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1st Charles Reinke corrected course after a slow start to the club season with a dominant 4-0 +490 record and a 507 per-game average. He came away with a win against Helen Flores in round one, scoring 472 to her 387. Helen put some fear into him with bingos of DANGLIER and ADORNER, although he struck back with FACTICES and FLURRIES. Charles showcased more of his patented bingo brutality against Steve Hartsman, deploying four bonus plays (RONDEAUX, MONAURAL, TRIBUTE, RENEGADO) to prevail 526-409. Rewarded for his 2-0 start with a Collins-lexicon bout against familiar foe Thomas Reinke, Charles won again 474-397, bingoing with BURTHEN and EPIGEOUS. In a clash of undefeateds where only one player would get to keep their title (unless they tied), Charles finished his clean sweep by steamrolling Bryan Benwitz 557-436, once again playing four bingos: WOOLENS, ANTIQUER, NITROGEN, and BANDIES.

2nd Andy Bohnsack used his home-field advantage to great effect, finishing 3-1 +245. He just barely lost his first game, felled by Thomas Reinke 401-409, hitting on SMALTITE and UNHOLIER while Thomas had PORNIEST and CANONISE. It was another close game in round two, as Andy got a ten-point win against Richard Lauder, 381-371. Game three was a little better for Andy, but still nothing resembling a blowout, as he got past Dennis Lloyd 403-377 thanks to SECTORS and ORIGINAL (Dennis had STAINED, further cementing that bingo as the club's second-favorite word in ADEINST, behind DETAINS but well ahead of SATINED, which has only been played once). Andy unambiguously entered "blowout" territory in the final game, as he took down Carol Ormand 478-261, rebuffing her TRAINED with his own SOBERING and BELIEVES.

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 +169, although his scores displayed a clear downward trend from round one to round four, giving us some hope that by mid-April he'll be scoring in the 100s and the rest of us will have a better chance of beating him. He beat James Rollins 506-374 in the opening round, getting ENCOMIA, MAESTRO, and MOTIVED to James' SENARIUS and STRAYING. Observant stats-hawks will note that Bryan played the same word of ENCOMIA against James last week, so it seems a precedent has been set and Bryan will play ENCOMIA every time he plays James (not sure how this reconciles with Bryan presumably scoring in the 100's...). Bryan matched up against a fresh-from-vacation Dave Kinzer in the second game, and pulled no punches, unleashing VANITIES, BARLEYS, AUTECISM, and NETTERS in a 482-314 win. He slowed down a bit while defeating Carol Ormand 407-327, countering her SUNRISE with his find of DEPICTOR. Losing to Charles Reinke 346-557 in the fourth and final round spelled the end of his hopes for an undefeated night.

We welcomed five new players into our ranks, which is probably some sort of record, if you don't count the first night the club met in 1984, when every player was technically a newcomer. Blake, Loden, Alex, Mike, and Lynn all made their club debuts, with varying levels of success (most of them won a game!) but (we hope) invariably high levels of fun.

1st Thomas Reinke ran the table with a 4-0 +359 record. He was thrown straight into the fire in round one, facing Bryan Benwitz, but pulled out the win 407-347 with bingos of ERODENT and a nifty nine-letter ORALITIES (quick quiz - what is the anagram of ORALITIES?). Thomas had a bit more breathing room in the next game as he used four bingos (CLAXONS, ENTITLED, SINUATED, INTERWAR) to take the win against Charles Reinke, 472-377. Against Richard Lauder, Thomas cruised to a comfortable win, 449-259, nullifying Richard's NARDOOS with his own finds of SQUIRED and NOVICES. For the final game, Thomas faced a tough challenge from Steve Hartsman, but secured his undefeated record with a 479-465 victory, finding RETABLO and ANEARING to Steve's EYEHOLE and MEDICINE.

2nd Bryan Benwitz finished 3-1 and averaged a club-leading 460 points per game. Things could have gone better to start the evening, as the aforementioned 347-407 loss to Thomas Reinke put Bryan in an early hole that he would have to climb out of. He wasted no time in his ascent, dispatching Helen Flores 453-282, getting 104 points for NEMESES in addition to another bingo of FISHERS. He then set a scoring record for the 2026 club season by dropping a heavy 581 points directly on Charles Reinke's head, although Charles, in his dazed state, still managed to supply 443, making their matchup the first game of 2026 to reach 1000 combined points. Bryan got ALLUDES, DOOZIES, CINERIN, RECOILER, and DENTURES, while Charles got PREGNANT...and DISABLER, and NIOBATE. That total of eight bingos ties a club record as well. To complete his comeback tour, Bryan fought off James Rollins in a high-scoring (but not as high-scoring as some other games) 460-400 bout. James found INFESTS and EUPHORIA, while Bryan had REACHED and ENCOMIA.

3rd Steve Hartsman beat out four other 2-2 finishers by virtue of his superior spread total, going 2-2 +157. He went up against Richard Lauder in round one and, showing proper courtesy to the club's founder, gracefully lost, 383-403. Less graceful was his 522-354 win over James Rollins, which was marred by phonies of CERUMAN* (CERUMEN is good, but it's the medical term for earwax, and not a man who CERUs) and DURRAHS* (looking for DHURRAS, but who can remember all the alternate spellings of DURRA anyway?). Steve also got the valid ENGROSS, while James found LOOTING. In round three, Steve bested Andy Bohnsack, 387-364, bingoing with SLAVERS (Andy had WASPIER and GALLETED). Steve put up a good fight in the final game against Thomas Reinke, but fell just short in the end, 465-479. That 465 losing score is the highest in his Madison Club career, as well as the highest loss so far this year.

1st Bryan Benwitz got his second undefeated performance of the year with a 4-0 +363 record. He cleaned up in round one with a 458-288 win over Richard Lauder, finding ENVISION and PRIORATE against Richard's RETIMES. Things were a lot closer against Charles Reinke; Bryan used his sole bingo of EVACUATE to salvage a win out of their low-scoring encounter, 366-355. Against Andy Bohnsack, Bryan regained his scoring mojo, winning 467-352 thanks to bingos of MIDSTORY, RERAISE, and GLIADINE. Bryan finished his night (and swept all available Reinkes) by defeating Thomas Reinke 423-356, getting a huge play of SARCOID for 104 points in addition to PREFIRES.

2nd Andy Bohnsack finished at 3-1 +157, continuing to improve his W/L record after a slow start to the club season. He got a much-needed win against Helen Flores in round one, 382-367, needing every bit of his three bingos (EROSIONS, RUINABLE, FRIENDLY) to pull it out. The bingos continued to flow with abundance as Andy plopped four of them down on the board against Steve Hartsman: SEMIGALA, FORTUNE, DIARIST, and TONIEST. Somewhat expectedly, it was Andy's win, 509-401. Round three saw Andy lose to Bryan Benwitz, 352-467, with his bingo of OUTRACE sadly not holding any prophetic power whatsoever. Andy made up for that loss and more with a big 486-337 over the returning James Rollins; James had DEHORNS, but was buried by Andy's NOVATES and LAMPIONS.

3rd Charles Reinke went 2-2 +306, floating to the top of a group of six players who finished with 2-2 records. He got a high-scoring 520-435 win against Thomas Reinke in round one, getting FILAREE, HAUTEST, LOUSIER, and DEMOTING as his bingos. The bingos dried up in the next game as he got just one (TRANCES) while losing to Bryan Benwitz 355-366. The losses continued as a rematch against Thomas resulted in a 393-410 loss (Charles' ANOPSIA stood no chance against Thomas' VESTLIKE, PINNATED, and OBSEQUIE# [he missed BEzIQUE for 126 on that turn though, just saying]). Charles turned his sad 1-2 record into a happily neutral 2-2 record by winning his final game against Richard Lauder, 496-247, bingoing with VINTAGER, RUPIAHS, and SPIRALED.

Lynda's nine-letter DISTURBER was word of the week.