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1st Charles Reinke reigned supreme with a pristine 5-0 +642 record and a per-game average of 467. Beating Sara McLaughlin by a score of 445-252 in round one was a good way to start the evening. That momentum directly transferred into the second round, where Charles eclipsed the 500-point barrier in both games of a two-on-one; 502-307 was the score against Richard Lauder, thanks to bingos of LENTOIDS, GREASING, and SWITCHER. 511-445 was the score against Mark Kenas, and Charles had another three bingos proudly adorning his scoresheet: UREDINE#, GEOCODED#, and ENNOBLES. Round three saw a welcome win against Bryan Benwitz, 422-349, and then the undefeated night was secured in a 456-338 rematch against Mark which featured Charles' 97-point find of CONELRAD. A CONELRAD is a type of warning system that was used during the Cold War, standing for CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation.

2nd Lynda Finn completely reversed her unfortunate 1-3 record last week to finish 4-1 +559. Her game average of 457 was also a large improvement over the previous week's 391, although, if one digs back through the bountiful archives of club statistics, we find that she was still somewhat short of the 478 she averaged on April 13, 2016! It wasn't a good start for Lynda as she lost her first game of the night, 412-434 vs. Richard Lauder (who had WORSENED, PIOLETS, and DIVOTING* against Lynda's TACRINE). However, Lynda's fortunes quickly changed as she dropped four bingos (KNOTTERS, RESTORAL, AGNATES, and STAGIER) in a masterful 504-300 win against Beth Amos. The bingo assault only slightly slowed when Lynda faced off against Karl Armstrong; she played FATTIES, RADIATED, and REQUEST to waltz into a 471-387 win. The finishing touch was a two-on-one match against husband-wife pair John and Wendy Bialek; both games were decisively taken by Lynda, 415-315 vs. John and 484-291 vs. Wendy.

3rd Thomas Reinke's 4-1 record matched Lynda's, but his +187 cumulative point spread was nowhere near enough, relegating him to a respectable third-place finish. Thomas played his customary two-game Collins-lexicon match against Mark Kenas, and while the first game was a favorable result for him, 457-362, the rematch was anything but, with Thomas getting his clocks cleaned, 303-503. Thomas did not bingo in that one (a rare occurrence for him, even more rare when playing with the larger Collins list), while Mark had DECENTER, UPROARS, and TOEIEST#. It's worth noting that DECENTER is defined both as a verb (DECENTERS, DECENTERED, and DECENTERING are all good) and as a comparatve (meaning DECENTEST is a word as well). Thomas did regain his bingoing mojo at the end of the night, playing SANDING, GENERAL, NOCTUIDS, and SPONGER en route to a 518-374 win against John Bialek, then immediately playing four more bingos (ROADEOS, SEMIOTIC, PANELED, and IONOMER) while beating Bryan Benwitz 499-385.

Also of note was the 592-point game Bryan Benwitz had against Helen Flores, achieved with "just" four bingos: PAYMENTS, SABOTAGE, RAGWORTS, and a 118-point TOXEMIAS.

We welcomed newcomer Ryan Sinner to our ranks, and while he did not win a game (the skill level of our club means new players rarely do), he did find a bingo of TRUSTEES against Dave Kinzer!

1st Dave Kinzer only stayed for three games, but fortune smiled on him, and there were no 4-0 finishers to displace him from the top spot in the nightly standings with his 3-0 +315 record. He started things off with a bingoless 328-187 win over second-timer Cooper. In the next game against Lynda Finn, he withstood Lynda's dubious (and somewhat inappropriate) phony of BONERING* (the only bingo played against Dave the entire night) to win 383-328. His bingo of STAINERS ensured that there was at least one valid play on the board. The upward trend continued as Dave broke through the 400-point barrier with a 404-285 win over Sue Goldstein. Then the wise decision was made to depart after three games, guaranteeing Dave's undefeated record and presciently securing the coveted first paragraph of the writeup.

2nd Thomas Reinke averaged 449 points per game on his way to a 3-1 +369 record. He got his best game out of the way promptly with a convincing 499-267 win against Richard Lauder. Richard's 80-point bingo of USELESS prevented his score from remaining in truly tragic territory, but Thomas outgunned him with LINURON, HARVEST, and LAUWINE. Sadly, Thomas' ever-present hopes of an undefeated evening were quickly stomped out in round two, with a 409-421 loss to Mark Kenas. Thomas got down GREENLIT and GUMLINE to Mark's VANQUISH and FROWNERS. A 430-393 win over Lynda Finn followed, a win snatched from ultimate adversity, that adversity being the fact that Lynda bingoed twice (ENTASIA, ANTIHERO) while Thomas only bingoed once (STARING). To finish the night, Thomas got revenge against Mark Kenas, winning handily by a score of 457-345 thanks to LOADERS and AURELIAN#.

3rd Bryan Benwitz shook off a first-round loss to finish 3-1 +48. That initial loss was to none other than Karl Amstrong in a high-scoring slugfest, 466-469. Bryan had three bbingos of UNDERDOG, HEARINGS, and AMENTIA, while Karl had GELLING and QUIETEST. Karl now owns a 2-0 lifetime record against Bryan, something that Bryan will surely look to rectify in future encounters. He recovered, but just barely, against Charles Reinke, prevailing in a close match 430-423 thanks to TAUTENED, SEDATING, and ROUTEMAN. Bryan's frenzied bingo pace slowed down in the next two games, but they were both wins, which is the stat that truly matters in the end. Bryan vanquished Richard Lauder 434-394 with the help of his three-R TORRIDER, then took another close win, this one against Lynda Finn, 371-367. Both players in that one had a chance to display a small subset of their high-probability sevens knowledge, Bryan playing EUGENIA and Lynda playing ACONITE.

Sara's fancy find of FUTURIST was word of the week.

1st Bryan Benwitz was the sole undefeated player out of fourteen combatants, going 4-0 +397 and averaging an impressive 477 points per game. A first-round matchup against Richard Lauder went very well for Bryan, as he took a decisive victory, 544-365, playing bingos of INVOCATE and RIVULETS (Richard had BACTERIN and LANTERN). Lynda Finn fared slightly better, but Bryan still won by a large margin, 463-351. Bryan increased his bingo output by getting three rack-clearers: BLEATED, DERISION, and NIGGLES. His proclivity for fearsome bingoage was on full display against Charles Reinke, where four bingos (STREAKED, INTEGERS, LIAISING, and NEOTENY) led him to a 460-383 win. Bryan's flawless night of Scrabble was completed with his most closely-contested victory, 441-412 against Thomas Reinke, a game which not only gave him a shiny 4-0 record but also gave him wins against both Reinkes in a single club session, the vaunted "anti-Reinke".

2nd Lynda Finn prevailed among a cluster of 3-1 finishers (Finnishers?) with a 3-1 +163 record. Similarly to Bryan above, Lynda got her best game out of the way early when she took Sara McLaughlin to school, 450-253, a score achieved with the aid of just one bingo, TACONITE for 90 (TACONITE is a good word to know simply for the fact that it serves as a T hook for the word ACONITE). A loss to Bryan followed, but Lynda recovered with a solid 389-358 win against Dennis Lloyd, where her DARNEST withstood Dennis' WOODIEST and GRAFTERS. The bingo floodgates opened in the fourth round when both her and her opponent played three bingos, but in the end, it was Lynda's win over Charles Reinke, 447-400. Lynda had TIRELESS, DURIONS, and TALKIEST, while Charles had FATTEST, OVERALL, and MORONITY.

3rd Ron Malzer played his first session of the young club season and made a quick impact, going 3-1 +106. He have John Bialek his only loss in round one, winning 398-325 and trading high-probability bingos (Ron's DEALING against John's INSTEAD). He then squared off against Francesca Lazio and prevailed 379-313 in another game where each player had one bingo; Ron got SHOWERS for a nice score, while Francesca had the nice play of UNTRULY with two blanks. Ron stumbled a bit against Thomas Reinke, losing 347-446 and failing to bingo (Thomas had QUICKEST, SILVERN, and TANAGERS), but recovered to beat Dennis Lloyd in the final round, 379-313. CORNEAL and WIRIEST were Ron's bingo finds in that game.

4th John Bialek also went 3-1, but his smaller +31 point spread left him on the outside of the writeup, jealously looking in.

We were joined by new player Cooper, who didn't manage to win a game, but hopefully enjoyed his visit nonetheless!

Helen Flores' FRENETIC, played against Sara McLaughlin, was chosen as word of the week solely because of her own self-advocacy at the time the play was made (the term "flippin' genius" may have been uttered more than once). Note that future riggings of the word of the week selection will have to involve money to receive consideration.