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1st Bryan Benwitz found himself at the top of the heap with a 3-1 +242 record on a night where only three out of ten players ended with a positive point spread. Bryan dominated his first two games, beating John Bialek 434-274 in round one and then felling Dave Kinzer 461-307 immediately after. INDURATE, ENDNOTE, CASTERS, and NEURITIC were his bingos in those games. He got his comeuppance when Thomas Reinke flattened him in round three, 518-392, but Bryan came back strong against the other Reinke, playing DILLWEED, NEONATES, and SOLVATE en route to a 461-407 win over Charles.

2nd Mark Kenas ran the Reinke gauntlet as he does every week, but came through it relatively unscathed, going 3-1 +170 in his series of Collins-lexicon games. His high-water mark was against Thomas Reinke, with an easy 481-375 win which saw him play GRECISE#, TARNISH, and ROTUNDS#. An earlier game against Charles Reinke ended in Mark's favor, 468-417, despite losing the bingo battle three to two. One of Charles' bingos there was the Madison-appropriate nine-letter find of BELTLINES, which makes one ponder, how chaotic would Madison traffic be if there was more than one beltline? Mark's only loss was against Charles, 423-441.

3rd Richard Lauder was the third and final player to finish with a 3-1 record, but his woeful -44 spread put him well back of the two other 3-1 finishers. Richard enjoyed success against players surnamed "Bialek", defeating John Bialek 402-308 (with bingos of SWAMPERS and HOLSTER), and then beating Wendy Bialek 391-306 (playing PRESIFTS and HEALABLE). A match against Sara McLaughlin was somewhat low-scoring, but still a win for Richard, 344-318. Sadly, all those wins were negated by a single loss to Thomas Reinke, 240-490, where Richard's bingo of RAINOUTS barely made a dent in Thomas' frightful bingo-driven assault.

1st Charles Reinke sprung back from a 1-3 record the week before to go 4-1 +152. For the second straight week, he was defeated by Sara McLaughlin, this time by a score of 380-449. Charles got the high-probability bingo of SOILAGE, but Sara found LABORING and MERRIEST. Playing in a two-on-one game, Charles managed to beat Mark Kenas 502-437 at the same time he was losing to Sara; his four bingos (PENLITE, RETSINA, VEINULES, and DURATION) certainly helped ease the pain. In the following round, Charles took down Richard Lauder, 422-346, despite losing the bingo battle 1-2 (UNWARIER vs BOATLESS* and REALLOT). Charles matched up against Bryan Benwitz in round four, and prevailed over the undefeated (at that point) Bryan in a tense contest, 437-419, finding SALVOES and IKEBANAS for his bingos.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1-1 (that last "1" being a tie) with a +300 spread total. The tie was a low-scoring 347-347 bout with Helen Flores, where Helen was responsible for the only bingo that appeared on their board, the phony FAKEOUT*. Lynda was playing two games at once when FAKEOUT* went down (she was beating Dennis Lloyd 465-300 at the time), so if she needs an excuse for letting FAKEOUT* by, it was that she was distracted. Lynda alo scored big wins against Thomas Reinke (481-368, playing UNMOORED and SKIPPED) and newcomer John (504-358, playing LODGERS, SONLIKE, HONESTER, and TIMEOUTS). Her loss was to Bryan Benwitz in a game that wasn't very close, 353-477.

3rd Bryan Benwitz scored well above 400 in all his game, averaging a nifty 443 per game while going 3-1 +279. The aforementioned 477-353 win against Lynda Finn was his best game of the night, seeing him adorn the board with GOOSIER, OPIATES, and ASEXUAL. He also won a high-scoring match against Dennis Lloyd, 454-416. Both players had a 100-point bingo in that one: Dennis' RELOOKED for 102 and Bryan's INQUIET for 105. Bryan also handed Sara McLaughlin her only loss of the night with a solid 420-285 win, buoyed by finds of ERASION (the sixth most-probable seven letter word!) and SIDINGS. Two more bingos of RECITERS and CARROMED were played against Charles Reinke, but it wasn't enough to deliver Bryan an undefeated record, as he lost 419-437.

4th Sara McLaughlin also went 3-1 but missed out on third place with her lesser +45 spread. She is now 8-1 in her last nine games!

We welcomed newcomers John and Wendy to the club. While they only won one game between them, they displayed considerable skill and we hope they come back soon!

1st Sara McLaughlin stunned the field with a flawless 4-0 +163 performance, defeating a lineup of the club's best players without so much as a single bead of sweat forming on her forehead. Her first win was 388-367 over Thomas Reinke, getting a pair of bingos, STUDIES and AMITIES. She then set her sights on Lynda Finn, and won in decisive fashion, 387-287. A phony bingo of RESTAIN* was perhaps the only notable flaw on her otherwise perfect scorecard, but there is precedent for that particular phony (three other players have gotten away with the same exact word), so she gets a pass. In round three, Sara squeaked out a win against Bryan Benwitz, 368-354. Then, in the final round, she faced Charles Reinke, an opponent whom she has never beaten, but with a perfect record on the line, she rose to the challenge and willed herself to victory, 433-405. A monster 158-point triple-triple of REHABBED was the turning point of the game, enough to overcome Charles' ECSTASY and ROASTING. And with that, Sara added her name to the illustrious list of players who played four games of Scrabble and didn't lose any of them. (A hard copy of the list, printed on the finest cardstock, will be furnished to the requestor upon receipt of a $25 check made out to the club.)

2nd Thomas Reinke made his typical appearance in the top three with a 3-1 +172 record. Aside from his first-round defeat at the hands of Sara McLaughlin, all his games were well over 400 points. His best game was a high-scoring Collins-lexicon bout against familiar foe Charles Reinke, which he won in the end, 508-482. Thomas got down a trio of showy bingos with LEVOGYRE, SONATINE, and JETFOILS; Charles had FANDOMS and AERADIOS. More crazy words were hurled violently down onto the board when Thomas vanquished Bryan Benwitz 483-436. Bryan found EMBOLUS and CORTEXES (the latter for 116 big points), while Thomas had ACHIRAL, FERRITE, and DOLMENIC.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 with a surprising -33 spread. The reason for that negative spread total will be revealed in due time. First, though, we must discuss some of the games which Dennis won. His highest score came in a 436-369 encounter with Lynda Finn, who was held bingoless while Dennis got down CHARRED, WASHERS, and IRONIES. Dennis also displayed some real Wisconsin hospitality when he defeated visiting Iowa player Mike Weepie 357-320. The combatants traded bingos in that one, with Mike finding RESTATE and Dennis getting PARTINGS. However, Dennis' match against Bryan Benwitz was considerably less successful, as Bryan scored an incredible 634 points, and Dennis was left with a respectable but insufficient 331 points. The main factor of Bryan's dominant display of Scrabble might was his triple-triple ZIPPIEST for 248 points. Since we began keeping detailed records in 2011, only one other play has scored that many points, that being Thomas' MOBILIZE back in 2016.