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1st Charles Reinke recovered from the previous week's unprecedented 0-4 outing to go 4-1 +509. This serves as a gentle reminder that his opponents should never force him to go 0-4, lest they face redoubled wrath in subsequent games. The losing streak actually reached 0-5 as Charles suffered a first-round loss to Mark Kenas, 349-415. However, the losses stopped there and Charles reeled off four straight to secure first place in the weekly standings. He beat his brother Thomas Reinke by a score of 444-370, getting down STEERED, DREARIER, and SHRIEVAL in the process. The wins kept racking up in round three when Charles played in a two-on-one and won both in convincing fashion, 537-295 against Richard Lauder and 494-318 against Mark. The redemption tour concluded with a 497-414 victory against Bryan Benwitz, where Charles' ARIETTA and TRAMROAD were matched by Bryan's INTIFADA (sadly, never extended to INTIFADAH) and EROSELY.

2nd Bryan Benwitz, journeying vast distances through bone-chilling cold to reach the playing location, made all the effort worth his while with a 3-1 +180 finish. His 448-416 win over Thomas Reinke puts him at seven wins in their last eight encounters. A 116-point bingo of QUAYSIDE was certainly valuable in that one. Another 100-point bingo was in store for Bryan, as his 101-point EXISTING (along with TITMOUSE and ZINCATE) propelled him to a comfortable 533-332 win over Richard Lauder. A 411-381 victory vs. Dennis Lloyd was a bit more closely-contested, with Bryan getting RECEIVES of SENNITS, and Dennis finding OUTDONE (which helpfully anagrams to DUOTONE). Sadly, the session culminated in a loss when Bryan was downed in the final game against Charles Reinke, 497-414, despite the aforementioned INTIFADA being played by Bryan for 98 points.

1st Richard Lauder prevailed amongst a clump of 3-1 finishers with his 3-1 +312 record. Tasked with playing 2023 club champion Bryan Benwitz in the first game of the night, Richard kept his composure (and then some) with a merciless 454-291 win. Bryan did not get down a bingo, while Richard had DEACONS, HALOGEN, and SATINET. The trend of knocking off top players continued when Richard breached the 500-point marker with a 504-355 win over Thomas Reinke. RELATION was Thomas' only bingo, while Richard again bingoed thricely with ABALONE, LAMSTER, and NUMERALS. More bingos were in store for Richard in his match against Sara McLaughlin, but his RECLINER and RELATES still led him to a 384-386 loss. That two-point defeat was neatly offset in the final round when Richard beat Dennis Lloyd by two points, 316-314.

2nd Thomas Reinke finished 3-1 +157, continuing his strong start to the club season. Two of those wins came in Collins-dictionary games against Mark Kenas. The first of those ended at a score of 415-303, with Thomas getting down the only two bingos played in the game, COURTIER and ROSEATE. Both players' scores ticked up in the second encounter, but it was still a comfortable win for Thomas, 476-403, thanks to TEENTIER#, FENITARS#, GALILEE, and CURRENTS. A 355-504 loss to Richard Lauder dashed Thomas' hopes of going undefeated for 52 straight weeks and running away with the club championship, but he got back on track by defeating Francesca Lazio 471-350, with each player getting one bingo (ELUSIVE for Thomas, RANTERS for Francesca).

3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +104, reversing his 1-3 record from last week. A bingoless 291-454 loss to Richard Lauder was not the start he was looking for, but things started looking up when he defeated Dennis Lloyd, 410-380, finding the straightforward SONNIES and ROADIES to score some much-sought-after fifty-point bonuses (Dennis found BROODED for 50 extra points of his own). Bryan played two more bingos, OBLIGEE and PRUINOSE, while besting Charles Reinke, 438-344. Facing off against the undefeated Sara McLaughlin in the final round, Bryan turned their game into a rout; he monopolized the bingo situation with STIPEND and RACIEST, resulting in a final score of 473-330.

4th Sara McLaughlin rounded out the 3-1 finishers with her 3-1 -15 record, including a one-point win over Sue Goldstein, 361-360.

Other tidbits include Dave Kinzer's 487 points against Sue Goldstein, which featured a 122-point non-bingo triple-triple of MIDDLING played through IN on the board. Also noteworthy was Mark Kenas' 650-point game against Charles Reinke (who scored a respectable 434). Mark played six bingos: LORDKIN#, LUTECIUM, UNBASED, CROTTLE#, OPIATING, and WATERIER. Their combined of 1084 is the second-highest at our club since modern recordkeeping was instituted in 2011.

1st Thomas Reinke inaugurated the 2024 club season with a spotless 5-0 +330 record, guaranteeing that if an asteroid were to obliterate the earth right at this very moment, he would be the 2024 club champion by default. His customary two-game match against Mark Kenas, played using the Collins dictionary, went relatively smoothly: he won the first game 450-410, then faltered in the second but still eked it out, 406-402. In the latter game, Mark bingoed just once with DANEGELT, but made it close when faced with Thomas' REORIENT, PEATIEST, and HOGWEEDS. Thomas got the highest score of the year's first club session when he beat Karl Armstrong 521-374, thanks to a triple-triple of COLORISE for 149 points in addition to OVERBITE and ENTOZOA. Karl found SUITERS to take some of the sting off. The perfect record was clinched in a well-fought 396-361 game against Richard Lauder, where Richard's finds of PINOCLES and HEAVINGS* (just SHEAVING) were countered by Thomas' BITCHERS and DEXTRINS.

2nd Charles Reinke starts this year in the same position he was at the end of last year, that is, behind his brother in the standings, with a 4-1 +129 record. He started off strong with a victory over last year's club champ, Bryan Benwitz, with 399-352 being their final tally. Atypically, both players had just one bingo: ARMADAS for Bryan, HEMATIC for Charles (in addition to taking an S for HEMATICS, HEMATIC also take an R or T in front for RHEMATIC or THEMATIC). A Collins-only triple-triple of YARDINGS# for 169 points doomed Charles in his first game against Mark Kenas, which ended at 426-520. In round four, Charles got a chance at payback when he played a two-on-one against Mark as well as Lynda Finn. The game against Mark was a comfortable win, 482-339, thanks to bingos of TOPLINED#, HERNIATE, and SANTERIA, but the game against Lynda was a nailbiter decided by just one point, 420-419. Lynda got down ANIMATER and PASTERN, while Charles had PILFERED and OUTVIES.

3rd Sara McLaughlin topped a bundle of three 3-1 finishers with her 3-1 +345 record. She used a bingo of DEARIES to cruise to a 414-304 victory in round one. Round two saw her matched up against newcomer Milly, and while Milly was able to get down some nice plays, she couldn't overcome Sara's decades of accumulated Scrabble wisdom, and it was Sara's win, 382-196. Sara's winning ways were temporarily disrupted in a low-scoring 318-325 loss to Richard Lauder, but she completely turned it around in the final game, where she deployed three bingos (BEGOTTEN, WRANGLED, and DETAINER) en route to a 450-394 win over Dennis Lloyd, who did get down the word of the week, HELPLINE.

4th/5th Wendy Bialek and Richard Lauder also finished with 3-1 records.

We welcomed two new players, Milly and Matthew, to our fellowship of tile-flingers, and our total turnout of 17 players was the longest we have had in quite some time. The future looks bright indeed for competitive, yet friendly, Scrabble play in Madison, Wisconsin!