1st Thomas Reinke went 3-1-1 +304, snagging first place in a smaller-than-usual group of eight players. He started with a comfortable win over Helen Flores, 406-329, then immediately dropped a game to Charles Reinke despite three bingos (MISCHIEF, GASOLENE, MODERATO) and a 458 score - Charles' 530 points proved insurmountable, and his triple-triple of ANSWERER for 156 was icing on the proverbial cake. Thomas then (somewhat) reversed his recent losing streak against Bryan Benwitz by recording a 405-405 tie, the second tie in the club in as many weeks after a months-long drought of deadlocked games. Thomas played the happy bingo FRIENDS while Bryan's bingo list didn't have any particular emotional character: RETINUE, OOMIACS, and REWARDED. In the final round, Thomas exacted revenge on his brother in astounding fashion, playing four bingos (TINNERS, ELOQUENT, DEADLOCK, TAPETUM) and scoring 601 (to his brother's 458) for his fourth 600-point game of the year. At the same time, Thomas handily bested Sara McLaughlin 479-323, adding three more bingos to his overstuffed bingo list: MAHOUTS, SANTERAS, and WILLIES.
2nd Charles Reinke averaged a nice even 500 points per game while going 3-1 +266. A first-round victory against Bryan Benwitz, 462-405, was fueled by finds of HEAVENLY and COTTONS. Bryan had PROMOTES, MISDRAW, and the plausible-but-phony PINNINGS* for his bingos. A previously-reported 530-458 win over Thomas Reinke meant that round two was a success for Charles, and that success continued to flow with a huge 549-269 win against Richard Lauder. Richard did bingo twice with STEERERS and SOPRANI, while Charles got down DHARNAS, ADDENDA, and UNFAIRER. Sadly, Charles' perfect evening was ruined spectacularly by a 458-601 rematch loss to Thomas.
Of note was Dennis Lloyd's 533-319 win over Helen Flores which saw him set a new personal best with five bingos: STEROID, ENABLERS, METEORS, DONATING, and GUARDING.
1st Bryan Benwitz repeated as top finisher with his not-quite-perfect-but-still-perfectly-sufficient 3-1 +228 record. A 486-306 win over Helen Flores in the first round was a good start, aided by bingos of OUTLETS, UNTWINED, and ANTISMUT (Helen had OUTVIES on her end). Bryan played three more bingos while beating Ron Malzer 418-317, but the win was tarnished by Bryan's phony OVERSPUN, which was a reasonable attempt given that OVERSPIN is a word. Sadly, OVERSPIN isn't a verb, but a noun describing a type of spin you would put on a ball. At this point in the night, Bryan was one game away from attaining another ten-game winning streak, but his hopes were mercilessly crushed as he was stomped by Lynda Finn, 301-487. Lynda also put a stop to Bryan's recent 14-game streak, meaning that Lynda now officially has a reputation as a "Bryan stopper". Putting that loss behind him, Bryan started on his newest winning streak by winning big against Dennis Lloyd, 530-397, this time playing four bingos: ABSINTHE, DIGITALS, FEIGNED, and DUNGAREE.
2nd Charles Reinke was involved with the first tie game of the club season, finishing 3-1-1 +200 and placing in second due to a ranking algorithm that apparently looks only at wins (some ranking algorithms would give Charles 3.5, with a tie counting as .5 wins). The tie game was a 430-430 affair against Mark Kenas, where Charles had BAPTISE and DISAGREE, while Mark had TRIUNES (one "three-themed" bingo), TRICORNE (two "three-themed" bingos), and RANZELS# (dang it). This tie was partial revenge for Charles' earlier 438-474 loss to Mark, where Mark's 128-point 3x3 of MONETISE was just too much damage to overcome, despite Charles' KALEWIFE, ANIMATER, and ARRASENE#. Charles' big game was a 476-388 win over Thomas Reinke, where Thomas struck with some Collins-only bingos (TUNIEST#, RENDANG#) and Charles added one of his own (SYNEDRIA#, FAILURES, PARANOEA). Charles finished with well-fought wins against Dennis Lloyd, 431-385, and Lynda Finn, 475-373.
3rd Ron Malzer finished at 3-1 +12. He started strong with a 399-355 victory over Lynda Finn, playing the word SEXTING in direct defiance of Bryan's ANTISMUT, which was played in the same round. Ron's defiance of Bryan would be short lived as he would lose to Bryan in the very next round, 317-418. Things turned around in round three as Ron continued his unbeaten lifetime record against Dave Kinzer, now at 4-0, with a 426-354 victory. Ron bingoed with UNERASED and the phony STRIDED* (STRODE or STRIDDEN would be the valid past tenses of STRIDE). Ron's third and final win came against Richard Lauder, and with as little leeway as is possible in a game where the point values are all integers; the final tally was 383-382, with each player getting one bingo (COWRITE for Ron, CRAWLED for Richard).
Despite being out of the top three, Thomas Reinke set a probable club record by bingoing a whopping 19 times in five games. He had two games where he bingoed five times, and he added word-of-the-week WHITLOWS to his pile of accolades.
1st Bryan Benwitz, despite an arrival that can only be characterized as "damp" (bordering on "waterlogged"), overcame various forms of adversity to finish at 4-0 +636 with a stratospheric 491 per-game average. None of his games were decided by less than 100 points. His "worst" game occurred in round one when he scored "only" 441 points and "only" got one bingo, SIGNETS, in a 441-311 win against Sara McLaughlin. Round two saw improvement in every facet as he beat Richard Lauder 535-380; Bryan bingoed with NUTSIER and TROLAND, while Richard had CLEAROUT and STRONGER. Bryan then trounced Thomas Reinke, 520-309, getting down an assortment of high-probability bingos: DIATRON, THEBAINE, and SORTIES. Three more bingos (OUTRACES, LEPROSE, VIOLATOR) in a 466-326 victory against Dennis Lloyd ensured Bryan's rightful spot at the tippy-top of the night's standings.
2nd Charles Reinke finished 3-2 +443, well back of Bryan's 4-0 but well ahead of the other 3-2 finisher. Charles had a nice start against Mark Kenas, finding TEASING and OXCARTS (vs. Mark's BRATTLED and RIGIDEST) to take a 440-381 win. The bingos temporarily dried up in a game against Thomas Reinke, and Charles had to watch his opponent's PREENACT, CONATUS, and RUBIFIES# hit the board in a 348-426 loss. Charles then lost the traditional Mark Kenas rematch, 400-469, despite some common seven-letter finds of NIOBATE and TERRANE (fun fact: NIOBATE hasn't been played at club since 2014, despite being #71 in the list of probable seven-letter words). Charles gained some spread when he took Richard Lauder to the metaphorical cleaners, 562-190, and gained another sizable chunk of spread by defeating Lynda Finn 438-279.
3rd Thomas Reinke finished an identical 3-2, but with a -106 point spread, was far back from the silver medal. He started with a close contest against Lynda Finn, where being outbingoed (AUXESIS against BANDAGES + ENDANGER) didn't stop him from taking a 405-387 victory. A tough two-on-one match against Charles Reinke and Mark Kenas was partially successful, with Thomas taking one game (beating Charles 426-348) while dropping the other (391-490 against Mark). Clearly in a vulnerable position after having expended so much brain power, Thomas lost to the Bryan Benwitz (who apparently was facing no shortage of brain power, being as he is the Bryaniac) 309-520. A winning record was salvaged when Thomas held Mark bingoless in a 475-367 rematch, finding ABSENTEE, PANDANI, and STOODEN# in the process.
Sara's nifty find of OTITISES was word of the week. Strangely, the letters EIIOSSTT make another eight-letter word: OSTEITIS.
Wednesday, August 5:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, August 12:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, August 19:
Scrabble at Misty Mountain Games
Wednesday, August 26:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Club Results 7/29
Posted 7/31/2026
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Posted 7/24/2026
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Posted 7/17/2026
Club Results 7/8
Posted 7/10/2026