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1st Sara McLaughlin stunned the field with a flawless 4-0 +163 performance, defeating a lineup of the club's best players without so much as a single bead of sweat forming on her forehead. Her first win was 388-367 over Thomas Reinke, getting a pair of bingos, STUDIES and AMITIES. She then set her sights on Lynda Finn, and won in decisive fashion, 387-287. A phony bingo of RESTAIN* was perhaps the only notable flaw on her otherwise perfect scorecard, but there is precedent for that particular phony (three other players have gotten away with the same exact word), so she gets a pass. In round three, Sara squeaked out a win against Bryan Benwitz, 368-354. Then, in the final round, she faced Charles Reinke, an opponent whom she has never beaten, but with a perfect record on the line, she rose to the challenge and willed herself to victory, 433-405. A monster 158-point triple-triple of REHABBED was the turning point of the game, enough to overcome Charles' ECSTASY and ROASTING. And with that, Sara added her name to the illustrious list of players who played four games of Scrabble and didn't lose any of them. (A hard copy of the list, printed on the finest cardstock, will be furnished to the requestor upon receipt of a $25 check made out to the club.)

2nd Thomas Reinke made his typical appearance in the top three with a 3-1 +172 record. Aside from his first-round defeat at the hands of Sara McLaughlin, all his games were well over 400 points. His best game was a high-scoring Collins-lexicon bout against familiar foe Charles Reinke, which he won in the end, 508-482. Thomas got down a trio of showy bingos with LEVOGYRE, SONATINE, and JETFOILS; Charles had FANDOMS and AERADIOS. More crazy words were hurled violently down onto the board when Thomas vanquished Bryan Benwitz 483-436. Bryan found EMBOLUS and CORTEXES (the latter for 116 big points), while Thomas had ACHIRAL, FERRITE, and DOLMENIC.

3rd Dennis Lloyd went 3-1 with a surprising -33 spread. The reason for that negative spread total will be revealed in due time. First, though, we must discuss some of the games which Dennis won. His highest score came in a 436-369 encounter with Lynda Finn, who was held bingoless while Dennis got down CHARRED, WASHERS, and IRONIES. Dennis also displayed some real Wisconsin hospitality when he defeated visiting Iowa player Mike Weepie 357-320. The combatants traded bingos in that one, with Mike finding RESTATE and Dennis getting PARTINGS. However, Dennis' match against Bryan Benwitz was considerably less successful, as Bryan scored an incredible 634 points, and Dennis was left with a respectable but insufficient 331 points. The main factor of Bryan's dominant display of Scrabble might was his triple-triple ZIPPIEST for 248 points. Since we began keeping detailed records in 2011, only one other play has scored that many points, that being Thomas' MOBILIZE back in 2016.

1st Bryan Benwitz sent his spread into the stratosphere with a 4-0 +676 record. His nine bingos and 485 per-game average were also best among all players. He started off strong in round one by getting his highest score of the year, 592 to Richard Lauder's 362. Somehow this mammoth difference in scores was achieved despite each player getting exactly three bingos: BEDDINGS, MANLIKE, and ANORETIC for Richard, INWEAVED, UPROARS, and LOGNGINGS for Bryan. Another huge score was achieved against Helen Flores, where Bryan won 539-338. Another three bingos were on order in that one: HOARSEN, ERECTING, and INCUSES. Bryan secured his undefeated record in the final round when he prevailed over Charles Reinke in a low-scoring affair, 360-336, thanks to a bingo of ACIDOSIS.

2nd Lynda Finn went 3-1 with an anomalous -68 spread. All of her victories were quite close, the closest being a round one upset over Thomas Reinke, 373-365. Lynda's bingo finds of SADIRON and FEASTING were clearly helpful in securing victory and snapping Thomas' five-game winning streak against her. She got down two more bingos (GUITARS and COTTAGED) in a 402-385 win against Dennis Lloyd, who got ORANGIER. Her success in finding bingos continued against Charles Reinke, where she played ADMIRAL and NAIVETE, but this proved not to be enough as Charles handed her her only loss of the night, 345-456. His bingos were DIVERGE and OUTRAVES.

3rd Thomas Reinke continued the trend of finishing well while having a negative spread, as evidenced by his 3-2 -117 record. A devastating round two loss to Mark Kenas all but guaranteed that his point spread would never again get into positive digits. The 280-609 drubbing saw Thomas get down one bingo, NARGILES, while Mark cruised with four such plays: HEATERS, ENDITED, TOILETRY, and BEVOMITS, the last of which scoring 120 points. Thomas got his revenge later in the night, besting Mark 427-354, but he would have needed to win by a lot more than that to rescue his spread. A 443-206 triumph over Sara McLaughlin, buoyed by bingos of PINIONED, ESCAPER, and SINTERED, did help Thomas' cause.

Bingo of the week was Charles Reinke's 9-letter find of SENSITIVE, awarded because even common words are hard to find when they're nine letters long.

1st Thomas Reinke put on another display of dominance with a 5-0 +359 record. A first-round win against Charles Reinke, 498-462, got him off to a good start, and bingos of NUDENESS, GASTRAL, and TORTIES# were quick confirmation that his word-finding would be on point for the rest of the night. That victory was followed up by a fruitful two-on-one excursion where Thomas prevailed over both Bryan Benwitz (430-318) and Helen Flores (453-310). His scoring dipped a little bit in a 381-343 win over Sara McLaughlin (his COMAKERS going toe-to-to with Sara's URANIUMS), but Thomas regained his scoring mojo for the final round, a high-scoring rematch against Charles where he won 520-490. Both players bingoed three times in that one: TRIPLIES#, AURICLES, and VOLITIVE for Charles, DISPONED#, EJECTION, and a nine-letter OUTSWEARS for Thomas.

2nd Sara McLaughlin punched well above her weight with a hefty 411 per-game average on her way to a 3-1 +63 finish. All three of her wins saw her score above the 400-point barrier, with her loss to Thomas Reinke (described above) being the only exception. She started off with a 406-364 win against Lynda Finn, her first win against Lynda in six attmepts. Seventy points for OUTLOVES was needed there. That was followed up with a well-fought 451-427 victory versus Richard Lauder which saw Sara up her bingo output, getting down REJOINED and COSINES to Richard's PALTERS. Sara secured her second-place finish with another closely-contested game, 443-408 against Bryan Benwitz. SHOWMEN for 112 points, in addition to GROANING for 83, proved to be the necessary ammunition to topple the Bryaniac.

3rd Lynda Finn snuck into third with a 3-2 +200 record and a 426 average which keeps her well above the 400-point mark for the year. Both her losses came in round one, as the law of odd numbers forced her into a two-on-one match where she lost both, 363-451 vs. Richard Lauder and 364-406 vs. Sara McLaughlin. There was a noted improvement in round two as she clobbered Charles Reinke 517-408, although her scoresheet was blemished by a phony OUTCLEAN* to go with valid bingos of IGNORES and ETERNITY. Anybody tempted to try OUTCLEAN* in the future should first consider whether finding a spot for CLEANOUT might be a better idea. Charles, meanwhile, phonied with ALRIGHTY* in the same game. Against Helen Flores in the final round, Lynda escaped from a tenuous endgame to achieve victory, 433-415, despite being outbingoed by her opponent, who got REVISOR and TEENIEST while Lynda had just ETOILES.