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1st Bryan Benwitz ended the Scrabble year on a high note with a flawless 4-0 +161 record. His undefeated evening will serve as practice for his next test, which is to win every game of the upcoming club season. He initiated his perfect night by taking down Mary Becker 409-364, playing LIGATES and MISRELY (not just a misspelling of MISERLY but a word in its own right) while Mary got down STUNNED. A very similar game score-wise was played against Charles Reinke, where Bryan won 400-364 to extend his winning streak against Charles to two games. Bryan's bingos were PARDONER and the clunky-looking URAEMIAS; Charles had LARRIGAN (also LARIGAN) and DOTTIER (also DOTIER, though it means something else). Brimming with confidence after one Reinke win, Bryan went toe-to-toe with the other one and was victorious again, defeating Thomas 455-437. EGOTIZE and RUTILANT were Thomas' bingos, but Bryan did him one better by getting down three bonus plays: COUNTIES, RELAPSE, and DISCERN. In the fourth and final game, Bryan was able to put a fourth winning checkmark on his unblemished scorecard as he triumphed over Helen Flores in another high-scoring game, 470-405. This time, Helen won the bingo battle (playing REFUNDER and DETAINS to Bryan's OCTUPLE), but Bryan found enough other ways to score to overcome the bingo deficit.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-1 +200 to close out the club year, where he finished third in the club standings. His first game was not as closely-fought as his opponent probably wished it was; Dennis Lloyd was on the losing end of a 445-285 final score. Thomas had FASHION, TETRADIC, and COLLAPSE (anagram ESCALLOP), while Dennis eased the pain a bit with a bingo of EARLIEST. Helen Flores made things a bit closer, with Thomas "only" winning by a score of 422-368. Thomas had IRONMEN and SPINATE to Helen's METERING. Sitting at 2-0, Thomas had visions of a perfect night, but his third round loss to Bryan Benwitz (detailed in the previous paragraph) crushed those dreams like so many ants underneath a boot. Still, Thomas pressed on. His fourth game, a close 473-469 win, reversed a four-game losing streak he had been maintaining against his brother Charles. Thomas feasted on high-probability bingos, playing TREELINE, GROUTIER, and TAURINE. Charles similarly stuck to the more common range of the dictionary, playing IBOGAINE and DESTREAM.

3rd Aaron Bader played his customary four-game Collins series against Mark Kenas, going 3-1 +113. He overcame significant odds in his first game against Mark, winning by one point (378-377) despite getting outbingoed 0-to-3 (Mark had RAGTIMES, TOLANES, and MEUNIERE). A five-point penalty for a lost challenge ended up costing Mark the game. Aaron then regained his bingoing mojo and took the next one as well, 410-376. He played GERARDIA and PORRECT (which is an adjective in ours and a verb in theirs) while Mark had LANITALS. Mark took the first step towards an even 2-2 match by winning their third game 421-384 (getting RIPARIAN and LINGERS to Aaron's ZONULES), but was unable to close it out as Aaron dominated the fourth and final game, 491-376. Mark was held bingoless while Aaron had LOONIER, UNGREEDY, word-of-the-week NAGWARE, and a 114-point QUAINTER. All told, the two Collins experts played four games in that dictionary but didn't manage to play a Collins-only bingo, so I've got all these extra octothorps that I didn't get to use: ###########.

It was the last session of August, which means that next week brings with it a new club season. Charles Reinke was champion for the 2017-18 season, winning 71.3% of his games and averaging 434 points per game (a significantly lower average than past years, so there's still hope). Aaron Bader broke up the Reinke hegemony by coming in second on the yearly leaderboard, winning 69.5% of his games with a 425 per-game average. Thomas Reinke, in third place, had the highest average in the club at 437, and won 66% of his games.

1st Bryan Benwitz wandered over to the west side to check out the flooding (none to be seen in our particular basement abode) and also happened to play some Scrabble. The Scrabble part went really well, as he went 3-1 +212 and came in first place. He started off with a 394-344 win against Thomas, featuring ARMORERS and a game-winning out-bingo of THIOUREA. Those five-vowel eights sure do come in handy! He had a much higher-scoring game against the other Reinke in roudn two, coming out ahead again 478-409. He played DRILLING, ADENITIS, and LEGATOR. Charles struggled with a final rack containing a blank, but couldn't find a bingo (probably because there weren't any) and had to take the loss. Versus Richard, he played SEEDLIKE (adj. resembling a seed, I'm assuming) and RECITES, but lost by one measly point, 386-387. Richard's final two-tile draw of a Q and a blank, while a mixed bag, probably had something to do with things. In the final game, Bryan faced Helen and won 404-310. He won a second time, in a way, by deftly avoiding getting called "a dirty rat" by Helen, which seemed to be her favorite expression for the night.

2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +135, a middling record that was somehow good for second place. He lost to Bryan 344-394 in the first game, and was rewarded with an opportunity to play two in the next round. His 396-279 game against Lynda was marked by the nine-letter double-blank RECOVERER, while his game against Helen was won with his out-bingo of RATAFEES (n. RATAFIA, an almond-flavored liqueur) for 92 points. That would've been enough to win by itself, but to add insult to injury he caught Helen with the Q, making the final 426-388. No miracle wins were happening for him against Charles, as he lost 414-542, playing PANFORTE (n. a sweet cake) and SCANTIER. He let Charles bingo four times, with BOATLESS* (strangely plausible but also pretty stupid-looking), STRATEGY, GREASIER, and NOTARIAL. Thomas avoided another under .500 performance by beating Richard 491-333 in the final game. His best (in the opinion of this writer) bingo was PULICENE (adj. pertaining to fleas) but he also played SNIDELY and GLITTERS.

3rd Dave Gilligan went 2-0 +202, coming in third place as the night's sole undefeated player. He beat Lynda 406-338 in the first round, playing ROWBOAT and going out with BARNIEST for 70. Those 70 points were nearly matched by the Q and J and other unplayed goodies on Lynda's rack, as he turned a big deficit into a big win. In the second game, he beat Sue 371-273, but I can't really say any more because no bingos were played and I know no details. Let's just assume that Sue drew some bad stuff and Dave drew some good stuff. And then that was it for his night! There's something to be said for preserving a perfect record.

Helen played the word of the week, NARWALS, which is a non-standard spelling of NARWHAL or NARWHALE. A NARWHAL is an aquatic mammal that is basically a sea unicorn.

1st Charles Reinke, carrying with him the lingering stench of buffalo wings mixed with vague disappointment and cheap cologne, returned to club play with a 3-1 +302 record and secured first place. He opened with a big 461-309 win against the bingoless Bryan, while he himself played ENTREAT and SNIDEST. Following that, he upped his scoring by 10 points as he beat Thomas 471-350. In a stunning repeat of their Nationals matchup, Charles controlled the game and bingoed four times: BOINKED (v. BOINK this is a family friendly writeup, no definition), GENERALS, CREATION, and INAPTER. He had a third decisive win against Gail, scoring 489 and playing UNDERACT and FREESIAS. Things were looking good for an undefeated night, but Mary forcefully put an end to those illusions in the final match, as she crushed Charles 468-327, playing MANAGES (anagram SAGAMEN), UNSWEPT, and a killer FOLDERS for 98 late in the game. For contrast Here's the full unredacted list of bingos that Charles played: .

2nd Bryan Benwitz also went 3-1, but his spread of +54 meant that he was relegated to second place. He gave himself a big hole to work out of in the first game, as his negative 150 point margin against Charles meant he could make no more mistakes if he wanted a paragraph the next day. No one knows if he made any more mistakes or not, but he at least played well enough to beat his next three opponents. First up was Lynda, where he won on a tight board, 410-362. He then started off strong in the next game against Thomas, playing three bingos early en route to a 446-335 win. Those bingos were an opening-rack ETESIAN, DAIRYMEN, and SEALANT. He fanciest wordplay came against Gail, with the final being 410-343 in his favor, and the star of the show being his word-of-the-week find of BEEFCAKE (n. pictures of male physiques, or a male depicted in said pictures. The female analogue is CHEESECAKE).

Thomas played the relevant-to-current-events triple-triple HELITACK (n. the use of helicopters to fight forest fires) for 167 and was looking forward to winning word-of-the-week until Bryan came in and ruined everything with his BEEFCAKE.