1st Charles Reinke narrowly snagged first place with a 4-1 +407 record. He just barely escaped with a win against Sara McLaughlin in round one, achieving what must be one of his lowest winning scores in recent memory with a 315-313 final tally. Things were more comfortable against the returning Buffy Hogan, whom he beat 549-260, thanks to bingos of THERIANS, CATENAE, and a nine-letter RESONATED (Buffy did end the night with two wins, so her return wasn't completely spoiled). A pair of victories against Mark Kenas, 497-396 and 450-368, nicely added to Charles' win total. However, perfection was spoiled by Richard Lauder, who defeated Charles by a considerable margin, 455-388. Richard buried Charles with bingos of ALPINES, CIGARETS, and DESOLATE, while Charles managed just REISHIS (its anagram, HISSIER, is an easier find).
2nd Thomas Reinke matched his brother with a 4-1 record but fell short in terms of spread, having amassed only 358 points of spread to his brother's 407. His single loss came against Mark Kenas, and it couldn't have been a closer game, 480-481 being the final score. Mark played IDOLATER, EVINCES, and TOTITIVE# (after trying TITOTIVE*), while Thomas had SUBTREND and a triple-triple DERINGER for 145 big (but not big enough) points. As that game went on, Thomas was also playing Helen Flores, and that game he came out victorious, winning 415-354 with bingos of EARWIGS and word-of-the-week MALLEOLI. In round three, Thomas got his revenge against Mark, winning 480-440 and playing IODATED, ONSTAGE, and INEDITED in the process. Mark had ODALISK and EPURATE# to reach his 440-point losing score, which is high for the American lexicon but somewhat typical in games between Collins experts.
3rd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +286, beating out another 3-1 player, Richard Lauder, for third place. Bryan defeated the aforementioned Richard 428-348, a 122-point CALORIES for Bryan surely being the difference maker. The extremely useful ETESIAN was also on Bryan's bingo list that game, while Richard had SIERRAN and ANALOGS. Bryan's best game came against visitor from Ohio Ryan Adams - the pleasantly rhyming Bryan-Ryan showdown ended in an easy 456-234 win for Bryan, with bingos of DERRIERE, VENENOSE, and MEASURED being played by the winning side. Visions of an undefeated night of Scrabble were likely dancing in Bryan's head at that point, but he faced the always-tough Thomas Reinke in round four and sadly was defeated, 377-411.
1st Thomas Reinke claimed undisputed first place with hia 4-1 +495 record. He got off to a rousing start with a 556-317 win against Mark Kenas. Mark's ill-fated play of the expurgated ABO didn't help his cause, and neither did Thomas' bingos of UNFILED# (somehow not good in the American wordlist), SHARPER, and GENOMES. The one blemish on Thomas' otherwise immaculate scoresheet came in round three when he found himself in a two-on-one against Peter Schmiedicke and Sara McLaughlin. He dispatched Peter with some effort, winning 449-423, but was handily defeated by Sara, 414-471. Sara had three bingos of TENDERS, LAUNDERS, and DROOPIER, while Thomas just had AGNATES. This is Sara's second lifetime win against Thomas, while she has not yet managed to defeat the other one.
2nd Peter Schmiedicke went 3-2 +254 to snag second place over a clump of players with 2-2 records. He had a whopping 330 points of spread after the first round where he defeated both Helen Flores (415-356) and Richard Lauder (594-323). That winning score of 594 is Peter's highest in his decade-long club career, and it was achieved with just three bingos: UNCHOSEN, LADRONES, and SIENITE. Peter's second-highest scoring club game, 584, was also against Richard back in 2016, so maybe there's some bad blood there. After defeating Sara McLaughlin in a sad, bingoless 341-332 affair, Peter ran into back to back Reinkes and lost both games, leaving his final record as "three and Reinke".
3rd Aaron Bader made his first club appearance since March 2020 (right before You Know What happened), and performed commendably, going 2-2 +84 against a field comprised solely of strong Collins experts and definitively proving that he still knows how to play Scrabble at a more than adequate level. He defeated Charles Reinke 454-378 with the help of bingos CRISTAE and AMORINI, while Charles had ETERNAL and AERADIOS, in a game that once again demonstrated the astounding utility of high-probability bingos. Aaron's second win came against Mark Kenas, 467-408, with bingos of ANHINGA and REINDUCE (Mark had RODINGS# and TRAILING). But a rematch was less favorable for Aaron, as Mark bested him in a low-scoring (by Collins standards anyway) 379-408 match.
Of note was Charles Reinke's 689 points scored against Helen Flores, a new high game for him at club and the fourth-highest score recorded since modern statkeeping began in 2011 (Thomas owns the three highest scores, including the only 700+ game of 739, although there are two 700+ games pre-2011). Charles' bingos in his 689-point game were FLOUTERS, SOREHEADS, BLOWZIER, INCITER, PYRENOID, and TRIUNITY. His six bingos also ties a club record, achieved on three separate occasions by, you guessed it, Thomas Reinke.
1st Charles Reinke went a perfect 4-0 +432, becoming the first player to go undefeated in a session since Peter Schmiedicke did it on May 18. Charles' merciless style of play was on display early as he whomped the returning Richard Lauder by a score of 533-312, getting bingos of MAGNETO, ENQUIRY, DELATED, and IBOGAINE. Richard had not played a club game since December 2019, so playing Charles in the first round was a good reminder of the brutal realities of Scrabble club. Switching his skills to the internationally-adopted Collins dictionary, Charles defeated Mark Kenas in a pair of games, 419-396 and 501-377. In the latter game, Charles had URANITIC, AEONIAN, and FUSIBLY, while Mark had READOUTS and PEARLITE. All of those words are good in the American lexicon, so such players will have no need to purge any of those words out of their head after having read them.
2nd Thomas Reinke went 3-2 +244, a 60% winning percentage that looks pretty good until you check the yearly stats to find that Thomas has won roughly 70% of this games so far this year. Thomas's two losses came at the veteran hand of Mark Kenas, 424-483 in the first and a crushingly close 458-460 in the second. But Thomas made up ground against all his non-Mark opponents, the biggest of those wins being 492-259 against Helen Flores. Thomas played DEALATE, SUBLEASE, and ARMCHAIR for big scores in that one. Thomas also snagged a 442-424 win versus Peter Schmiedicke, despite getting outbingoed three to two: ONLOADED and UNBOLTS for Thomas, IMPRINT, ANTIMALE, and STONIER for Peter.
3rd Dennis Lloyd pulled off the rare feat of coming in third place with a 2-2 record, finishing 2-2 +21. After losing his first two games against Thomas Reinke (363-417) and Richard Lauder (358-374), Dennis forced fortune to deal him a better hand, and finished off the night with two wins. He downed Sara McLaughlin 404-375 despite Sara's very appropriate bingo of WORDIER - while bonus points were indeed awarded to Sara for the Scrabbliness of the word, she found that bonus points cannot actually be redeemed for actual points that count towards one's final score. Dennis then unleashed some bingoey wrath on Helen Flores by playing three of them (SANDERS, CARIBOUS, and SCARIER) en route to a 431-369 win.
Wednesday, August 5:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, August 12:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Wednesday, August 19:
Scrabble at Misty Mountain Games
Wednesday, August 26:
Scrabble at Covenant Church
Club Results 7/29
Posted 7/31/2026
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Posted 7/17/2026
Club Results 7/8
Posted 7/10/2026