, overwhelmed by Mark's NERITES#, LEIPOAS#, and AMNIONS. Mark had three more bingos, CUTLETS, SEXTILE, and HOOTIEST, in a 481-443 rematch win; Charles had USERNAME to minimize the damage. However, a two-on-one set in the first round gave Charles a total of 353 spread points (480-340 vs. Andy Bohnsack and 494-281 vs. Helen Flores), so he had some wiggle room to lose games in later rounds. Charles also played the word of the week, FEMINAZI (a militant feminist) in a 418-321 victory against Bryan Benwitz.

1st Bryan Benwitz finished atop a clump of 3-1 players with his considerably weightier +405 spread. First place seemed like nothing but a distant, unattainable goal after a round one loss to Lynda Finn, 392-445 (bingoing with FOREDOES), but that goal started to seem a little bit less distant as Bryan swiftly rebounded for a big 457-302 win over Dennis Lloyd in round two (bingoing with SLITHER and FLEETER). Bryan continued to demolish all foes when he (metaphorically) clobbered Steve Hartsman, 485-268, finding REIFIES and STADDLE. Going up against the 3-0 Andy Bohnsack in the final round, Bryan pulled off his best game of the night, scoring 536 against Andy's not-too-shabby 450 and hitting a triple-triple of UNRESTED for 131 for his fifth triple-triple of the year.

2nd Andy Bohnsack went 3-1 +89, beating third-place finisher Lynda Finn by just thirteen spread points. He began with a 447-403 win vs. Richard Lauder where Andy's CAROTENE and GROUSED were parried by Richard's NAPERIES and TOTALING. Andy also fought off Dave Kinzer in a lower-scoring 400-355 match; Andy's bingo-crazed play-style was slightly tempered, as he only got POTENTLY to Dave's GUIDING (POTENTLY was sadly not extended to OMNIPOTENTLY). A 433-347 win over Lynda Finn (playing LEARIEST and STAINED) set up Andy well for an undefeated night, but he ran against Bryan Benwitz in the final game and lost 450-536. That 450 losing score was his highest score of the night, which feels at least moderately notable. More notably, it also completed some kind of "triangle of defeat" as 3-1 finishers Andy, Bryan, and Lynda only lost to each other. Most notably, Andy's 3-1 finish gives him a .1% lead in the yearly standings...will the club crown a non-Reinke, non-Benwitz champion?

3rd Lynda Finn went 3-1 +76, leaving her desperately checking her scoresheets for misscored plays that would give her sufficient scoring oomph to propel her to second place. Or, more likely, the scoresheets have been repurposed for catching bird poop. Lynda started strong with a 445-392 win against Bryan Benwitz, where her nice find of HELLERIS (a fish) was joined by Richard's later plays of EELPOUT (a fish) and SAUGERS (plural of a fish) to make for a very fishy evening. The fish theme was not built upon when Lynda beat Steve Hartsman 433-337; her bingos of HONESTY, THRONED, and NARGILE were apparently played with no consideration towards thematic cohesion. After a 347-433 loss to Andy Bohnsack, Lynda picked up a high-scoring win against Charles Reinke, 468-455. Charles had FRONTALS, LEARNING, and CALENDAR, but Lynda fought back with EMERITAE, SOBERED, and OCTAVES.

4th Mark Kenas enjoyed a 3-1 -46 record, which is pretty good when your lexicon of choice (Collins) limits you to playing nobody but Reinkes night in and night out.

We were joined by new player Ari, who perservered through a tough first game against top expert Thomas Reinke to play a total of three bingos in his three games and even win a game, 391-280 against Dave Kinzer.

Also notable was Charles' 203-point triple-triple of IODIZERS, contributing to a winning score of 594 against Mark Kenas. IODIZERS is the year's second-highest scoring bingo (Bryan's SPEEDWAY for 213 is tops) and 594 is the year's third-highest scoring game.