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1st Charles Reinke stood at the vanguard of a tough field of 11 competitors with a 4-1 +342 record. He stumbled in round one as he was bested by his brother, Thomas Reinke, by a score of 430-485; in typical Collins fashion, both players had three bingos: UNSTABLE, AREFIES#, and GREISEN from Charles, WAREHOU#, RIPIENI, and RELOANS from Thomas. The pain of the defeat was lessened as Charles was fortunately playing in a two-on-one and easily took the other game, 508-332 vs. Mark Kenas. Charles unleashed four bingos in that one: ACROTER#, NUTGRASS, RAPESEED, and ILEITIS. Charles crested the 500-point mark for a second time when he pummeled Lynda Finn, 525-344, and almost reached it a third time in a high-scoring rematch against Mark Kenas which was another win, 495-461. Charles finally slowed down the scoring (and bingoing) in the culminating matchup against Bryan Benwitz, which ended just barely in Charles' favor, 376-370. Bryan's sole bingo was the low-scoring PERINEA, while Charles was held to a remarkable zero bingos and had to score his points in other ways.

2nd Thomas Reinke missed out on a first-place finish by 17 spread points, going 4-1 +325. Early wins against Charles Reinke (485-430) and Mark Kenas (486-347) got him off to a good start, but problems arose in round three when he took part in a two-on-one against Richard Lauder and Bryan Benwitz. The game against Richard was a relatively painless 484-359 win for Thomas, thanks to bingos of SEMILOG and SERIATE (versus Richard's UTERINE and UNDERATE), but the game against Bryan ended as a 383-412 loss, despite a 104-point play of COAXINGS. Bryan found REWAKED and REVISION in his winning effort. Thomas bounced back for the final round and defeated Mark in a reprise of their round-two encounter, 434-399. Mark found the somewhat topical CORONAE (we hope it becomes less and less topical over time), but was outdone by Thomas' VITALITY and DESPISED (passing up the flashier DEPSIDES).

3rd Helen Flores significantly outperformed her yearly averages with a 3-1 +229 record and a 397 per-game average. She got the closest win of the evening when she squeaked past Dave Kinzer, 362-360. Dave got the only bingo of the game with his find of ENDORSE. Against Richard Lauder, Helen regained her bingoing mojo with REALITY, but Richard's bingos of FINDERS and TRYPSIN proved to be too much firepower, and she lost 366-377. In round three, Helen deployed the stylish two-U bingo of UNCURLED en route to a 414-274 triumph over Sara McLaughlin. The final feather in her proverbial cap was a solid 444-346 win over Ron Malzer, good for her seventh-highest score this year. Ron found the nice WIPEOUTS, while Helen had the more pedestrian RUINING.

4th Bryan Benwitz also went 3-1, with a +50 spread. He is still at the top of the club standings with one week to go in the year, but Thomas is still in striking distance if things go his way. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion to the 2023 Madison Scrabble Club season.

1st Bryan Benwitz continued his run towards the club championship with a sparkling 4-0 +261 record. Interestingly, Bryan scored 400 of his games while all of his opponents were held below the mystical 400-point barrier. He began by handing Dave Kinzer his only loss, 419-361, with bingos of REMITTED and PAINCHES (Dave had UNLOADED). Next, he dueled against John Bialek; each player bingoed exactly one time (John's PLUNGES vs. Bryan's DEIFIES) and it ended up being Bryan's win, 409-350. Relishing the chance to spoil other players' chances at a perfect night, Bryan prevailed over the otherwise-undefeated Beth Amos, 412-339, despite getting outbingoed (a sole ESPARTOS for Bryan; CORNERED and DESTINE for Beth). The final round saw Bryan defeat his primary foe, Thomas Reinke, 440-369, this time getting three bingos: AVIATOR, STENTOR, and the phony CABESTRA*. CABRESTA, CABRESTO, and CABESTRO are all valid words, so it's easy to see how Bryan slipped up on that one.

2nd Beth Amos finished 3-1, with her +160 spread putting her slightly ahead of the third-place finisher. Fresh off yet another successfully published novel, Beth reached deep into her bag of creativity and pulled out the phony BAGLESS* in a 443-392 win over Charles Reinke, who played LEGATINE, RENATURE, and a nine-letter TREENAILS. Beth restrained herself in the following games, playing only valid words, including ENTICED and PUNIEST against Lynda Finn in a 395-357 triumph. The aforementioned loss against Bryan Benwitz was the only blemish on her scorecard, but she shook off the loss and walloped Dennis Lloyd in the final game, 428-284. It was only fair considering that their most recent encounter was a severe walloping in the other direction. Beth's bingos in that one were LISTERS, REHANGED, and TAUNTING.

3rd Sara McLaughlin reversed last week's 1-3 record to go 3-1 this week with a +106 spread. She got off to a rocky start when John Bialek defeated her 367-333 in the first round, but the next three games saw her turn back any who were foolish enough to challenge her dominance. Against Helen Flores, Sara won 385-329, thanks to a find of BOONIES. Perhaps as some misguided form of revenge for what happened in round one, Sara beat Wendy Bialek in round three, 368-315, adding SONNETS to her list of bingos. Against Lynda Finn in round four, Sara countered her opponent's EJECTOR with her own find of MEALIEST, and was victorious 388-357.

1st Thomas Reinke repeated last week's first place finish, again going 4-1 with a +237 spread. A typical Collins-fueled bingo bonanza occurred in round two as Thomas played seven bingos across two games: TORQUING, ENISLED, URBANISE, ATTICIZE, FERMENTS, BRAWNIER, and REMUAGES#. However, only one of those games was a win, a 495-387 victory over lifelong adversary Charles Reinke. The other was a 422-540 loss to Mark Kenas, who had three bingos of his own: TRINARY, OTARINE# (the highest-probability seven letter word in the Collins dictionary), and PLEXUSES for 119. Thomas got his revenge in a rematch against Mark, 504-477, again with both players getting three bingos, which will be listed here even though that amount of bingos is somewhat tedious to type out: DENTILS, RORTIEST#, and SUDARIA for Thomas; EDICTAL, GRANTED, and HIPBONES for Mark. A 527-316 win over Richard Lauder saw Thomas get down a 140-point 3x3 of RELAPSED, after which the rest of the game became a formality. Helen Flores was significantly closer to beating Thomas, losing 370-379. While it is always unethical to "accidentally" make a math error to give yourself ten extra points, in this case Helen would have been justified in attempting such a strategy.

2nd Bryan Benwitz didn't score below 400 in any of his games as he finished at 3-1 +445. Squaring off against John Bialek in round one, Bryan won handily, 484-297, assisted by a valid bingo of ESERINES and an invalid bingo of MUTATERS* (MUTATORS was the word he was going for). Similar success was found against Dennis Lloyd, although this time, both of Bryan's bingos were valid (TRIODES and YEANLING) in his 492-315 win. Another hefty, but not quite as hefty, victory was scored against Dave Kinzer, 437-335. Bryan celebrated Valentine's Day a couple months early with his single bingo of ROMANCE, while Dave got down SPOILING. Sitting at 3-0, Bryan seemed poised to put another 4-0 trophy on his trophy shelf (note: both the trophy and the trophy shelf are metaphorical), but it was not to be; Charles defeated him 427-406 thanks to finds of LINEAGES, RHEOSTAT, and the phony-but-plausible WOKENESS*. WOKER and WOKEST were recent additions to the dictionary, but apparently not WOKENESS.

3rd Dennis Lloyd recovered from his "perfect" 0-5 record last week to go 3-1 +175 this week. It was quickly apparent that his fortunes had changed on this night, as his first game was a 531-338 beatdown administered to Beth Amos, good for Dennis' second-highest scoring game this year. His bingos were HOVERED, SEXTANT, GINGERS, and BETRAYED, and that bingo total of four matches a personal best for Dennis at our club. As punishment for his success against Beth, Dennis lost to Bryan Benwitz 315-492 in the next round, but he got back on track quickly with a win over Wendy Bialek, 428-306. Wendy got down STONERS, while Dennis played ATOMISED and the phony OUTLEAN*, a word which brings to mind another phony that has been attempted out of that set of letters, TOLUANE* (please don't commit that one to memory). Dennis finished up his third-place effort with a bingoless 352-315 win against Richard Lauder.

Mark's nine-letter CANONICAL was word of the week. A valuable learning experience was had by all when an S was hooked on it and a challenge was unsuccessful. CANONICALS is a noun meaning "the official dress of the clergy".