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1st Steve Hartsman made good on his (assumed) New Year's Resolution to not lose any more games of Scrabble, as he went 4-0 +794 and averaged a perfect 500 points per game. When taken in combination with his 4-0 record to end 2025, he now has an eight-game winning streak. He started with a 480-329 win against Charles Reinke, playing the nine-letter OVERCOUNT in addition to the two-U UPROUSED. Charles' score of 329 ended up being the most that any of Steve's opponents would score. Steve dominated his second game as he prevailed 552-288 over Andy Bohnsack; a phony triple-triple of STRIVENT* for 140 points was an apt homage to a beloved financial services company, but was unfortunately not an actual word. In round three, Steve again held his opponent under 300 points in a 467-286 win against Richard Lauder; LIRIOPE, ANTIWEED, and AEROGEL were Steve's bingos there. A 502-304 win over Sara McLaughlin, with bingo finds of WEDGIES, INHOLDER, and ASSAILED, completed Steve's strivent quest for perfection (is that how we're using that word?).

2nd Thomas Reinke went 4-1 +384, demonstrating the level of Scrabble proficiency that gave him the 2025 club championship. He tried to start off on the right foot, but unfortunately chose the wrong foot as his first game was a loss to Mark Kenas, 401-414, getting GETTING (heh)and ARRANGES to Mark's ELOIGNER and URAEUSES (URAEUS and AUREUS are both good, and both pluralize with -EI [URAEI, AUREI], but only URAEUS pluralizes with -ES). Thomas recovered with a pair of wins in a two-on-one set, beating Lynda Finn 421-293 and Carol Ormand 489-316. A rematch against Mark was an improvement over the first go-round as Thomas prevailed 488-431, hitting on NIGELLA and ETALONS. The evening ended with Thomas defeating rival Bryan Benwitz 395-356, overcoming Bryan's nice find of JACINTHE with his own bingos of RELOANS and SKILLET.

3rd Sara McLaughlin went 3-1 +163 and averaged a nice 410 points per game, considerably exceeding last year's average of 356. She took down Ed Nawrocki in game one, finding PULPITS and COSIGNER (to Ed's EIDOLON) for a 431-359 win. A 442-229 win over Dora Kilburn in the next game allowed Sara to continue racking up spread. Facing Lynda Finn in the third round, Sara got a double-double of QUACKING for 142 points for a 461-385 win. 142 points for a non-triple-triple isn't quite a record, but is pretty close; Bryan's 150 for ZEMSTVO back in 2016 seems to be the best we've been able to do while not hitting two TWS's simultaneously. Sara was sadly not able to turn her 3-0 record into a 4-0 record as she was flattened by Steve Hartsman in the final  round, 304-502.

Charles played the word of the week when he found the nine-letter TROPAEOLA, which is the plural of TROPAEOLUM, a type of plant. He evidently forgot to cash in his 100,000 style points for 62 real points (at current conversion rates), and lost the game to Dave Kinzer, 465-404.

Two players played the word ANTERIOR, which gives it a head start on the most-played bingo of 2026, and also puts it ahead of its own position in 2025, where it was only played once.

1st Charles Reinke wrapped up the club season with a tidy 5-0 +400 record. His customary two-game set against Mark Kenas was fruitful, as he scored wins of 456-415 and 431-391, getting down high-probability sevens of LASERED, ENTASIA, BERLINE, and AGITATE. Charles also got a Collins-lexicon win against Thomas Reinke, 481-397, deploying more high-probability bingos with RETINOID, SOUTANE, and WASPIER (Thomas had HOMELIKE). Charles' big win was a 479-316 win against Dennis Lloyd, where Charles was able to overcome Dennis' BLASTERS with his own bingos of ESTRONES and UNWIELDY. With second place in the yearly standings still up for grabs, Charles closed the book on 2025 with a 455-383 win against rival Bryan Benwitz, holding Bryan to one bingo (AROYNTED) while taking three for himself (SENARII, TALESMAN, UNTOWARD).

2nd Steve Hartsman unwrapped an early Christmas present in the form of his first-ever undefeated record, finishing 4-0 +351 with a 452 per-game average and eleven bingos. That total package of Scrabble success certainly eclipses any real-life gift that one could possibly receive. He started with a pair of solid wins against Sara McLaughlin (429-346) and Dennis Lloyd (403-300), flexing his word knowledge with bingos of RETAPING, ROSEBAY, RETOOLED, SIDEBAR, and NARRATED across those two games. Steve then matched up against his favorite opponent, Bryan Benwitz, and halted Bryan's three-game streak against him with a commanding 526-417 victory. Bingos flowed in abundance that game, as Steve had four (WAITERED, STIMYING, REAVAIL, REDDING) to Bryan's three (RETIRED, ACAUDATE, LIGATES). The night ended with Steve ending another three-game streak against him as he felled Andy Bohnsack 451-395.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 4-2 +205, playing two separate two-on-sets due to poor planning of the pairings, but being so assured in his club championship that nothing really mattered anyway. A 350-496 loss to Bryan Benwitz was not the way Thomas wanted to start off the last session of the club season, and a subsequent 397-481 loss to Charles Reinke didn't help much, but Thomas' crushing 541-386 victory over Mark Kenas (bingoing with VOMERINE, OSTIOLE, RAVAGED, and GRANTEE) helped dull the pain of earlier failures. Thomas also romped against Dave Kinzer (448-335, getting COADMIRE, NEARSIDE, and NEBULAS) and Sara McLaughlin (487-327, getting DIHEDRAL, COURANTO, and BORSTALS). Going against Mark again in the final game, Thomas pulled off a close 433-426 win; Thomas' NIDATES, TROUGHED#, and SITULAE# were just enough to fend off Mark's CARRELS and RAMPICKS#.

Dave Kinzer got word of the week with a word that certainly didn't seem to be in the holiday spirit (unless you hate your family) with SHITHEAD. Bryan got a 641-point game against Andy, setting the record for highest score of the year right as 2025 ended. He hit RAINIER, NARROWER, MAILBAG, CAVEOLAE, and SNOTTIER to reach that score.

With holidays putting an end to the club season a few weeks early, the Club Championship (and its metaphorical trophy) is ready to be handed out. Leading the club in winning percentage with a 70.4% was Thomas Reinke, taking the championship back from Bryan Benwitz, who had won it in 2024 and 2023. His 449 points per game was tied for best in the club (guess who he tied with), and his 2.36 bingos per game was also club-best (not surprising for somebody who won more games than everybody else). Thomas won in 2021 and 2022, so his re-ascendence to the throne (again, this is a metaphorical throne) comes as no surprise.

In second place, making a last-second surge to get himself out of third place, was Charles Reinke, winning 67.0% of his games. He also averaged 449 per game, and his 2.32 bingos per game was just a bit short of his brother. His last club championship was 2019, so he might be looking for revenge heading into 2026 (there are rumors of an intensive word-study regimen involving a sparsely-furnished "study cave" wallpapered with pages from the dictionary).

Third place belonged to Bryan Benwitz at 66.4% wins and a 436 average. His 2.06 bingos per game was third-best in the club, although two other players (Andy Bohnsack and Mark Kenas) averaged over two per game, a fact that once again demonstrates the strength of our club.

In terms of other statistical notes, Bryan's 641 was high score of the year, topping five other 600-point games (two more from Bryan, two from Charles, and one from Andy). Bryan's 212-point SPEEDWAY in April was the highest-scoring bingo of the year, although Charles' 203-point IODIZERS in May was pretty close. The most common bingos played were ANDESITE, ISOLATE, and TEASING, each getting played four times - this demonstrates more overall creativity in the club's bingo-finding abilities, as ISATINE was played six times last year, and ATONIES and ERASION were played five times.

1st Thomas Reinke laid waste to all those who were unfortunate enough to be paired against him; his 5-0 +838 record tells some of the story, while his sixteen bingos and 529 per-game-average tells the rest of it. His 5-0 record also mathematically guarantees him the club championship (unless we manage to fit ten games in our next session and he loses them all), but he'll get his fawning writeup next week. As per usual, Thomas played two Collins games against Mark Kenas, and cruised in both of them, winning with scores of 525-307 (OMITTING, UNISEXES, ONSTEAD#) and 574-288 (AEQUORIN, ANCONOID, MANHOLES, FIERCEST). His only sub-500 game was in round two where he beat Andy Bohnsack 464-408. In the final round, Thomas scored 500+ in both games of a two-on-one. Helen Flores didn't put up too much of a fight, as that game ended 554-303 (thanks in part to Thomas' 137-point TOPAZINE), but Richard Lauder put up enough of a fight for the both of them, as he got his highest-ever losing score (by far) in a 527-500 slobberknocker. That 500-point loss is the third-highest losing score this year, and the two higher ones were both Collins games, so do they even count? Richard's 185-point triple-triple outbingo of DITHERER also clocks in as this year's fourth-highest-scoring bingo (behind a 212, 203, and 186).

2nd Charles Reinke went 4-1 +226, continuing to battle Bryan for second place in the yearly standings. His first game was a 558-265 drubbing of Lynda Finn, with bingos of RETURNEE, CHIVAREE, ATABALS, and ATONERS. He also scored two Collins-lexicon wins against Mark Kenas, 444-378 and 442-441 (for those doing the math at home, that latter game was indeed a one-point margin). Charles stacked up bingos with INPOURS, LEARIER, TORSADES, ROYALET#, METALIST, and SARSNET in those games. A crucial match against Bryan Benwitz ended in a 404-384 for Charles, thanks to OOLITES and AUREOLA. But perfection was denied by Andy Bohnsack and his bingoish ways; in a 363-517 loss, Charles got down FLEABAGS while Andy romped with OUTLIES, SOVRANS, CREATIVE, and SIENITE

3rd Bryan Benwitz finished with a somewhat standard (for him) 3-1 +367 record. Facing relative newcomer Ed Nawrocki for the first time, Bryan managed the win, 412-297, playing SIDEBURN to Ed's tasty RIGATONI (truly a top five pasta shape, if not top three). Bryan didn't manage to make much use of his bingo knowledge in game two as he was bingoless in a 384-404 loss to Charles Reinke, but he got back on track with three bingos (CREATOR, PACIFIST, PENNIES) to defeat Richard Lauder 505-300. Bryan finished another successful night of tile-based combat with a 459-392 win against Andy Bohnsack, demonstrating the potency of the -ING combo with BARRING and SUITING; meanwhile, Andy demonstrated the potency of learning high-probability sevens with AITCHES and TRAILER.