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1st Charles Reinke started off the new year (and the new Scrabble club season) right with a solid 3-1 +308 record. If his new years' resolution was to average two bingos per game, he's off to a good start, having played eight bonus plays in his first four games of the year. However, his theoretical new years' resolution of winning every game of Scrabble that he plays is already a failure, as he lost his round two matchup against Thomas Reinke by a tight score of 426-432. Thomas had a pair of uncommon bingos, CUTOUTS and FOGEYISM (the latter for 118 points), while Charles punched back with INBREEDS and ALGORISM. The loss was avenged in the following round, where Charles came out victorious in both of his two-on-one battles. He took out Sara McLaughlin by a score of 491-258, but barely clawed his way to a 371-368 win against Dennis Lloyd.

2nd Thomas Reinke likewise started his club season off with a 3-1 record, but his +250 spread relegated him to second place. His best game was a 473-274 affair with Dennis Lloyd. A 134-point DAIDZEIN was a nice find for Thomas in that one, and also one of the highest-scoring non-triple-triple plays in this writer's memory. Thomas seemed poised for an undefeated evening, but ran up against Bryan Benwitz in the third and final round, losing 407-410 despite outbingoing Bryan two to one (PINIONS and STYLISE for Thomas, BARRELED for Bryan). Also of note was Thomas' nine-letter BRUNETTES, played against Sara McLaughlin, which brings his lifetime total of 9-letter-plus bingos up to 48.

1st Charles Reinke ran the table in the final club session of the 2021 season, going 3-0 +261. 176 of those 271 spread points came in a round one victory against Sara McLaughlin, 482-306. Sara found a bingo of STAINER in her fruitful rack of AEINRS? (43 additional words can be formed from those letters, too many to list here), while Charles had HERALDS and INBEINGS as his bingos. Charles also came away with a solid win against Bryan Benwitz, 457-375, getting down the ever-appropriate OUTDUELS as well as RETROACT.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished the club season with a 2-1 +230 record, falling short of his brother in the weekly standings but standing proudly atop the yearly standings nevertheless. He had a big win against Sue Goldstein, 448-226, thanks to bingos of RANGIEST and RELEGATE, both for 80 points. However, an unblemished win-loss record was denied when he ran into his brother in round three and lost by a hair, 359-362. Thomas had a single bingo of IODINES, but Charles' late-game STEMMERY for 92 points proved to be the difference-maker.

Special mention goes to Bryan Benwitz for his 606-point game against Helen Flores, including the triple-triple RODEOING for 140. Bryan owns the three highest scores of the 2021 club season: 606, 602, and 588.

Thus concludes the 2021 club season, with Thomas Reinke and his 70.6% win percentage being crowned club champion! Rounding out the top three were Charles Reinke (67.6% win rate) and Bryan Benwitz (61.2% win rate).

1st Thomas Reinke strengthened his position in the race for "Madison Scrabble Club 2021 Champion" with a dominant 5-1 +569 record. His total of six games played was somewhat anomalous, but unavoidable due to the immutable laws of combinatorics which were called upon to inform the pairings. The highlight of his night was a 535-332 win against Sara McLaughlin where he got down MASONED, ELYSIAN, and TRICORNE (Sara had RELATION). He played a set of games against his suspiciously identical brother Charles, and while he won the first won 471-350 (aided by bingos of THEREON, ORACIES, and FEASING), the second game proved to be the one to cut short his perfect evening, as he lost 476-363 despite playing bingos of SIBILANT and LODESTAR. Charles had the high-probability trio of PAINTIER, INFARES, and PROTEASE in his winning effort.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +93 as he saw his hopes of being 2021 Champion slip through his grasp like a phantom vision desperately reached out for in a dream. His small spread was due to a pair of close wins: the first was a 451-436 victory against Bryan Benwitz, getting down PESTERS, PATINATE, and RIGATONI. The second was a 398-372 triumph over the returning Dave Kinzer - Dave had the nice find of AURICLE, but Charles got down TERRAINS and prevailed in the endgame. An aforementioned 350-471 loss against Thomas Reinke was a bit of a morale breaker, but morale was restored after an infusion of sugar courtesy of cookies provided by Sue Goldstein and candy provided by Dave.