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1st Bryan Benwitz prevailed mightily over a contested field of ten players with his pristine 4-0 +268 record. He scored over 400 in each of his games, a good strategy if one wishes to go undefeated. He vanquished Richard Lauder in the first round by a score of 433-398, getting down bingos of BOODIES and ANERGIES vs. Richard's ELECTIVE and PASSERS. The high-water mark came against Sara Mclaughlin when Bryan romped to a 466-309 win, getting down SAMISEN and EROTICAL (Sara had INDOORS to stem the bleeding). Bryan's closest victory was a 434-426 match against Lynda Finn, but Bryan's three bingos (CARMINE, CLARIONS, and SHOUTED) delivered him the win in the end. Sitting at 3-0, with visions of a headlining paragraph tantalizing his eyes like an oasis in the desert, Bryan went up against Thomas Reinke and comfortably prevailed, 429-361, thanks to finds of COGITATE and BORANES. And so the prestige of having his feats described first, before all others, in the writeup was rightfully grasped.

2nd Mark Kenas made a rare entry into the top three with a 3-1 +391 record and a wild 489 per-game average. His strict adherence to the international Collins lexicon guarantees that he faces nothing but Reinkes in all of his games; however, he is never disgruntled by the strength of his only two opponents, and the frightening depths of his word knowledge were fully on display as he unleashed thirteen bingos in total across four games. Mark took both games off Thomas Reinke, both by staggering margins, 493-353 and 537-357. Thomas had just one bingo total in the two games, STINTED, while Mark had seven: SQUARED, INTERNED, IODISERS#, ADROITER, SEDITION, AVULSION, and WANTAGES. He got another 500-point game against Charles Reinke, winning 549-381 with bingos of HAFFETS, STENCIL, MEDITATES, and CUITERS#. That game also marked the end of Charles' 13-game winning streak. Charles did manage to prevent Mark from going 4-0 and finishing ahead of Bryan, winning their rematch 474-378. Mark's bingos there were GELIDEST# and SERPENTS, while Charles had SITHENS and LANDMINE. SITHENS is a Shakespearean word which means "since" (also spelled SITHENCE), and woe betide anyone who attempts to play SITHEN*, which is not a word.

3rd Lynda Finn, fresh off a strong showing in Arizona where she won division 2 of the Van Rand Phoenix Tournament, continued her run of strong play with a 3-1 +282 record. It was a bit of a slow start for Lynda as she barely beat her first-round opponent, Helen Flores - Lynda was bingoless but held on for a 323-313 win. The rest of her games were much better, starting with a 448-394 win over Richard Lauder. Lynda's single bingo of SEEPIER was outdone by Richard's IOLITES and CATTIES, but Lynda was happy to learn that there is nothing in the rule book which says that the player who bingos more often has to be the winner. A 426-434 loss to Bryan Benwitz, with bingos of INTEGER and LUSTIER, kept her momentum going despite the loss, and she turned it on in the final round to beat Sara McLaughlin 477-251.

Thomas Reinke's FLATWAYS was word of the week. FLATWAYS, like SITHENS above, cannot have the S taken off, as it is an adverb meaning "on the flat side" (also spelled FLATWISE, which is higher-probability and more helpful to know).

1st Charles Reinke brought his current win streak to twelve games, thanks to a flawless 4-0 +366 record. All his games were won by margins over 100 points except his first one, a close 440-428 bout with Mark Kenas. The two players were evenly matched in bingos, with Charles getting FENLANDS and DECLAIM against Mark's TITANOUS and OVERWET. A rematch, which was supposed to be vengeance for Mark, ended up being a comfortable 417-294 win as the planned vengeance failed to materialize. Mark did find a nine-letter ELECTRONS to make himself feel a bit better. Charles also enjoyed a big win against Bryan Benwitz, 498-390, thanks to three bingos of DOILIES, MISTRIAL, and ELUATES. Perfection was attained against Sara McLaughlin, as Charles' finds of SPITTED and BLISTER carried him to a 475-352 victory.

2nd Bryan Benwitz averaged 472 points per game, but the aforementioned loss to Charles left him in second place with a 3-1 +362 record. He began by defeating Sara McLaughlin, 470-331, a lopsided score despite the fact that both players had two bingos (Bryan: POSTERNS and LENITES; Sara: STANDEE and GREMLIN). Losing to Charles in round two caused Bryan to focus all his animosity towards the other Reinke, and the result was a stark blowout in Bryan's favor, 568-317. Thomas did play one bingo of SPEARGUN, but drowned underneath Bryan's unstoppable tsunami of bingoage, which consisted of YAUTIAS, UNCARING, PREFIGHT, and LARIATED. Bryan finished his night by taking a win off the 3-0 Richard Lauder, 461-381, undoubtedly thinking that if his own 4-0 was going to be spoiled, he might as well try to spoil somebody else's.

3rd Richard Lauder looked poised to go undefeated, but a late loss to Bryan meant that Richard has to be content with his 3-1 +186 record. He barely averted an upset loss in round one when he took on Sue Goldstein; his bingo of AEROSAT certainly helped him hang on to a 342-324 victory. Against Francesca Lazio, bingos of VAUNTING and STEAMIER helped him get back on track with a 455-315 win. Francesca had CARTOONS to keep things respectable. A 410-302 win over Helen Flores followed, and Richard again demonstrated his bingo-finding ability with PROOFED and STRIVEN. The bingoing continued in the final game against Bryan, with Richard getting GRASSED and GARRISON, but he didn't quite have enough scoring punch to overcome Bryan's high-scoring ways, and the game ended 461-381 in Bryan's favor.

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!