1st Dennis Lloyd dethroned the tyrannical Reinke-Reinke-Benwitz triarchy with his flawless 4-0 +294 record. Arriving too late to play in round one, Dennis made up for lost time by playing as the "one" in a two-on-one match in the second round. Squaring off against Sue Goldstein and Helen Flores, he won both games comfortably: 336-265 against Sue, thanks to a bingo of NAIVETE for 93 points, and 388-311 against Helen, thanks to PASTRIES and RESENTS. Dennis followed that up with his sole 400-point game of the night, 410-272 against newcomer Jane Wesson, a game which featured two bingos from Dennis' side, SHAFTED and READIES. To cap off his immaculate night of Scrabble supremacy, Dennis went up against regular opponent Richard Lauder and squeaked out a close 8-point win in a low-scoring game, 343-335. Dennis has now won four in a row against Richard, but Richard still comfortably owns the lifetime series; Dennis would need to win the next seven to even things up. Easy!

2nd Charles Reinke faced a tough lineup of opponents but emerged from the ordeal (relatively) unscathed, finishing at 4-1 +353. Undertaking the challenge of playing two players at once in the first round, he split his games, winning big against Thomas Reinke 540-406 but losing to Mark Kenas 416-442. Both games ended with six total bingos on the board, demonstrating the kind of bingo bounty that is almost commonplace when playing with the expansive Collins lexicon. Charles' bingos were EVILNESS, ADULATE, INTROITS, and PENTITO# against Thomas; FIRETRAP, LICENSOR, and REMAILER against Mark. With the loss out of the way, Charles went on to win his next three, starting with a 428-340 win against Lynda Finn, despite her shoutout bingo of LAUDERS. A 419-374 revenge win against Mark gave Charles momentum heading into the final round, where he collided with Bryan Benwitz and stifled the usually high-scoring Bryaniac 411-299. Both Charles and Bryan average over two bingos per game, but each played just one in their matchup: IDEATES for Bryan, TONNAGES for Charles.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +15, averaging a nice 454 per game but giving up 451 per game in response. It was a slow start for Thomas as he was pounded in round one, 406-540 against fraternal enemy Charles Reinke. The following game, against Mark Kenas, was also a big loss, 444-542. In that one, Mark got down four bingos (SHITTIER, SALPIAN, ALUMINES, UNCURSED) while Thomas had "just" three (NAARTJIE#, REBOILED, UNPERSON). Things turned around when Thomas played a two-on-one match against Lynda Finn and Richard Lauder; Thomas had three bingos in each game, and won them both, 453-364 vs. Lynda and 494-433 vs. Richard. A rematch against Mark Kenas in the final round saw Thomas unflinchingly play, and get away with, the phony TELEVIZE* (can only be spelled TELEVISE for some reason) en route to a 472-375 victory. Thomas' valid bingos were RENTERS and VELOUTE, while Mark found word of the week CALAMARI as well as TUNDRAS.

We welcomed first-timer Jane Wesson to the club. Her first game was a 372-297 win over Sara McLaughlin, buoyed by a bingo of ABILITY for 65 points - a good portent for future success!