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1st Charles Reinke had a club session which could most accurately be described as "dominant" as he averaged 498 per game, played 14 bingos, and finished at 5-0 +709. His lowest-scoring game of 443 was notched in the first round against Dennis, a game where he also had his lowest bingo total with "only" two. Dennis did have the nice play of MISGAVE for 102, but Charles had CARDITIS and an out-play TRISOMES. In the second round he faced both Daves, racking up a pair of 500-point games, beating Dave K. 549-285 and Dave G. 519-320. His star play in those games was a triple-triple find of LINIMENT for 122 against Dave K. Charles' prefect night continued against Bryan in the third game, where he won 487-378. Bryan had bingos of COENURE and RADIOMEN while Charles played BRAVOES, OXALATES, and a double-double NEWTONS that won him a few bucks for the "High W" prize. His final game was by far the closest, a 493-491 win against Thomas. Both combatants played three bingos: BARONET, CRISPATE (adj. irregularly curled or crinkled), and WEAKENS for Thomas, and REWORDS, REINVITE, and MILTIER for Charles. The U's and I's were played early, and it seemed like whoever drew the Q was not going to be able to play it. Thomas was the unlucky receiver of that tile, and the 20 points Charles got from it were just enough to put him over the top.

2nd Bryan Benwitz didn't have as amazing of a night as the first place finisher, but did perfectly well for himself, coming in second with a 3-1 +140 record. He won 470-382 against Thomas in the opener, utilising wondrous bingos of WONDROUS for 111 and a late UTILISES to seal the game. Thomas played EROTIZED and the word-of-the-week COWFLOPS. COWFLOP, COWFLAP, COWPLOP, COWPIE, and COWPAT all mean the same thing, "a dropping of cow dung". Remember to mark your calendars for the Prairie Du Sac cow chip throw and festival during Labor Day weekend. This will be the year the Madison Scrabble Club delegation takes home the gold! But coming back to Scrabble, Bryan won the next game 435-390 against Helen. She fought valiantly, outbingoing Bryan with OUTRODE and ORIENTED to his BONEYARD, but it wasn't enough in the end. He suffered his only defeat of the evening against Charles in the third round 378-487, also his lowest-scoring game of the night. In the final match he faced Dave G. and won 445-329. Dave bingoed with OUTSANG (anagram of NOUGATS) and Bryan played GLITTER (no word on whether that was extended to AGLITTER) and ERASERS.

3rd Richard Lauder forwent what would surely have been an extremely wet, cold, windy, and all-around miserable evening on the golf course to play some Scrabble instead, and that was a good decision, as he came in third at 2-1 +14. He was rewarded for missing the first game with a second-round contest against Thomas. That game didn't turn out so well for him, as he lost 300-476 while watching his opponent lay down many (unearned) bingos. Luckily for him, no more bingos were played against him for the rest of the night. His next game was a 413-334 win over Dave K., where he played HAIRPINS and RETINTED. In the final game, he faced Mary and won that one as well, 418-307. In that game, he bingoed with FAIREST and ALTHORN (n. a brass wind instrument, kind of like a SAXHORN).

1st Charles Reinke achieved the semi-rare "come in first place without going undefeated" feat by going 4-1 +506. To get a jumpstart on his winning ways, he played two games in the first round and won both of them, 408-265 versus Helen Flores and 502-256 versus Mary Becker. In the latter game, Charles had bingos of AERATION, UNWARILY, and FRESHEN. Charles then took on his clone Thomas Reinke and came out on top, 433-406. Living up to their twinness, both players had two bingos: SIESTAS and REFUNDER for Charles, VORLAGE and AERADIO for Thomas (if you remember any word from this writeup, make in AERADIO, since it is high-probability but hard to find). In round three, Charles was felled by Bryan Benwitz for his only loss of the evening, 396-430. Bryan's timely double-double of EQUISETA for 118 points was supplemented by a 70-point find of CRIOLLOS; Charles got EPITASES (plural OF EPITASIS) and DELEGATE. That setback didn't have too much effect on Charles' momentum, however, as he smacked around Richard Lauder in the final game, winning 458-334. Richard got one bingo, WITCHES, but Charles had RAWBONED and OZONISER, the latter of which being worth a whopping 104 points.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged a club-best 442 per game (still under his yearly average) and went 3-1 +367 for a second-place finish. He used up most of his reserves of scoring power in the first game, when he played three bingos (TROTTED, HOPLITE, SCIATICA) and clobbered James Frankki by a score of 495-274. So excessive was that scoring outburst that Thomas dropped his next game, against Charles Reinke, 406-433. Thomas got back on track against Dave Gilligan, winning 411-360 in a game where both combatants had two bingos (Thomas' MOIETIES and SEABOOT vs. Dave's ACCENTS and ANSWERS). Game four saw Thomas take a decisive win over the theretofore-undefeated Bryan Benwitz, 457-335. Bryan played SELFING as well as a late STRINGED to get his score into respectable territory, while Thomas had REFLATED, CORANTO, and CROCUSES (likely a more common plural of CROCUS than CROCI is).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +148, but suffered the most devastating heartbreak of all by winning his first three games before his dreams of an undefeated session were demolished in the final game. He started out with a comfortable 441-324 win against Betty Hasselkus, getting BLURTING and PARTIED. A similarly comfortable 439-320 win over Richard Lauder followed, with Bryan playing SPANDREL (also SPANDRIL, "a space between two arches") in his winning effort (Richard had OLIVINE). The undefeated run continued for Bryan when he went up against Charles Reinke and won 430-396 (playing the aforementioned EQUISETA for 118 points, enough points that it gets mentioned twice). Bryan was rewarded for his strong play by getting to play current club leader Thomas Reinke in the final round, but no good deed went unpunished as he was defeated 335-457.

1st Thomas Reinke finished with a 3-1 +309 record, celebrating his birthday with a first place finish. Perhaps this will be the year his advanced age starts to take its toll on his Scrabble-playing ability? We can only hope. Anyway, he still seemed fit as a fiddle in the first round, beating Bryan 516-320. That game was marred by his misspelled bingo of OBVOLTUE*. OBVOLUTE was what he was going for, but the letter transposition went unnoticed by either player until a few seconds after it was too late to challenge. In the second round, he had a similarly high-scoring win, beating the returning Richard 524-308 and handing him his only loss of the night. Thomas played MIRRORED out of a rack with three Rs and two blanks, as well as OSSATURE and ORGANDIE (n. a cotton fabric, also ORGANDY). He then faced Charles at hit a significant bump in his road to a perfect night, as he lost big, 323-495. He wisely chose ANTSIER out of the 9 available words in that set of letters, but it was no match for Charles' constant scoring onslaught. In the last game, he faced Charles again, because everyone decided that three games was enough, and won 448-379. His bingos that game were ANTERIOR, GABBIEST, and UNREELS.

2nd Charles Reinke (also celebrating a birthday, what are the odds?) also finished with a 3-1 record, but fell short on spread for first with a +217. He faced James in the first round, winning a close one 419-377, his last play prompting James to remark "that's too many points", a sentiment silently echoed by all in attendance. James did get down the word-of-the-week, NARWHALE, which is an alternate spelling of NARWHAL (n. what appears to be a sea unicorn) in that game. In the next game, he faced Helen, and won only through his timely play of GOVERNED on a tight board. The final was 401-329, Helen's only loss of the night. Charles pushed his record to 3-0 with a 495-323 win against Thomas, bingoing early with TREMOLO and bingoing later with ANTIMINE. He also played the next game against Thomas; since they seem to like playing each other so much, a proposal is currently being drafted to have them form their own "Reinke Scrabble Players Organization", where they are the only two members and are barred from attending clubs of other Scrabble organizations.

3rd Helen Flores came in third with a 3-1 +139 record, beating out Aaron for the coveted final paragraph. Her first game was an entirely bingoless (so what am I supposed to talk about, the scorecard should really have a box for "other high-scoring plays" or something) contest versus Dave K., a game she won 380-319. She lost against the always-tough Charles 329-401, getting down TANGENT, but didn't let that faze her as she won her next game, a 353-281 win over Sue. Helen played RADIATE that game, but no word on whether it was extended to ERADIATE, RERADIATE, IRRADIATE, or TRIRADIATE. She saved her best for last, beating Dave G. in the final round 431-353. Her big play in that game was ENQUIRED for 86 points. If you somehow took that play away but everything else stayed the same (somehow), she would've lost. Somehow.

In other, vaguely-exciting news, Dave K. played one of the new five-letter words, TWERK. That's the first of the longer new words that has been noticed to have been played; if you played something like AQUAFABA but didn't let anyone know, you missed out on possibly getting a mention in the writeup.