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1st Bryan Benwitz put on a clinic regarding the fine art of defensive Scrabble, holding his opponents to a 328 average and winning the night with a 4-0 +333 record. His first game was a chance for revenge against Barb, who had beaten him in the last game of the previous week. The revenge he so desired was his, as he won 378-334 with bingos of GROANERS and PLUCKED. Barb did get down REVISORS, which drew a challenge, but no word on whether either of them extended it to PREVISORS. Against Helen in the second round, he played two quick bingos, UNITARD and SWORDMEN, and coasted the rest of the way to a 399-311 victory. The third round saw him face a similarly undefeated Dave, but Bryan was undaunted, and won decisively 421-261. We already mentioned his "defensive Scrabble" clinic, but we forgot to mention his secondary "play two bingos every game" clinic which was being held in the same location. It goes without saying that he played two bingos against Dave, MOTHIER and LITIGATE. Bryan's fine game was also his closest, with him winning 447-406 against Charles. Charles played BONDMEN late in that game to take a decent lead, but Bryan even later in the game played HALLOOS (v. to shout "hello", also HALLOA, HULLOO, HULLOA, HOLLOO, HOLLOA, HULLO, HALLO, and HOLLO. Did I miss any?) to seal/steal the victory.

2nd James Frankki enjoyed his Spring Break by kicking some booty over the Scrabble board, finishing at 3-1 +260. He started off with a big win against the visiting Warren, and showed him some good old-fashioned Madison hospitality by beating him 511-255. James had three bingos that game, DIALOGER, STINKIER, and GOETHITE (n. an ore of iron, named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). He cooled off a bit in the next game. Unfortunately, cooling off against Charles is rarely a good idea, and he lost 433-456. Charles played AEONIAN, TITIVATE for 95, and FRANKEST for 92. That last one came as a reponse to James' sole bingo of FONDLED, and was the key play in the game. He played a bingoless game in the third round but still squeaked out a win against Barb 378-358, despite Barb's bingo of WAISTED. WAIST is not a verb, but WAISTED (adj. having a waist of a specified kind) and WAISTING (n. a type of dressmaking material) are both good, so it might as well be for our purposes. For his final act, James had another close win, this time against Thomas, 367-360. A rather low-scoring game, but a win is a win, unless it's not a win, in which case it's actually a loss.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +162, not enjoying his Spring Break because it already ended for him. The weekly Reinke versus Reinke matchup was played in the first round, and Charles won easily, 459-358. He played the ever-useful ETESIAN, as well as NAPROXEN (which had been played by Thomas just a few weeks ago) and IRONCLAD. We already read all about his second-round win against James, but I have one other note to add about that game: TITIVATE is a really fun word to say. The third round saw him matched up against Mary, with him winning 426-347 with a bingo of DEUTERON. Mary kept it close with a bevy of high-scoring power-tile plays, but Charles was able to keep the game out of reach. His 406-477 loss against was also already read about in a previous paragraph, but what I didn't mention is that he somehow found the brainpower to hook a K under an O to make OK, one of the new two letter words. That's why he's been a multiyear club champion, I guess.

1st Thomas Reinke topped a field of players where nobody went undefeated by going 4-1 +414. That outcome seemed somewhat unlikely after his first game, which was a loss to Bryan Benwitz, 415-443. Thomas did have a triple-triple of PALLIEST for 140, but even that huge play, combined with TANAGERS for 61, was not enough to topple the high-scoring Bryaniac, who had bingos of NIGHTIE and GNASHES. After that initial setback, a streak of four straight wins propelled Thomas back to the top of the weekly standings. In round two, Thomas took down James Frankki in a close game, 410-399, despite getting outbingoed two to one (RIDDLING vs. TANNERS and ENTIRES). Thomas began to pick up steam in round three, playing two players at once and soundly defeating both: 478-361 versus Michael David (playing NOTEDLY, NOVATES, and MARRIAGE) and 480-286 versus Mary Becker (playing power-tile bingos JIVIEST and SURTAXES). In the final round, Thomas found himself sitting across from a mirror image of himself in Charles Reinke, and overcame daunting existential quandaries to prevail, 494-374.

2nd Barb Pratzel made a return to the top three with a 3-1 +278 record. Like Thomas, Barb's only loss came in the first round, 371-378 against Michael David. She went up against Charles Reinke in the next game, and came away with her first-ever (but certainly not last-ever) win against a Reinke, 394-380. Her two bingos of GASEOUS and VESTING, plus an unplayable Q for Charles at the end, ensured her victory. Her biggest win (and, as of now, highest score ever at our club) came against the returning Carl Skalitzky in round three. The final score was 470-238, and her 89-point bingo of GLITTERY definitely helped in achieving that large score. The mini winning streak continued into round four, where Barb took down Bryan Benwitz 378-339. Bryan was held bingoless, while Barb got EXISTED and IRONIES. Moral of the story: stop Bryan from bingoing if you want to beat him.

3rd Charles Reinke lost to the two players who finished above him in the standings, but still snagged third place with a 3-2 +328 record. An opening-round matchup against James Frankki ended strongly in Charles' favor, as he won 503-386. James snagged the high A play with POSTMAN for 91, so the four-dollar prize helped to soothe the sting of having to watch Charles play three bingos: DEPRIVAL, CORONAL, and DETINUE. Round two saw Charles embroiled in a two-on-one match, which he split. The loss was to Barb Pratzel, 380-394 (playing HABITED as his only bingo), and the win was against Helen Flores, 470-319 (playing TANKERS and NETIZENS). Charles came back strong after the less-than-ideal result in the previous round by crushing Bryan Benwitz, 535-341. Bryan had the high-probability STEARINS as his only bingo, while Charles had four of them: FERRIES, SNORTED, CALQUES, and PLIGHTER. The embarrassing overabundance of bingos in that game resulted in a drought of them in the next, as Charles lost to his brother Thomas 374-494 without bingoing a single time.

1st Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +362 a very consistent three-game start to the night with scores of 420, 422, and 421 before ruining the consistency with a 530. His first game was against James, and it was a close one, with Thomas winning 420-397. He let James get away with the phony-but-valid-looking INVESTER*, and in response, played the valid-but-phony-looking CALENDER (v. to smooth by pressing between rollers). He then faced Helen an won 422-358. He got down two quick bingos, URINATOR and FORBEARS. That second one is not to be confused with FOREBEARS, FORBEAR is the verb and FOREBEAR is the noun. Helen was able to keep the game close with some high-scoring power-tile plays, but failed to bingo herself. In the third game, against Charles, he got off to a very slow start. He was helped when his bingo of SPRINGE (leading candidate for "best spring word") got challenged, but his late bingo of TUNELESS (as in "Charles' singing is tuneless") came up just short, with the end result being a 421-434 defeat. Stay tuned for the third paragraph where we reveal what exciting and topical bingo Charles played in that game! Against Dave in the fourth and final game, he had a great first rack with two blanks, and played TEXTILE for 90. The rest of the game proceeded almost as well, as he bingoed twice more with ENIGMAS and LANGRELS and ended with 530 points to his name.

2nd Helen Flores got in some good practice for the upcoming Greeneye tournament in Minneapolis this weekend, coming in second with a 3-1 +92 record against tough competition. In the opener, she went up against Sue, who got the bingoing going first with FRAILER. Helen responded late with CONTOURS and won a close one, 392-361. She suffered her only loss of the night in the next game against Thomas, but came back strong against Michael, winning 384-353. Michael may be slightly rusty after an extended absence, but Helen has had to deal with similar effects after returning from Phoenix to find a still-frozen wasteland in Madison (though the editor notes that at the time of this writing, it does feel like spring a little bit), so it evened out. Michael got TOTALISE in that game, while Helen played COASTED. Her most impressive win was a 459-365 win over reigning club champion Charles in the final game. She played DEVOURS for 82 and followed it up with a devastating SHAWLED for 100 to put the game out of reach. A third bingo for her was almost available right at the end, which would have placed the contest squarely into the "thorough butt-kicking" category.

3rd Charles Reinke was edged out for second place by Helen on spread, finishing with a 3-1 +47 record. He beat Michael 441-329 in the first game, playing bingos of OUTBOARD (n. a type of motor, the opposite of INBOARD) and AUTOMATE. His game with Bryan in second round was a strangely low-scoring affair, with Charles winning in the end 361-345. Bryan played the nice BESOTTED, while Charles got down OUTLAND and VESTIGIA. The rest of the game, presumably, was spent with them playing one tile at a time for three points apiece. Against Thomas, he started off with a rack of REINKE and a blank. He has no choice but to play REINKED, passing up KERNITE and REEKING in order to get a perfect photo-op for the club Facebook group. Oh, and he also won the game, 434-421. His chance at yet another perfect night was foiled by Helen, but don't call her a FOILER* because that's not a word. Well, call her that if you must, just don't put it on the board.