1st Thomas Reinke came in first place yet again, going 4-1 +202 and strengthening his first-place spot in the yearly standings with roughly two months to go in the year. He took on two at once in the first round and collected two victories, creaming Steve Hartsman 458-278 and fighting off Helen Flores, 423-385. Thomas then went up against Mark Kenas, and, typically for their Collins-lexicon matchups, it was a high-scoring affair; sadly, it was a loss for Thomas, 400-520, despite some neat bingo finds of MYOSOTE and BESPRENT (Mark had INACTIVE, INTERIOR, and PERIDOT). Staying true to his club-leading 2.36 bingos per game, Thomas piled on the bingos in his round-three match against Bryan Benwitz, slapping down PARADES, SILICATES, LEGATINE, and NOCTULE on his way to a 479-443 win. For the final game, Thomas got revenge against Mark, winning 477-409 with bingos of FUNKIER, ANCONAL, and OREADES#.

2nd Bryan Benwitz went 3-1 +327, nicely making up for the previous week's 1-3 record. A week's worth of pent-up craving for Scrabble domination was unleashed fully in round one, as Bryan bulldozed Richard Lauder by a score of 516-263, bingoing with MATINEE, TURNABLE, and MANGONEL. Bryan got down three more bingos (MAENADS, ALEURONS, GRIMNESS) while defeating Charles Reinke 447-391. Immediately faced with the other Reinke, Bryan suffered his only loss against Thomas, 443-479, while only bingoing once with ICINESS. Bryan got back to his bingoing ways for round four, getting LYDDITES, TALCIER, and RESTING in a 437-383 win against Steve Hartsman, who had CLARINET and OPSONISE.

3rd Dave Kinzer went 2-1 +24, prevailing in the standings over a large contingent of players who had 2-2 records. In round one, he squared off against Andy Bohnsack, and while he did not bingo himself, he also prevented Andy from bingoing; the result was a completely bingoless 363-346 win for Dave. Future Andy opponents, take note. Dave suffered a setback in the second game, losing handily to Lynda Finn, 313-461; again, Dave didn't bingo, and his strategy from the first game failed as Lynda got down HANDSET and VIRGATE. Dave's night ended with a 392-237 win against newcomer Kelsey Stanczak, 392-237, thanks to his find of INDOLES. (Kelsey's other game worked out better for her, as she beat Carol Ormand 326-253 and had the nice find of POINTES).

Steve's TURBOCAR was word of the week.