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1st Andy Bohnsack stood proudly at the very tippy-top of the weekly standings for the second week in a row, thanks to a 4-1 +427 showing. His two-on-one match against Helen Flores and Ron Malzer in round one was only halfway successful; the 438-324 win against Ron was nice, but Andy probably wants a do-over on the 381-435 loss to Helen, where his SECTION and LACERATE were countered by her ANISOLE and ENRAGING. Andy romped in round two, playing four bingos (ERIGERON, ATLANTES [plural of ATLAS, somehow], TOADIES, DUNNITES) en route to a 506-347 win. He subsequently handed Thomas Reinke his only loss of the evening, 405-350, finding PORTALED and ENTASIA, the latter out of a rack of AINST?? - as of this writing, we have not received an exact count of how many of the 213 available seven-letter words were actually identified. Andy put the final gold star on his sticker chart with a 482-329 victory over Richard Lauder, finding the stylish EXERGUE, accompanied by the less-stylish LINTERS and ATRESIA.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +374, continuing to improve on his strong start to the nascent club season. He exercised his knowledge of high-probability bingos by getting down SERIATES and TERTIAN in a 414-357 victory against Lynda Finn, then continued to exercise that same knowledge with CAROUSE, ENDORSEE, and AUREATE to beat Helen Flores 472-303. In round three, Thomas faced a tough two-on-one set against Andy Bohnsack and Charles Reinke. As previously described, Thomas lost to Andy 350-405, but was able to beat his brother 459-386 thanks to an onslaught of four bingos: GELLANT, FAINTERS, SALINES, and ROMAJIS. This writer is not able to come up with a more intense word than "onslaught", but whatever that word is, that's what Thomas did to Bryan Benwitz, as he got down five bingos (INGESTA, REPAVES, OREGANOS, RAVISHED, and AUDITOR) to beat Bryan 523-393.

3rd Richard Lauder finished 3-2 -96, a pair of big losses negating some otherwise healthy victories. The less said about his 317-479 loss to Charles Reinke, the better, but Richard immediately turned it around with major success in round two, defeating both Sara McLaughlin (476-400) and Ron Malzer (412-281). Richard bingoed thricely in each game, getting UNITERS, EGALITES, and DETAINS against Sara and RELATION, HAIRLIKE and ISOLATE against Ron. Richard was also able to pick up a tightly-fought win over Helen Flores, 356-344. His run of wins came to a sad end in the final game, and the session ended much in the way it began with a 329-482 loss to Andy Bohnsack.

Sara's POULTICE was word of the week.

1st Andy Bohnsack fully recovered from his slow start to the 2026 club season with a dominant 5-0 +452 performance. In round one, he administered a severe whupping to last year's club champion, beating Thomas Reinke 417-296 and finding WATERBUS and RUINABLE in the process (note that the total of two bingos Andy played in that game would end up being his lowest single-game bingo total of the night). A regularly-scheduled bout against Bryan Benwitz was well-fought, but the end result was another Andy win, 477-435, thanks to RIVALED, DEBONAIR, and DETRAIN. A two-on-one match against both Dennis Lloyd and Lynda Finn resulted in more bingos and more wins for Andy: against Dennis, Andy cruised to a 516-324 win (FOLKIEST, TURNSOLE, OESTRONE), while his game against Lynda ended 442-373 in his favor (COADIES, TENERS, EPIGEES* [APOGEAN, EPIGEAN, APOGEES, no EPIGEES*]). Andy put the fifth and final jewel in his crown with a 464-436 victory against Charles Reinke, finding LINGUIST, LAMBASTE, and LEOPARDS (what's with all the L's?) to Charles' UTOPIST, PREVAILS, and DETONATE.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished 3-2 +275. It was a slow start for him as Andy Bohnsack dispatched him early, 296-417, but he immediately recovered with a 475-317 trouncing of Mark Kenas, finding DALGYTES# and BOURREE. A round three encounter against Bryan Benwitz ended in sad defeat, 388-446, despite bingos of CORSAIRS and ENTHETIC (Bryan one-upped him with ESTUARY, IBOGAINE, and DOUTING). To end the evening, Thomas found himself in a two-on-one match; Mark Kenas was sent away with ease for the second time, 541-294, while Dennis Lloyd put up more of a fight but still lost, 413-364. Across those two games, Thomas had bingos of SNEERED, RIPENED, FLAVOUR, RANCORED, and ESTRIOL.

3rd Lynda Finn enjoyed a 2-1 +140 record, her late arrival preventing her from getting a third win and sneaking into second place. She welcomed newcomer Jennifer with her first-ever (but hopefully not last-ever) club loss, 390-309. Lynda paid for this lack of midwestern hospitality with a 373-442 loss to Andy Bohnsack, putting her losing streak against Andy at nine games. In her last game, she won big against Kelsey Stanczak, 410-282, thanks to her bingo of GUILTIER.

Bryan's REUPTAKE was word of the week.

1st Bryan Benwitz returned to form with an unsullied 4-0 +535 record. He cruised to a round-one win as he demolished Dennis Lloyd by a score of 449-281, getting TULADIS and WORDIES (a WORDIE is "a lover of words", and is a much more agreeable descriptor of us than its anagram, WEIRDO). In round two he added more bingos to his rapidly-expanding list, finding STRAFED, UPGATHER, and LESBIAN for a 481-365 win against Andy Bohnsack, who got RESIFTS (for more than one reason, always resist the urge to play FISTERS* out of those letters). Bryan's closest game ended up not being very close at all, but Helen Flores put up a better fight than most in a 423-328 encounter. As most players were winding themselves down for the night, Bryan was winding himself up, as his round four match against Richard Lauder ended up being his highest-scoring of the night, 554-398. Richard fought valiantly, making nice finds of GENDARME, SPITFIRE, and REBEGAN, but Bryan's bingoquake of GUILDER, ESTRONES, SINUATES, and NEPOTIST was simply too much to overcome.

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +431. As is often the case, Charles opened the night with a match against Mark Kenas, which he won 496-421. His TRUDGEON and POMFRETS were matched by Mark's YERSINIA# and DRACONES#. Eagle-eyed website users will note that Collins bingos are now noted with a pound sign in the stats rather than outright marked as phony, which will help reduce some inflated phony percentages in the yearly stats. Charles followed that up with two wins simultaneously, besting Helen Flores 421-324 and Ed Nawrocki 487-264. Sadly, Charles' streak of good fortune came to an end, and his rematch against Mark Kenas ended in defeat, 348-428. Mark played PETITES, TRANSMIT, and the appropriate MARKMEN# for his win. Charles recovered at the end with a big 489-373 win against Andy Bohnsack, getting ELAPINE (it's an adjective! Don't put an S on it!), PROETTES, and ANURETIC.

3rd Thomas Reinke finished at 3-1 +142 with a lower-than-his-usual-but-still-pretty-good per game average of 416. He fended off Sara McLaughlin in round one, 404-375, playing one bingo (RANDIES) to Sara's two (FURRIES, POTTERS). Despite some deep bingo knowledge on display against Mark Kenas (BRIGUING#, TRANTER#, SEMIMATT), Thomas lost his second game 418-467. Three bingos ended up being enough in the next game as he got ISOMERS, INVADERS, and FLAGPOLE to beat Richard Lauder 414-330. For the final game of the night, Thomas got his revenge on Mark, winning 429-351 with the aid of UNREASON and CRABWISE (Mark had DONNEES and ANOTHER). With CRABWISE now crossed off the list of "CRAB" words, Thomas can get to work on playing CRABMEAT.