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1st Thomas Reinke put on another display of dominance with a 5-0 +359 record. A first-round win against Charles Reinke, 498-462, got him off to a good start, and bingos of NUDENESS, GASTRAL, and TORTIES# were quick confirmation that his word-finding would be on point for the rest of the night. That victory was followed up by a fruitful two-on-one excursion where Thomas prevailed over both Bryan Benwitz (430-318) and Helen Flores (453-310). His scoring dipped a little bit in a 381-343 win over Sara McLaughlin (his COMAKERS going toe-to-to with Sara's URANIUMS), but Thomas regained his scoring mojo for the final round, a high-scoring rematch against Charles where he won 520-490. Both players bingoed three times in that one: TRIPLIES#, AURICLES, and VOLITIVE for Charles, DISPONED#, EJECTION, and a nine-letter OUTSWEARS for Thomas.

2nd Sara McLaughlin punched well above her weight with a hefty 411 per-game average on her way to a 3-1 +63 finish. All three of her wins saw her score above the 400-point barrier, with her loss to Thomas Reinke (described above) being the only exception. She started off with a 406-364 win against Lynda Finn, her first win against Lynda in six attmepts. Seventy points for OUTLOVES was needed there. That was followed up with a well-fought 451-427 victory versus Richard Lauder which saw Sara up her bingo output, getting down REJOINED and COSINES to Richard's PALTERS. Sara secured her second-place finish with another closely-contested game, 443-408 against Bryan Benwitz. SHOWMEN for 112 points, in addition to GROANING for 83, proved to be the necessary ammunition to topple the Bryaniac.

3rd Lynda Finn snuck into third with a 3-2 +200 record and a 426 average which keeps her well above the 400-point mark for the year. Both her losses came in round one, as the law of odd numbers forced her into a two-on-one match where she lost both, 363-451 vs. Richard Lauder and 364-406 vs. Sara McLaughlin. There was a noted improvement in round two as she clobbered Charles Reinke 517-408, although her scoresheet was blemished by a phony OUTCLEAN* to go with valid bingos of IGNORES and ETERNITY. Anybody tempted to try OUTCLEAN* in the future should first consider whether finding a spot for CLEANOUT might be a better idea. Charles, meanwhile, phonied with ALRIGHTY* in the same game. Against Helen Flores in the final round, Lynda escaped from a tenuous endgame to achieve victory, 433-415, despite being outbingoed by her opponent, who got REVISOR and TEENIEST while Lynda had just ETOILES.

1st Thomas Reinke bingoed 11 times and did not face a game below 400 points on his way to a pack-leading 4-1 +323 finish. He barely escaped with victory in the first round when he toppled Mark Kenas, 454-453 in a Collins-lexicon showdown. Mark, amazingly, scored his 453 points without the aid of a bingo, while Thomas had three: ARMOIRES, ZOONITES#, and AGITABLE. A later rematch proved to be Thomas' only defeat of the evening, where another trio of bingos (ANYTIME, LATIGOS, and REBODIES) could not prevent Mark from taking a 465-425 win. Thomas' high-water mark was a 475-306 win against Helen Flores, where Helen's find of COMPLETE as countered by Thomas' BOSSIER and RELEARNT.

2nd Dennis Lloyd came agonizingly close to the mythical 5-0 record, but lost a game in the final round to leave his record at (a still quite respectable) 4-1 +156. Of particular note was his ultra-low-scoring 295-276 win against Dave Kinzer, where neither player bingoed. This writer's unsubstantiated speculation is that the board must have been significantly and irrecoverably blocked through the actions of one or both players. Still, it counts as a win for Dennis in the yearly standings, which is all that matters in the end. A game against Charles Reinke was significantly higher-scoring, ending 467-411 in Dennis' favor thanks to plays of INTERNS and NODULES (Charles had RAIDERS and FILAREES). However, perfection was denied by Sara McLaughlin, who conquered Dennis in round four as part of a two-on-one, 419-349.

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished at 3-1 with a healthy +364 point differential. Much of that point differential came in round one, where he held a one-man demolition derby against Sara McLaughlin, winning 540-282. That dazzling point total was achieved with just two bingos, PERMEASE and REATTACH. Bryan also scored big against Charles Reinke, beating him 457-375, this time with three bingos: MOUNTED, CONCERT, and IOLITES (no word on whether CONCERT was ever hooked to make CONCERTO or CONCERTI). Success of players surnamed Benwitz against players surnamed Reinke was not universal, however, as Bryan was downed by Thomas Reinke, 354-410, despite a 96-point play of RANCHES.

Dennis' spectacular nine-letter, two-blank find of MIDDLEMAN against Lynda Finn was word of the week. Also of note was Charles' insane score of 649 against Mark Kenas, who scored respectably well with 392 points of his own. In the course of this 600+ point game, Charles recorded the club's fifth-ever six-bingo game (at least since modern statskeeping began in 2011), playing APOGEIC, WEARIEST, RABBETS, HEPTANE, ASININE, and the 122-point triple-triple of ROTTENER.

1st Thomas Reinke, with a 4-0 +235 record, finished in first place yet again, forcing a certain beleaguered writeup editor to come up with more adjectives to describe his tiresome feats of Scrabble dominance. His best game was a four-bingo outburst against Mark Kenas; bingos of FENLANDS, UNSEEMLY, REVIEWAL, and RIBWORT propelled him a 501-454 win. Thomas played just three more bingos in his other three games, but won them all anyway, proving that his unstoppable scoring attack is provided not just by bingos, but by strong all-around play. The closest of those wins was a 425-385 encounter with Dave Kinzer, where his bingo of TENORITE matched up evenly with Dave's find of GORILLA. Thomas' undefeated record was finally sealed with a solid 447-346 win over Bryan Benwitz.

2nd Charles Reinke enjoyed a lofty 469 per-game average en route to a 3-1 +364 final record. His single loss was to Mark Kenas in round two, 443-464, despite a nifty find of GAWMOGES (a gawmoge is apparently Newfoundland slang for a foolish person, but has very few attestations on the internet - this blog post will probably become the authoritative source of information for that particular word once it gets indexed by Google). That loss was avenged in round four, with Charles prevailing in a repeat match against Mark, 494-404. In that one, Charles bingoed thricely with NORMANDE, STUBBIES, and AIRHOLES, while Mark was limited to a 60-point TAUTENED. Another big victory was scored against Lynda Finn, 517-279, thanks to bingos of BRAKEMEN and SMIDGES (against Lynda's LEANNESS).

3rd Bryan Benwitz also went 3-1, but with a smaller +282 point spread. Interestingly, he played exactly two bingos in each of his four games, leading to a rather predictable per-game bingo average of...two. Bryan came out with all guns blazing as he downed Helen Flores in the first round, 450-282, playing UPSTAIR and EARSHOT along the way. He also made easy work of Richard Lauder, taking victory with a 439-320 final score, thanks to bingos of VANISHED and PERTAIN. Sadly, a loss to Thomas Reinke in the final round, 346-447 turned his promising 3-0 record into a not-quite-as-pristine 3-1 record. His two bingos there were RETAILER and EDITIONS, although at 60 and 59 points respectively, Bryan probably wishes they had been a bit more potent scoring-wise.

4th Sara McLaughlin gets a bonus mention for her 3-1 -3 finish. Her best game was a huge 453-369 win against Richard Lauder. Her triple-triple of TRAIPSED for 131 points was certainly key for her victory.

We welcomed new player Jessica Pasch, who managed to win a game (not an easy feat against our bunch) and also bingoed three times with COTTAGED, BUDGING, DEVIATE. Certainly a promising start and we hope to see her again!