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1st Charles Reinke averaged a nifty 498 points per game across a reduced slate of three games, going 3-0 +487 in the process and securing undisputed first place. He got his highest score of the year in round one when he pummeled Helen Flores by a score of 568-341. Helen found ANEMONES, but was overwhelmed by Charles' fourfold bingo assault of COURTESY, RESTRAIN, TOADIED, and VENTURED. More bingo supremacy was on display against Dennis Lloyd, who fell to Charles, 444-253. In that one, Charles got DANGEST, TERRANE, and SALICINS.

2nd Thomas Reinke retained his first-place position in the yearly standings, but just barely, with a 2-1 +167 finish. With two bingos apiece, Thomas fought Peter Schmiedicke punch-for-punch, but emerged the victor when all was said and done, 438-276. Peter dredged up bingos of TURGITE and ORDINALS from his long-disused memory bank of seven-letter words, while Thomas had BANNERS and PIEHOLES. Thomas' quest for an undefeated record, however, was brought to a swift end when he encountered Charles Reinke in the third and final round. The final score of that game was 482-413, and among the plays was a showoffish nine-letter find of ADVERTIZE, played by Charles.

Peter's three-O find of ODOROUS was word of the week, but that is not an invitiation to actually BE odorous while at Scrabble club.

1st Thomas Reinke lengthened his ongoing winning streak to nine games with his second-straight first-place finish, this time going 4-0 +301. While Thomas wasn't able to match the dizzying pinnacle of last week's 667-point game, he still scored comfortably above 400 in all his games, and broke 500 once in a 501-445 Collins-lexicon slugfest against Charles Reinke. A Collins-only triple-triple of ARGEMONE# for 176 points helped Thomas outrun his brother's SLANTED, VIPERISH, and SEELING. More high-powered bingoage was on display with a 446-371 win over Bryan Benwitz, where Thomas' plays included a 98-point JASMINE. Bryan's two bingos of FLEECES and LENTOIDS, while nice in their own right, didn't quite compare from a "points scored" perspective.

2nd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +352 and averaged a tidy three bingos per game thanks to his twelve bonus plays. A 499-248 win over Helen Flores, featuring bingos of ACQUIRED, TURMOILS, and SEDIMENT, supplied most of Charles' substantial spread total. Four more bingos (AESTHETE, BANDEROL, STARRIER, and EQUISETA) propelled Charles to a 494-403 win over Dennis Lloyd, who played REBOUND and ADOPTING. Of note: BANDEROL takes an E to make BANDEROLE, and if somehow you have those letters but can't play BANDEROLE, maybe you could rearrange the letters to find BANDOLEER.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 2-2 +196 and well exceeded his season average by averaging 431 points per game. His success can almost solely be attributed to his staggering 571-254 win against Sue Goldstein, a game which not only set a personal record for Dennis at our club, but also tied Dennis' record for bingos in a game with four (THUMPER, BEDTIME, ANORAKS, and LINSEED). In addition, 571 is the highest game played at our club so far this year if you exclude games played in the Collins lexicon.

Congratulations to Sara McLaughlin for her own contribution to the history books, as her triple-triple of SQUATTER for 212 points (played in a 464-418 win over Peter Schmiedicke) places at third in the list of highest-scoring bingos ever played at club (at least since modern record-keeping began in 2011). Sara also notched a high-scoring 490-473 win over Bryan Benwitz; that 473 losing score is the highest losing score of the club season.

1st Thomas Reinke displayed the full breadth and depth of his Scrabble expertdom with a pristine 5-0 +901 record and a fearsome average of 524 points per game. He got off to a strong start by scoring over 500 points in both games of a 2-on-1 match: 506-334 against Peter Schmiedicke and 535-320 against Sara McLaughlin. His combined bingos in those games were QINTARS, VENTAILS, GORSIER, SAPONINE, and GILTHEAD. But the true scoring mastery was reserved for a later game against Charles Reinke, where Thomas scored a whopping 667 (to his brothers relatively minuscule 360) and played five bingos of HERITOR, UNADDED, MOPANES#, VICIATES#, and HEADNOTE. Charles, to his credit, played SMIDGEON for a decent score, but was otherwise relegated to "spectator mode" for much of the contest.

2nd Charles Reinke finished with a humdrum 3-2 -48 record, but with most players bunched up in the standings at two wins, that humdrum record was enough for second place. Like his brother, Charles found success in playing two games at once, scoring big wins against Peter Schmiedicke (434-312) and Dennis Lloyd (464-316) and managing to play a nine-letter word in both games (MISPARTED against Peter, TESTIFIED against Dennis). Unfortunately, the game against Dennis was marred by a phony WAMBLERS* - to WAMBLE means "to move unsteadily", but it doesn't take an R. In addition to the 300-point loss to his brother noted above, Charles also lost to Helen Flores by a score of 357-415, thanks to her bingos of MIGRANT and TONGUES.

3rd Helen Flores went 2-2 -6 and outperformed her season average by a significant amount, averaging 381 per game. She started strong with two straight wins, a 415-357 triumph over Charles Reinke and a 403-304 win over Sue Goldstein. In the latter game, Helen played a bingo if INCENSE while Sue got down SAILERS (after some internal debate on whether SAILERS could be a valid alternate spelling of SAILORS). Helen's luck didn't continue after that, as she lost encounter against Sara McLaughlin and Peter Schmiedicke, but she did play at least one bingo in each game, which is always a worthy milestone.

We welcomed new player JoAnn Savoy, and while she didn't win either of her two games, we hope she comes back regardless!