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1st Bryan Benwitz stood atop a small jumble of 3-1 players with his superior +655 spread and eye-popping 507 average score. All three of his victories saw him convincingly burst through the 500-point barrier. Bryan came out of the gate quick with a round one win against Helen Flores, 532-317, despite Helen's tricky two-U find of TENUOUS (Bryan had ENOLASE and GRAPIEST). Sara McLaughlin was the only player to have any luck against Bryan, with their game ending 404-399 in Sara's favor. Bryan immediately switched back into "win" mode for the next game, stomping on Thomas Reinke 545-368 and playing three bingos (ENFORCES, UNSTICK, IMAGINED) in the process. Saving his best for last, Bryan manhandled Dennis Lloyd in round four, the final tally being 550-282. Bingowitz had four more bingos in that one: INTWINED, RIGAUDON, UPSILON, and REDOLENT.

2nd Charles Reinke finished at 3-1 +285, way behind Bryan on spread despite an identical record. His first game was a three-bingo (PYRANOSE, TSAREVNA, AVODIRES) effort against Richard Lauder which culminated in a solid win, 472-357. Switching to the Collins lexicon in round two, Charles got the victory against Mark Kenas in a high-scoring affraid, 491-454. Mark had the huge HEXANES for 95, as well as OUTEARN, while Charles had WISHBONE, ASINICO#, and BIRDMEN. The fortunate trend of playing three bingos in every game continued for Charles into round three, as he won big against Sara McLaughlin, playing AUNTLIKE, GUISARDS, and GRAPIEST in a 581-314 win. Eying a perfect 4-0 record, Charles fell well short of his goal as his rematch against Mark Kenas went poorly, the final score being 363-497.

3rd Sara McLaughlin brought up the rear of the 3-1 club with her 3-1 -81 record. Being a native Texan and therefore not bound by norms of "Wisconsin hospitality", Sara's first win was a 412-240 victory over the visiting Amy Caywood. Round two saw Sara match up against Bryan Benwitz and win 404-399, although the rumor mill was aswirl with allegations that a tile may have been missing from the set. Nevertheless, Sara has now won three of her last six games against Bryan, which is a considerably higher win rate than the rest of the club can claim. A 314-581 loss to Charles Reinke in the next game had the nasty side effect of cratering Sara's spread, but she partially bounced back to finish the night with a close 366-361 win over Helen Flores. Sara found WORMERS in that one, while Helen found OVERLADE.

1st Bryan Benwitz came very close to averaging 500 for the session, his 498 per-game average propelling him to a clean sweep, 4-0 +515. In a first-round battle between club nos. 1 and 2, Bryan vanquished Charles Reinke, 442-429, with bingo finds of QUAVERS and CENTROID. Immediately thrust into a game against the other Reinke, Bryan again got the win, playing GARNERED, RATIFIES, and STRIVEN for a 475-422 final score (Thomas had SHENDING and UNAFRAID). Bryan continued to pile on the bingos in roundthree as he played four of them (GARROTED, OVERSTEP, NOTIFIED, PTOMAINS) to take down Lynda Finn in a high-scoring 541-422 contest. The worrying trend of Bryan showing absolutely no mercy whatsoever towards his Scrabble opponents showed no signs of abating in the final round; in fact, Bryan's ruthless tendencies only seemed to grow in intensity as he smashed Richard Lauder 534-204 to take undisputed first place in the weekly standings. OVERLAIN, BEHEADS, and AIRFARES were his bingos there.

2nd Charles Reinke averaged a nice 491 points per game, finishing 4-1 +423. He got his singular loss out of the way early in the night when he was defeated by Bryan Benwitz 429-442; luckily, this loss was, via the unexplained magic of two-on-one games, balanced out by a 459-364 win vs. Helen Flores where Charles had LOONIER, RETAINER, and SINUSOID. Charles' regularly-scheduled two-game match against Mark Kenas was an unqualified success as Charles ran away with both games, 544-331 and 540-371. Six bingos were played by Charles in those two games: SEDATELY, DUELIST, MISDOING, DUALISE, SNIFTER, and the rarely-seen VOCALIC. The fourth win on Charles' scorecard was a 481-422 bout against Andy Bohnsack, where Charles prevailed despite being outbingoed two (WISPIER, SANDBURR) to three (COMMUNE, NATURISM, ATAVIST).

3rd Thomas Reinke came back from an atypical 1-4 performance last week to go 3-2 +321. A 445-355 win against Mark Kenas started him off right, with Thomas finding REORIENT and RAMRODS to Mark's ENSEALS#. Sadly, losing to Bryan Benwitz 422-475 in round two put to rest Thomas' aspirations for an undefeated night. In round three, Thomas played a two-on-one and split the pair, doing well against Sara McLaughlin, 475-301, but losing a close one to Mark, 454-461. Mark played some relatively normal words (at least by his standards) with TRIBADE, TENABLE, and DOSSIER, while Thomas found PEONAGE and CLICHED, to add to the bingos of INDAMINE, HORRIDLY, and GOOSIER that he had against Sara. Thomas ended with a 459-342 win against late arrival Dennis Lloyd.

1st The long-suffering Mark Kenas, cursed for eternity to only play games in the international Collins lexicon, finally broke through the barrier that his twin tormentors present him on a weekly basis, finishing 4-0 +267. His perfect record stands in stark opposition to his 0-4 effort the week before. Mark started off strong with a 486-399 win against Charles Reinke, getting SERAPHIN and DISMALER to Charles' heavy-hitting IMBIBERS for 106 (a word which would have been more relevant last week, when we played at a bar). Mark followed that up with his big win of the night, a 510-406 slugfest against Thomas Reinke where, again, Mark was able to turn away a high-scoring opponent bingo (this time, EFTSOON for 106) with some of his own (SPEARMEN, OUTTRICK, INOSITE). Another big win against Charles followed, 488-441, this time with Mark finding DENOTING, MOSSING, and UNHIVED#. Perfection was attained when Mark downed Thomas in the final round, 423-394, appending three more bingos to his sizable list of bonus plays: TRIMERIC, ANALECTS, and AUNTLIKE.

2nd Bryan Benwitz topped 400 in all his games as he went 3-1 +304, nudging up his yearly win percentage by just a little bit as we head into the last few months of the club season. Bryan's first round match against Ron Malzer went exactly to plan with a big 452-367 victory, supplemented by bingos of NUTRIAS and ATTENDS. Another solid win followed as Bryan felled Sara McLaughlin 414-319, getting SLINGER to her CAMERAS. Bryan kicked into high gear in round three with his highest score of the night, a 467-324 win against Lynda Finn. Bryan got TAMEINS, SLANDER, and the crafty OOMIAKS (an alternate spelling of our beloved UMIAQ) as his bingos. A 4-0 outing was in grasp heading into the last round, but Bryan fell just a bit short of Andy Bohnsack, playing one bingo (DIALIST) in a 401-420 defeat.

 3rd Charles Reinke went 3-2 (or "three and Mark") with a +356 spread total. A 399-486 loss to Mark at the outset was a bad omen, but a good omen quickly arrived to supplant the bad one as Charles proceeded to defeat Richard Lauder 458-330. Charles found ICICLES and INFORMER in that one, while Richard had SULTANA. In round three, Charles played a two-on-one and split the pair, losing to Mark 441-488 but winning against Andy Bohnsack, 469-356 (Charles had the straightforward GIRASOL and AUDITED, while Andy had the flashier HETAERIC). The best was saved for last as Charles romped in round four, defeating Lynda Finn 508-259 on the back of INKPOTS and BESTIAL.