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1st Bryan Benwitz re-established his supremacy with a pristine 4-0 record and a +474 spread total that put him way ahead of all competition. He started with a nice 493-378 win against Dave Kinzer in the first round, but his scores kept getting smaller as the session progressed, so there is hope that the trend will continue and that, in roughly one month, Bryan will be scoring in the low 200s and it will be possible to beat him. Until then, however, the writeups will be filled with descriptions of Bryan's victories. In round two, Bryan got down three bingos (STEADIER, TRINKETS, VISUALS) while dispatching Dennis Lloyd 481-326, then played another three bingos to vanquish Thomas Reinke, 472-338. Perfection was secured when Bryan, yet again, played three bingos (VENUSES, RUGOLAS, and TRAILING) in a 433-363 win over Richard Lauder. All told, Bryan's opponents played just one bingo against him (Dave's TILAPIA), so maybe next week we should all try extra hard to find bingos when playing against Bryan.

2nd Richard Lauder turned his 1-3 record from last week into a 3-1 +185 record this week, good for second place. He started off with a comfortable 415-308 win against Sara McLaughlin, where the only bingo on the board was the phony HANSELD*. HANSELED and HANDSEL are probably the words Richard was thinking of there. Richard then got a win against Jane Wesson, 384-342, with his bingo of AROINTS matching Jane's OUTLINE. A third and final win was scored against Dennis Lloyd, 473-367, where Richard's bingo of TEMERITY was initially misspelled (and challenged off) before being redeployed on the board for a nice score. A bingoless 363-433 loss to Bryan Benwitz sadly dashed Richard's hopes of attaining the elusive 4-0 record.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +67 record. He pummeled Lynda Finn in the first game by a score of 456-273. Lynda did get one bingo of ALIENERS, but Thomas had three: OCREATE, PODIATRY, and BIOPLASM. He then took on Mark Kenas in a Collins-lexicon game, utilizing the CSW-only SEARATS# (in addition to WISTERIA and ORPINES) to take a 437-426 victory. A later rematch was even closer, with Thomas eking out a 445-438 win thanks to AIRBOUND and LAITIES (Mark got OUTGIVE and SPENDER). However, Thomas' zero bingos against Bryan Benwitz doomed him in their encounter, and he lost 338-472.

1st Dennis Lloyd dethroned the tyrannical Reinke-Reinke-Benwitz triarchy with his flawless 4-0 +294 record. Arriving too late to play in round one, Dennis made up for lost time by playing as the "one" in a two-on-one match in the second round. Squaring off against Sue Goldstein and Helen Flores, he won both games comfortably: 336-265 against Sue, thanks to a bingo of NAIVETE for 93 points, and 388-311 against Helen, thanks to PASTRIES and RESENTS. Dennis followed that up with his sole 400-point game of the night, 410-272 against newcomer Jane Wesson, a game which featured two bingos from Dennis' side, SHAFTED and READIES. To cap off his immaculate night of Scrabble supremacy, Dennis went up against regular opponent Richard Lauder and squeaked out a close 8-point win in a low-scoring game, 343-335. Dennis has now won four in a row against Richard, but Richard still comfortably owns the lifetime series; Dennis would need to win the next seven to even things up. Easy!

2nd Charles Reinke faced a tough lineup of opponents but emerged from the ordeal (relatively) unscathed, finishing at 4-1 +353. Undertaking the challenge of playing two players at once in the first round, he split his games, winning big against Thomas Reinke 540-406 but losing to Mark Kenas 416-442. Both games ended with six total bingos on the board, demonstrating the kind of bingo bounty that is almost commonplace when playing with the expansive Collins lexicon. Charles' bingos were EVILNESS, ADULATE, INTROITS, and PENTITO# against Thomas; FIRETRAP, LICENSOR, and REMAILER against Mark. With the loss out of the way, Charles went on to win his next three, starting with a 428-340 win against Lynda Finn, despite her shoutout bingo of LAUDERS. A 419-374 revenge win against Mark gave Charles momentum heading into the final round, where he collided with Bryan Benwitz and stifled the usually high-scoring Bryaniac 411-299. Both Charles and Bryan average over two bingos per game, but each played just one in their matchup: IDEATES for Bryan, TONNAGES for Charles.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +15, averaging a nice 454 per game but giving up 451 per game in response. It was a slow start for Thomas as he was pounded in round one, 406-540 against fraternal enemy Charles Reinke. The following game, against Mark Kenas, was also a big loss, 444-542. In that one, Mark got down four bingos (SHITTIER, SALPIAN, ALUMINES, UNCURSED) while Thomas had "just" three (NAARTJIE#, REBOILED, UNPERSON). Things turned around when Thomas played a two-on-one match against Lynda Finn and Richard Lauder; Thomas had three bingos in each game, and won them both, 453-364 vs. Lynda and 494-433 vs. Richard. A rematch against Mark Kenas in the final round saw Thomas unflinchingly play, and get away with, the phony TELEVIZE* (can only be spelled TELEVISE for some reason) en route to a 472-375 victory. Thomas' valid bingos were RENTERS and VELOUTE, while Mark found word of the week CALAMARI as well as TUNDRAS.

We welcomed first-timer Jane Wesson to the club. Her first game was a 372-297 win over Sara McLaughlin, buoyed by a bingo of ABILITY for 65 points - a good portent for future success!

1st Bryan Benwitz claimed hte undisputed top spot in a field of fourteen players, going 4-0 +317. He saved the bulk of his scoring punch for a second-round match against Beth Amos, where he won by a score of 510 to 344. Beth fought valiantly with bingos of CANDIES and STRIATED, but Bryan one-upped her with RALPHED, ONSTREAM, and VOLTAGE. Bryan then went on to face both Reinkes in succession and held them both under 400 points, a rare feat that of course resulted in two victories and a guarantee of an undefeated night. He won 402-383 against Thomas Reinke in a match that saw some well-balanced bingo action (LOANEES and CRADLED vs. BRUNETS, ARTISTES). Then, in the fourth-round clincher, he fought to a (relatively) low-scoring 404-345 win against Charles Reinke, where each player anomalously bingoed only one time: OPIATES for Bryan, VIBRATES for Charles.

Co-2nd Helen Flores went 3-1 +44, exactly tying the record of another player with whom she will share second place. She got her loss out of the way quickly, falling to Thomas Reinke in round one, 497-343, despite a find of HINTERS with two blanks. Things soon turned around for Helen as she went up against the husband-wife tandem of John and Wendy Bialek, winning both games with relative ease, 386-337 against John and 393-297 against Wendy. Helen's spot in the writeup was secured when she faced off against Ron Malzer in the final round of the evening and scored another comfortable win, 409-356. Ron got down a bingo of RENAMES, but Helen flaunted her own bingoing ability with SORDINES and BEARINGS.

Co-2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +44, and is now spending many sleepless nights wondering if even one additional point of spread could have been scrounged up in any of his four games. A veritable bingo bonanza was experienced in round one against Mark Kenas, as Charles played five bingos (ACRONIC, AIRBOUND, FELLATOR, BENDIEST, ESTRAGON) en route to a 519-423 win. Mark also made a significant contribution to the game's bingo list with finds of GRUTCHES, NAIADES, and OVARIES, putting the total number of bingos at eight, which ties a club record. A rematch, which Charles barely won 430-429, saw just half that amount of bingos on the board; MUSTARD, IDEATION, and DIATRETA# were played by Charles, while Mark got down SNOTRAG#. In between those two games, Charles squeaked out another close one, 355-349 against Richard Lauder. Richard's nice play of OPTIONEE (an example of an always-handy five-vowel-eight) was effectively nullified by Charles' higher-scoring ICEBERGS. The previously recapped 345-404 loss to Bryan Benwitz in the fourth-round battle of undefeateds was the only blemish on Charles' record.