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1st Charles Reinke finished in first place for the third time in as many weeks, going 5-0 +677 and averaging a lofty 489 points per game. He quickly racked up 300+ points of spread in the first round thanks to a particularly successful 2-on-1 set against Andy Bohnsack and Richard Lauder. Richard got down the Word of the Week, ELDRICH (also spelled ELDRITCH, meaning "weird"), but lost big to Charles, 293-296. Charles' game against Andy was closer, but still not all that close at 465-362; Charles had MARATHON, DETERGES, and TORQUATE to Andy's RADIANCY and HIREABLE. Playing his regularly-scheduled two games against Mark Kenas, Charles had his bingo switch permanently stuck to "on" as he got down a total of eight bingos: INOSITES, NANOTUBE, SENSUAL, FIANCEES, UNPROVEN, GILBERTS, ANODIZER, and DALGYTE#. The two games were both sizable wins for Charles, 486-407 and 558-376. For his fifth win, Charles played a sole bingo of SPLINTER to win 438-328.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 for the third straight week (don't forget, the Y in BrYan stands for "consistencY"). He squeezed out a win over Dave Kinzer in round one, needing every bit of his bingos of INTITULE and SEGMENT to prevail 403-385. His next game was even closer, as he barely made it past Thomas Reinke, 431-429, getting RANDANS and PRINTED to Thomas' MONTERO and SIGNORE. For his efforts, Bryan was immediately paired with the other Reinke, and lost 328-438, finding just one bingo of RURALITE. In the final game of the night, Bryan went up against Steve Hartsman, and while both players had three bingos, somehow the scoreboard didn't reflect that fact, and Bryan won handily, 505-361. Bryan landed SEMIMAT, ROARINGS (notable as the more challengeable anagram of GARRISON), and DIVORCEE; Steve got RASHNESS, EROTICS, and SEIZING.

3rd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +107, incrementally lowering his yearly win% from 73% and making the club championship race somewhat more exciting. He duked it out with Mark Kenas in the first game, and the result was a scoreline typical of the more expansive Collins dictionary, 476-445. Thomas had JAPONICA, EDITING, and UNEARED# to Mark's PRANCING and TANGRAMS. Their later rematch was also high-scoring, although not in Thomas' favor, as he lost 463-548 despite the stylish CSW-only find of UMWHILE#. In between those two Collins games, Thomas faced a tough two-on-one of Steve Hartsman and Bryan Benwitz; the end result was a partial success, as he lost to Bryan 429-431 but whomped Steve 477-324 (I guess since the total spread change was significantly in the positives, the level of success lands somewhere between "partial" and "rousing"). Thomas finished the night's activities with a close 439-429 victory over Andy Bohnsack, getting QUAKIEST, PARENTED, and MEIOSES vs. Andy's GROUPED and SOFTIES.

We welcomed new player Lloyd to our ranks, and he performed admirably for a first-timer, averaging 365 per game over three games and getting a win over Dave Kinzer, 388-356, thanks to an out-bingo of NURTURES.

1st Charles Reinke stood at the top of the weekly standings for the second week in a row, this time finishing at 4-1 +438 despite averaging just one bingo per game (a far cry from his yearly average of roughly 2.25). He got the year's fifth 600-point game when he defeated Mark Kenas 601-271 in the first round. Perhaps even more notable was the fact that Mark actually bingoed the same amount of times as Charles did in that game (MYNHEER and LAITIES for Charles, STEEVING and REDREAMT for Mark). That game was one half of a two-on-one; the other half got off comparatively lightly as he beat Dennis Lloyd 401-356. Charles picked up another big win when he defeated Steve Hartsman 471-263, again not needing much in the way of bingos (just a sole SOILING) to rack up the points. He got a generous helping of Mark's revenge in their third-round rematch, which Charles lost 359-557 in the face of Mark's PAINTURE#, PUNDONOR#, UNITAGE, and CYANITE. A 450-397 victory against Bryan Benwitz, featuring a bingo of THIONINE, completed Charles' first-place run. (THIONINE is notable for taking an E for ETHIONINE, a word which is itself notable for taking an M for METHIONINE).

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +501 with a 459 average, highest among all players. He handily defeated Helen Flores in round one, 438-304, playing ANTISAG and MONIKER to Helen's WILDEST. For round two, he made good use of his expansive word knowledge (which is the whole point of having expansive word knowledge in the first place), slapping down four bingos (CORRADE, OSTEOID, SHELTIES, and QUANTING) for a crushing 563-293 triumph over Dave Kinzer. Dedicated write-up readers will remember John Bialek's upset win over Bryan last week; history was given a chance to repeat itself, but a repeat wasn't in the cards as Bryan won a remarkably vengeful matchup 439-289, thanks to OUTDARES and VINTAGER. Bryan's 4-0 chances were snuffed out in the final game, as his TRANSHIP and LENTILS weren't enough to overtake Charles Reinke, the final score being 397-450.

3rd Steve Hartsman had another strong showing, going 3-1 +242. He picked up a large spread advantage early by defeating Carol Orman 533-299, landing bingos of SWEATER, SQUIRES, and GORDITAS (Carol found DOUGHIER, which could possibly be a way to describe your gorditas). However, most of that spread advantage was negated by a 263-471 loss to Charles Reinke. Things got back on track with a 458-318 win against Helen Flores, where Helen's RADIXES (fun fact: RADIX can also be pluralized to RADICES) was bested by Steve's PILOTING and RENTERS. Steve finished his evening by taking down John Bialek 416-340; when the dust cleared, the one bingo on the board was Steve's TEENAGE.

Mark's nine-letter FROTTAGES, played through the R and the first T, was word of the week, simply because his finds of GIFTSHOP# and PUNDONOR# were disqualified for only being good in Collins.

1st Charles Reinke swept through the field with a 4-0 +371 record, his second undefeated outing of the year. Round one saw him escape with a 435-415 win against Mark Kenas, getting down BUTANES to Mark's NOSTRIL and ILEUSES. Charles turned up the heat in the next game as he clobbered Lynda Finn 550-336 with a trio of bingos: OUTWAITS, TRIGONAL, and INNARDS. Lynda got down INDOORS to minimize the damage to the extent possible. Matched up against Mark Kenas again (because who else is Mark gonna play?), Charles prevailed once more, 459-380, thanks to bingo finds of DEEWANS, ENSLAVED, and PRONOTUM (the last of which pluralizes to the more useful PRONOTA). Sitting at 3-0 after three games, Charles faced the other 3-0 contender, John Bialek, for the final game, and duked it out to an uncommonly low final score of 340-282. Charles had the only bingo in the game, INFAUNAE.

2nd Thomas Reinke recovered from the previous week's 1-3 showing to go 4-1 +469, much more in line with his yearly results. Things were a bit dicey in the first game against Steve Hartsman, but Thomas took a 406-397 victory despite being outbingoed (CONNATE vs. MOISTEST and UNDEREAT). A loss to Mark Kenas, 430-484, put a quick end to Thomas' winning ways; the bingos there were MEDRESA# and DIORITES for Thomas, NEUROPIL# and TENDENCE for Mark. Thanks to the immutable mathematical properties of odd numbers, Thomas spent the third round playing two players at once; his game against Dennis Lloyd was uncomfortably close at 383-366, while his game against Helen Flores was quite comfortable indeed, 569-294. Thomas finished the night with another supremely comfortable win, dominating his rematch against Mark 554-332, finding HATFULS, TILERIES#, and CIDERIER. (HATSFUL is also a word. If anybody has a way to remember that things like HATSFUL, JARSFUL, HANDSFUL, and TEACUPSFUL are words, but not PALMSFUL* or POTSFUL* or TINSFUL*, please let us know.)

3rd John Bialek went 3-1 +119. He came out of the gate strong with a 402-331 victory over Carol Ormand, getting a bingo of INSERTS in the process. His bingo output doubled (if only it could double every game...) as he got down SOUTANES and the high-scoring PRETAXED* (98 points, but PRETAX doesn't take -ED or -ES) to beat Dave Kinzer 382-326. Dave had STREAMER, which is the anagram of John's REMASTER from last week. John's highlight win came in round three as he finally defeated Bryan Benwitz for the first time ever, 441-391. John used a balanced scoring attack, supplemented by a bingo of GRISTLY for 88 points, to achieve his long-awaited victory. One could even say that John was at his...'Witz end! Sadly, John was unable to convert that momentum into an undefeated night, as he lost to Charles Reinke in the final, 282-340.

Helen's AFFIANCE was word of the week, narrowly beating out Richard's COPYEDIT in the voting.