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1st Charles Reinke brought his current win streak to twelve games, thanks to a flawless 4-0 +366 record. All his games were won by margins over 100 points except his first one, a close 440-428 bout with Mark Kenas. The two players were evenly matched in bingos, with Charles getting FENLANDS and DECLAIM against Mark's TITANOUS and OVERWET. A rematch, which was supposed to be vengeance for Mark, ended up being a comfortable 417-294 win as the planned vengeance failed to materialize. Mark did find a nine-letter ELECTRONS to make himself feel a bit better. Charles also enjoyed a big win against Bryan Benwitz, 498-390, thanks to three bingos of DOILIES, MISTRIAL, and ELUATES. Perfection was attained against Sara McLaughlin, as Charles' finds of SPITTED and BLISTER carried him to a 475-352 victory.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged 472 points per game, but the aforementioned loss to Charles left him in second place with a 3-1 +362 record. He began by defeating Sara McLaughlin, 470-331, a lopsided score despite the fact that both players had two bingos (Bryan: POSTERNS and LENITES; Sara: STANDEE and GREMLIN). Losing to Charles in round two caused Bryan to focus all his animosity towards the other Reinke, and the result was a stark blowout in Bryan's favor, 568-317. Thomas did play one bingo of SPEARGUN, but drowned underneath Bryan's unstoppable tsunami of bingoage, which consisted of YAUTIAS, UNCARING, PREFIGHT, and LARIATED. Bryan finished his night by taking a win off the 3-0 Richard Lauder, 461-381, undoubtedly thinking that if his own 4-0 was going to be spoiled, he might as well try to spoil somebody else's.

3rd Richard Lauder looked poised to go undefeated, but a late loss to Bryan meant that Richard has to be content with his 3-1 +186 record. He barely averted an upset loss in round one when he took on Sue Goldstein; his bingo of AEROSAT certainly helped him hang on to a 342-324 victory. Against Francesca Lazio, bingos of VAUNTING and STEAMIER helped him get back on track with a 455-315 win. Francesca had CARTOONS to keep things respectable. A 410-302 win over Helen Flores followed, and Richard again demonstrated his bingo-finding ability with PROOFED and STRIVEN. The bingoing continued in the final game against Bryan, with Richard getting GRASSED and GARRISON, but he didn't quite have enough scoring punch to overcome Bryan's high-scoring ways, and the game ended 461-381 in Bryan's favor.

1st Charles Reinke reigned supreme with a pristine 5-0 +642 record and a per-game average of 467. Beating Sara McLaughlin by a score of 445-252 in round one was a good way to start the evening. That momentum directly transferred into the second round, where Charles eclipsed the 500-point barrier in both games of a two-on-one; 502-307 was the score against Richard Lauder, thanks to bingos of LENTOIDS, GREASING, and SWITCHER. 511-445 was the score against Mark Kenas, and Charles had another three bingos proudly adorning his scoresheet: UREDINE#, GEOCODED#, and ENNOBLES. Round three saw a welcome win against Bryan Benwitz, 422-349, and then the undefeated night was secured in a 456-338 rematch against Mark which featured Charles' 97-point find of CONELRAD. A CONELRAD is a type of warning system that was used during the Cold War, standing for CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation.

2nd Lynda Finn completely reversed her unfortunate 1-3 record last week to finish 4-1 +559. Her game average of 457 was also a large improvement over the previous week's 391, although, if one digs back through the bountiful archives of club statistics, we find that she was still somewhat short of the 478 she averaged on April 13, 2016! It wasn't a good start for Lynda as she lost her first game of the night, 412-434 vs. Richard Lauder (who had WORSENED, PIOLETS, and DIVOTING* against Lynda's TACRINE). However, Lynda's fortunes quickly changed as she dropped four bingos (KNOTTERS, RESTORAL, AGNATES, and STAGIER) in a masterful 504-300 win against Beth Amos. The bingo assault only slightly slowed when Lynda faced off against Karl Armstrong; she played FATTIES, RADIATED, and REQUEST to waltz into a 471-387 win. The finishing touch was a two-on-one match against husband-wife pair John and Wendy Bialek; both games were decisively taken by Lynda, 415-315 vs. John and 484-291 vs. Wendy.

3rd Thomas Reinke's 4-1 record matched Lynda's, but his +187 cumulative point spread was nowhere near enough, relegating him to a respectable third-place finish. Thomas played his customary two-game Collins-lexicon match against Mark Kenas, and while the first game was a favorable result for him, 457-362, the rematch was anything but, with Thomas getting his clocks cleaned, 303-503. Thomas did not bingo in that one (a rare occurrence for him, even more rare when playing with the larger Collins list), while Mark had DECENTER, UPROARS, and TOEIEST#. It's worth noting that DECENTER is defined both as a verb (DECENTERS, DECENTERED, and DECENTERING are all good) and as a comparatve (meaning DECENTEST is a word as well). Thomas did regain his bingoing mojo at the end of the night, playing SANDING, GENERAL, NOCTUIDS, and SPONGER en route to a 518-374 win against John Bialek, then immediately playing four more bingos (ROADEOS, SEMIOTIC, PANELED, and IONOMER) while beating Bryan Benwitz 499-385.

Also of note was the 592-point game Bryan Benwitz had against Helen Flores, achieved with "just" four bingos: PAYMENTS, SABOTAGE, RAGWORTS, and a 118-point TOXEMIAS.

We welcomed newcomer Ryan Sinner to our ranks, and while he did not win a game (the skill level of our club means new players rarely do), he did find a bingo of TRUSTEES against Dave Kinzer!

1st Dave Kinzer only stayed for three games, but fortune smiled on him, and there were no 4-0 finishers to displace him from the top spot in the nightly standings with his 3-0 +315 record. He started things off with a bingoless 328-187 win over second-timer Cooper. In the next game against Lynda Finn, he withstood Lynda's dubious (and somewhat inappropriate) phony of BONERING* (the only bingo played against Dave the entire night) to win 383-328. His bingo of STAINERS ensured that there was at least one valid play on the board. The upward trend continued as Dave broke through the 400-point barrier with a 404-285 win over Sue Goldstein. Then the wise decision was made to depart after three games, guaranteeing Dave's undefeated record and presciently securing the coveted first paragraph of the writeup.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged 449 points per game on his way to a 3-1 +369 record. He got his best game out of the way promptly with a convincing 499-267 win against Richard Lauder. Richard's 80-point bingo of USELESS prevented his score from remaining in truly tragic territory, but Thomas outgunned him with LINURON, HARVEST, and LAUWINE. Sadly, Thomas' ever-present hopes of an undefeated evening were quickly stomped out in round two, with a 409-421 loss to Mark Kenas. Thomas got down GREENLIT and GUMLINE to Mark's VANQUISH and FROWNERS. A 430-393 win over Lynda Finn followed, a win snatched from ultimate adversity, that adversity being the fact that Lynda bingoed twice (ENTASIA, ANTIHERO) while Thomas only bingoed once (STARING). To finish the night, Thomas got revenge against Mark Kenas, winning handily by a score of 457-345 thanks to LOADERS and AURELIAN#.

3rd Bryan Benwitz shook off a first-round loss to finish 3-1 +48. That initial loss was to none other than Karl Amstrong in a high-scoring slugfest, 466-469. Bryan had three bbingos of UNDERDOG, HEARINGS, and AMENTIA, while Karl had GELLING and QUIETEST. Karl now owns a 2-0 lifetime record against Bryan, something that Bryan will surely look to rectify in future encounters. He recovered, but just barely, against Charles Reinke, prevailing in a close match 430-423 thanks to TAUTENED, SEDATING, and ROUTEMAN. Bryan's frenzied bingo pace slowed down in the next two games, but they were both wins, which is the stat that truly matters in the end. Bryan vanquished Richard Lauder 434-394 with the help of his three-R TORRIDER, then took another close win, this one against Lynda Finn, 371-367. Both players in that one had a chance to display a small subset of their high-probability sevens knowledge, Bryan playing EUGENIA and Lynda playing ACONITE.

Sara's fancy find of FUTURIST was word of the week.