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1st Charles Reinke was the only undefeated with a 4-0 record and a smaller-than-usual +118 spread. He started off with a close 403-387 win over Lynda Finn, getting down ALLUSION while Lynda got PLUNGER and VOYAGERS. In round two, a brotherly brawl against Thomas Reinke was adorned exclusively with Collins-only bingos: Charles had FILANDER# vs. Thomas' THULITES# and GRAINES#. It was a low-scoring game by Collins standards, but still a win for Charles, 396-365. The brotherly brawl part 2 was also close, but much higher scoring, with Charles winning 514-480. Charles' triple-triple of PINACOID# for 149 supplemented his non triple-triples of ENCORED and SEMIOVAL. A 444-407 win versus Bryan Benwitz rounded out Charles' healthy collection of victories.

2nd Richard Lauder showed true grit in coming back from a rough patch of games (2-10 combined in the three sessions previous) to finish 3-1 +206. The night started on a sour note with a 311-460 walloping at the hands of Dave Kinzer. Dave got down BATTENS and SCURRIED, while Richard has UNDERLAP to drag himself above 300. Happily, Richard's fortunes abruptly changed in round two, as he wiped the floor with Helen Flores, playing HOARILY and SAVINES in a 466-306 win. Against Thomas Reinke, Richard found DERIDING and FURRIEST to secure a nailbiting one-point victory, 422-421. Richard was steadfastly unimpressed by Thomas' ultra-high-probability seven-letter plays of SIENITE and ATONIES. Richard finished his strong performance with a lopsided 488-294 win over Francesca Lazio. Richard's four decades of accumulated Scrabble wisdom probably helped, but bingos of BETHELS, OMERTAS, and OFTENER didn't hurt either.

3rd Sara McLaughlin went 3-1 for the third time in five sessions, this time with a +157 spread and a solid 390 average. She played an ever-coveted Q bingo, QUARTILE for 71, in her first round matchup against Sue Goldstein, and won 370-323. Facing off against Francesca Lazio, Sara found PIONEERS and FAINTLY to take a comfortable 424-331 win (Francesca got REMAINS in the losing effort). But true dominance was reserved for round three, where Sara smacked down John Bialek by a score of 477-293, playing another two bingos in the process (DONATED and SHIFTER). Perfection in the form of a 4-0 record was cruelly snatched away when Bryan Benwitz beat her in the last round, 289-456.

Also of note was David Kinzers, 2-1 +224 record, which should have been 3-0 had it not been for a scoring error in round two which was not noticed until the final scores had been tabulated and agreed upon. This writer supposes that some sort of precedent was set by ruling that the scores written down on the players' scorecards were indeed the final scores of the game.

1st Andy Bohnsack made a rare second-straight-week appearance and dominated, going 4-0 +408 with a 463 per-game average. His point totals only went up as the night went along, which bodes poorly for whoever has to play him next time she shows up (assuming the upward trend continues). Andy's first game was a 426-356 win over John Bialek, where the appropriate OUTDUEL was played by the victor, in addition to TARRING. Two more bingos, ORANGES and BLASTERS, propelled Andy to a 441-362 win against Bryan Benwitz. Andy's biggest win came against Charles Reinke, a 492-338 obliteration, and he then wrapped up his perfect performance by playing four bingos (SCANTIER, REPOSITS, IDEALLY, FOLDOVER*) against Dennis Lloyd in a 493-388 victory.

2nd Charles Reinke finished with a 4-1 +124 record, the only hiccup being the clobbering he received from Andy Bohnsack in round three. Playing two players at once in the first round, Charles narrowly escaped with wins against Dennis Lloyd and Lynda Finn, coincidentally winning each game by sixteen points (421-405 vs. Lynda, 439-423 vs. Dennis). Among the highlights was Charles' 56-point ATTRITED, the lowest possible score for an eight-letter bingo (assuming that one is counting one's plays accurately). Charles upped his margin of victory to decidedly comfortable levels when he beat Thomas Reinke 572-396 in round two, getting down bingos of BRONDES#, ROTATION, and MISFIRED. For his fourth and final win, Charles prevailed against Bryan Benwitz, 435-365, playing ABATORS and SHOELACE to Bryan's SPUMONES and RIDLEYS.

3rd Helen Flores went 3-1, but her one loss was large enough to leave her point spread in the negatives at -26. She started off with a bingoless 371-350 win against Richard Lauder, who played PASTERN and SACARINE* in his losing effort (SACCHARINE is the correct spelling, but unlikely to ever get played as a ten-letter word). More phonies, this time provided by Helen, were in store when she beat Wendy Bialek 400-295 with the aid of RADIATER* (only RADIATOR) as well as the valid RETAINS. A 348-521 loss to Thomas Reinke was the definitive blow which would keep Helen out of the top spot in the nightly standings, but she recovered to beat Sue Goldstein in the final game, 326-305.

Thomas' 167-point OBTUSITY was word of the week, played in a 623-386 win against Lynda Finn.

1st Charles Reinke's 3-1 +330 record was good enough in a field where no player went undefeated. He had a bit of a rough start when his first-round matchup against Mark Kenas resulted in a 429-443 defeat; he found OSTRAKON as his only bingo (can also be spelled OSTRACON), while Mark had a pair of high-probability sevens, VASTIER and STANDEE. In round two, Charles withstood three bingos from Ron Malzer (SLANDER, AUTHORS, and STAINERS) to secure a 438-409 victory. Following that tough win, a redo against Mark Kenas resulted in a significantly better outcome for Charles than their first go-around, with Charles taking a decisive 537-361 win thanks to bingos of BEARPAW, SLEEPER, and REFUTED. Charles then closed out the night with a win over the 3-0 Bryan Benwitz, 491-352. Again, Charles three bingos (TAENIAS, TOLLAGES, FUNSTER) were crucial to his triumph.

2nd Lynda Finn came off a strong performance at the previous weekend's Greeneye tournament in Minnesota to finish at 3-1 +149. Like Charles above, Lynda suffered defeat in round one, taken down by Richard Lauder 381-448. Richard flexed his bingo knowledge with DELETION, PEDALOS, and OUSTERS, while Lynda had INGESTED. Lynda's fortunes turned dramatically in round two as she vaniquished Sara McLaughlin 450-325, getting DEFINITE and OVERFIT as her bonus plays. Two more bingos, RESITES and ETESIAN were in store for Ron Malzer, and Lynda's reward was a prominent W on her (misplaced but later recovered) scoresheet, 397-351. ETESIAN was just played by Lynda last week, and has now been played at our club 44 times since 2011, the most of any single bingo - a true testament to the extreme likelihood of having AEEINST all on your rack at the same time (AIRIEST, EASIEST, ATONIES, and ERASION round out the top five, and we don't hit an eight-letter word until AERATION, RELATION, and RETAINER tied for 19th place). Back to the Scrabble action, Lynda finished her night (and secured her spot in the writeup) with a 407-362 win against Dennis Lloyd, despite getting outbingoed two to one (Lynda's DISCORD vs. Dennis' ALIENIST and word-of-the-week SUAVITY).

3rd Bryan Benwitz averaged a bit lower than his recent standard with "just" 430 per game, but finished at 3-1 +105 regardless. He got his big score out of the way early when he clobbered Dennis Lloyd 480-321. Both players had two bingos (Bryan: BOOTEES, BORNITIC; Dennis: LEERIEST, SCIMITAR), so the large gulf in scores must be explainable by some other point-scoring mechanism. Bryan slowed things down a bit with a smaller, but still solid, 429-364 victory over Richard Lauder, where the odd-looking LUNGEING was one of Bryan's two bingos (the other being LATERIZE), and a natural ASSHATS on Richard's rack was sadly not played, to the dismay of juvenile humorists everwhere. Bryan improved to 3-0 with a 457-437 win over Thomas Reinke; Thomas' 131-point COZIEST wasn't quite enough, although it might have been if he hadn't allowed Bryan to get away with ENRAGER*. A perfect 4-0 was prevented by Charles Reinke, who enacted some sort of twin-based revenge on Bryan to hand him a 352-491 loss.

As mentioned earlier, Dennis' SUAVITY was word of the week, but Sara's VITREOUS, Dennis' SCIMITAR, and Charles' BEARPAW, among others, were all candidates.