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1st Thomas Reinke topped a field of six players with his 3-1 +391 final record. His journey to a first-place finish was made significantly less arduous when his first-round match against Bryan Benwitz ended with a 549-337 score in Thomas' favor. Bryan was uncharacteristically held to zero bingos while Thomas coolly plopped down bonus plays of CROSSED, PALAVERS, DONATIVE, and METAPHOR. Thomas had a similar amount of success against Francesca Lazio, winning 471-272 thanks to finds of AEROFOIL and SCREWING. Francesca did play a bingo of RETINAS to somewhat limit the damage. The sole loss on Thomas' scorescard was handed to him by none other than his own brother, and it was a high-scoring one too, 461-493 (although that is somewhat expected when using the more inclusive international lexicon). This time, it was Charles' turn to play four bingos: CHANTERS, UREDINIA, GRATUITY, and the nine-letter FRITTERED. Thomas had RANKLED, an apt word to describe his mood after being denied a perfect 4-0 outing.

2nd Bryan Benwitz also went 3-1 with a smaller, but still sizable, +290 spread total. That spread total would have been significantly more sizable were it not for the devastating round one loss against Thomas Reinke, detailed above. However, things improved signifcantly for Bryan after that initial setback. His 406-321 win over Charles Reinke, achieved via three bingos of CATTIES, ANEURINS, and SOPPIER, continued his run of strong play against that particular opponent: Bryan has now won six of his last seven against Charles. Bryan also made (relatively) easy work of grizzled Scrabble veteran Richard Lauder, emerging victorious in their encounter, 452-361. The combatants had two bingos apiece: EXTERNAL and INTRUDE for Richard, IRONIES and LEISTERS for Bryan.

On a more obscure note, Richard's bingo of INEDITA, played against Tara Kadium, marks the first time that particular word has been played at our club since modern record-keeping began in 2011. This is interesting because INEDITA is one of the most probable seven-letter words in the dictionary (that is, it is more likely than most to appear on your rack when you draw seven random tiles out of a full bag). To compare, the similarly-probable AIRLINE and DENARII have been played nine and five times, respectively. Thus concludes this week's utterly meaningless (but possibly slightly interesting to a select crowd of Scrabble nerds) bingo report.

1st Thomas Reinke once again snagged the top spot in the weekly standings with his 4-1 +405 record. He suffered a minor setback in the first round, losing to Richard Lauder by a score of 375-380, but encountered no other obstacles on his way to the proverbial gold medal. By the third round, Thomas' bingoing abilities were fully warmed up, as demonstrated in a 466-405 win over Helen Flores where he played NUTRIAS, SIMULATE, and UPBOILED. Helen did have a nice play of BOARDERS for 94 in that one. Thomas put the final gem in his crown by conquering his fraternal foe, Charles Reinke, by a score of 502-368. Charles got down RECOUNTS and PARADING, but Thomas played SALSAED#, SERMONIC, DENTURAL, and GALLERIA in a high-scoring slugfest typical of the international Collins lexicon that they were using.

2nd Charles Reinke trailed slightly behind his brother with a 4-1 +284 final record. A pair of 500+ point games buoyed his average for the night to a lofty 461 points per game. The first 500 game was against Sara McLaughling, 517-367. Sara found FEISTIER to keep the game mildly competitive, but Charles's bingos of DRAGROPE, REGIONS, and SUBATOM put the score well out of reach. Charles continued the bingoing rampage by playing four of them (FORTIFY, EVASION, OLDNESS, and PREUNITE) against Richard Lauder, who, to his credit, found a 167-point triple-triple of ESTOPPED. The final in that one was 531-430.

3rd Sara McLaughlin made her club first appearance of 2023 and made the most of it, finishing 3-1 +391. All three of her victories (and, for that matter, her singular loss) were by more than 100 points. She defeated newcomer Francesca Lazio by a score of 408-283, with each player getting down a single bingo: REMARKED for Sara and GENDERS for Francesca. Sara built on that success by vanquishing Helen Flores, 435-279, this time getting down two bingos, ATRESIA and WEANERS. Helen, sadly, was held bingoless by some unholy combination of Sara's defensive prowess, the vagaries of the tile bag, and possibly the (mis-)alignment of various celestial bodies.

Bonus fourth paragraph: Dave Kinzer also went 3-1 with a spread of +123. Paradoxically, his best game was a 399-457 loss to Thomas Reinke where he got an 89-point bingo of LOCATED.

We welcomed two new players, Matt and Francesca Lazio. While they didn't have much immediate success in winning games (new players rarely do...), they both demonstrated considerable ability to play all seven tiles at once in the form of a bingo, which bodes well for future victories.

1st Charles Reinke secured first place in the nightly standings with a comfortable two-game lead over his next-closest competitor, finishing at 5-0 +464. He played four bingos (VARMENTS, RETINOID, SOLACED, and PEARLIES) in what was otherwise a closely-contested game against Thomas Reinke, who played SINUATED and DIAGNOSE. The final tally in that one was 461-453 in Charles' favor. Charles' bingo output would only go lower from that point forward, but he continued his winning ways, including a 485-273 win over Helen Flores. Helen got down a nice find of VASTIEST, while Charles had DOVECOT and WANGUNS. WANGUN is a Native American word for a chest of supplies at a labor camp, but what Charles was most concerned with was the fact that it scored him 78 points.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +352, losing two games to his brother but winning the rest. Surprisingly, his highest score of the evening was in the game described above, which he lost 453-461. The other encounter against Charles also ended unfavorably for Thomas, the final score being 437-468 despite Thomas' finds of TRUEBORN and GOONDAS. However, a big win against Richard Lauder, 427-335, ensured that Thomas didn't lose too much ground in the yearly standings. His bingos there were BIGUINE and the always-useful AIRIEST. Fun fact: AIRIEST has now been played 37 times at our club since modern recordkeeping began in 2011. The only bingo played more often is ETESIAN, played forty times. EASIEST and ATONIES are the other two to have been played more than thirty times.