–> Highest Overall Score: Blue Collar (Quincy’s) with 173

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Scoundrels (Smoketown) with 166

–> Highest First Half Score: Unathletico Madrid (Guido’s) with 93

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Scoundrels

–> The halftime page featured TV show coasters and a “May” theme.  The sheet played slightly more difficult than normal, with an average score of 14.8, and two teams (Blue Collar and Scoundrels) scoring a perfect 20 points.

–> About 22% of our teams earned six points on the 6-4-2 question, by knowing that electronic musician Dangermouse mashed up songs by The Beatles and Jay-Z to create “The Grey Album”.

TONIGHT’S FINAL QUESTION (72.4% success rate):

–> According to folklore, which food was created when a 17^th Century choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral offered children a treat that would not only keep them quiet in church, but also remind them of the shepherds that visited the infant Jesus?  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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Quincy’s in Gaithersburg, MD

It may have been dreary outside tonight, but inside Quincy’s our game of Pour House Trivia was anything but.

~ Ian

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Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD

At Champion Billiards in Frederick, tonight’s teams started off strongly, with six teams tied for first place after the first round.  The competition began to separate after a surprising number of teams failed to identify a Stevie Ray Vaughn song (come on guys!).  The halftime puzzle page proved to be more difficult than usual as well, but we had two teams scoring 19… Syn Storm and Storm Syn.  Despite being a newly divided team, they managed to each get a different answer incorrect.  Should the Storm of Syn have been smaller, I suspect there would have been a perfect score puzzle page tonight.

At the break, Hookers and Blackjack snuck out to a small lead with an impressive 88 points.  But with ten other teams within ten points of the lead, they had a long way to go to claim a victory.  Our teams did well tonight with their knowledge of The Cuban Missile Crisis, but could stand to brush up on  “Dirty Harry” Movies.  The film quotes question cost Hookers and Blackjack a five-point category bonus as they fell to fourth place by the end of the final round.  Meanwhile, a nearly flawless second half put Second Place into first place, as they were poised to take down their FIRST win of the season!  Sure enough, they knew we were asking about CANDY CANES on the final question, and the winning night was complete.  Here are tonight’s top finishers:

First Place: Second Place

Second Place:  Charlie and the Vodka Factory

Third Place:  Power Vacuum

Next week’s first category:  Films of 2016

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Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, VA

So this week I had the honor of taking over for Ronnie and hosting at Bunker Sports Cafe in Leesburg, and it was a blast!  You were all very nice and friendly, as well as helpful with any questions I had.  Thanks again for playing with me, and Ronnie will be back with you next week!

Our winner’s choice category dealt wit the morbid topic of serial killers, and I was impressed by how many of you knew that I was talking about the Green River Killer.  While the first half rolled along without incident, we started the second round by asking a rather difficult audio question about singers with three word names, with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Lee Ann Womack being the two that most teams were able to recognize.  Kenny Wayne Shepherd was the toughest of the three by far.  I liked the halftime page, the coaster section was neat and most teams did well. The part with ‘May’ in all the answers was tougher, and nobody knew that the town in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ was called Maycomb.

The second half included our most difficult questions, with the cyanide question in Round 3 and the film quotes question in Round 4 wiping the field.  In addition, a question about news and sports *almost* stumped the field as well.  That question (which asked for the two teams playing in the NBA Finals during the O.J. Simpson car chase) proved to make a big difference in points heading into the final question.  The final question asked about food and folklore, and mostly everyone knew we were asking about the supposed origin story behind Candy Canes.  The top three for tonight were as follows:

First Place:  Thoroughly Screwed

Second place: Cranius Maximus

Third Place:  Thundercats

Next week the opening question will be about Derek Jeter, and Ronnie will be back with you for that!  Thanks for playing with me, and I’m sure I’ll see you all again soon!

Until next time,

Smoketown Brewing in Brunswick, MD

What a crappy night outside… But it doesn’t mean that we still can’t sit inside and drink beer!  At Smoketown Brewing in Brunswick, both our regulars and two new teams came out to play, and it was quite an up an down game with a majority of teams keeping up with each other.  The first two rounds were neck to neck, with teams such as Multiple Scoregasms and Raider Nation earning bonus points no other team was getting!  Raider Nation was the only team to correctly identify all three of our “three-name” musicians (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lee Ann Womack, and Kenny Wayne Shepard), which gave them a brief lead during the second round.

But the real story tonight was The Scoundrels, who took the lead at the break by scoring the only perfect 20 on the halftime puzzle page.  In fact, other than a missed two-point bonus on the audio question, the Scoundrels played a PERFECT GAME tonight, earning every possible wager and two-point bonus.  This new team could be a force to be reckoned with at next month’s World Series!

Meanwhile, you guys are great sports as always, I know when I get those marbles in my mouth – they don’t leave!

Although first place wrapped up by the end of round four, there was quite a battle for both second place and third place.  The final question was the deciding factor in the final placement for the top three spots, and with only half of our teams answering correctly, here were those top teams:

First Place:  Scoundrels

Second Place:  Multiple Scoregasms

Third Place:  Natty Boh’s, What are Those?

Next week’s first category: “The Princess Bride”.  That’s a popular one!

~ Zach

Beef ‘O’ Brady’s in Frederick, MD

Twelve teams raced to trivia culmination as they battled wits at Beef ’O’ Brady’s in Frederick.  The battle tonight started fast and furious.  The first round saw four teams race off to a perfect round: Flight Level Awesome, Pugalicious, Incogneato, and Bed Bath & Beyonce.  The top ten teams were all within five points of each other.

The audio question of the second round provided to be a challenge for half of the teams.  Most of the teams were familiar with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Lee Ann Womack, however none of the teams were able to guess the singer of the third song, as we were looking for Kenny Wayne Shepard (the song was “Blue on Black”).  Other than the first question of the round, most of the teams were able to successfully navigate the round, and the top teams were:

Tied for 1st) Flight Level Awesome & Incogneato – 88 points

3rd) Simple Minds – 85 points

4th) Bed, Bath, and Beyonce – 82 points

5th) Know Nothings – 80 points

The third question in round three created a problem for over half the teams!  Category if International Tourism: “The ancient city of Petra is also called the “Rose City” due to the color of the stone out of which it is carved. Named one of the “Seven New Wonders of the World”, it is the most-visited tourist attraction in this Middle Eastern country. For your wager, name that country.” A little less than half of the teams were able to correctly guess Jordan.

After three rounds in the book, Incogneato took sole possession of 1st at 125 points followed by a tie for 2nd between Flight Level Awesome and Simple Minds at 118.  The fourth round saw teams stumble on the Film Quotes question. “In his fourth turn as “Dirty Harry” Callahan, Clint Eastwood spoke the memorable line “Go ahead, make my day”. For your wager, name the 1983 film in which this quote appears.”  That movie was “Sudden Impact”.

The final question of the game mixed up the standing a bit and the final tally had Incognido’s winning the game, Simple Minds taking 2nd and the Know Nothings in 3rd!

Next week’s first category:  Cloris Leachman

Rocklands Farm Winery in Poolesville, MD

Tonight at Rocklands Farm Winery in Poolesville, we hosted a great match-up, as new team The Lady Farmers came out with a great first half trailing the leader, Bentley’s Buddies, by just nine points.  Our leading team was attempting to reclaim victory over the Maybe Babies, as these friendly rivals were doing their best to prepare for playoffs early next month (June 3rd to be exact!).

in the fourth round, the Lady Farmers put themselves into a bit of a hole after missing the question on mathematicians before the crossword hint was revealed.  Meanwhile, Maybe Babies answered correctly to earn their wager.  Going into the final question, Maybe Babies held a 12-point lead, but instead of risking the loss they wagered zero in hopes that Bentley’s Buddies would miss the final.  That move did not pay off, as Bentley’s Buddies answered the final correctly, tying the Maybe Babies.  That meant our first TIE-BREAKER ever here at Rocklands Farm!

For the tie-breaker, our top two teams had to get the closest to the total number of episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” (including tonight’s).  Maybe Babies went with 330, while Bentley’s Buddies guessed 160.  The correct answer was 292 episodes giving Maybe Babies the victory. Finishing in second was Bentley’s buddies, and rounding out the top three was Lady Farmers.

Next week’s first category:  Max Scherzer

Until next time

~ Devan

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Right Around the Corner in St. Petersburg, FL

Coming soon…

Next week’s first category:  One-Hit Wonders

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Fish Market in Alexandria, VA

After the devastating losses suffered by Washington sports teams yesterday (although, not an 0-3 day as apparently the Nats came back to seal a victory), tonight it was time for my Rockets to try to stay alive against the San Antonio Spurs.  Clearly, this was a popular game because we had a TON of people come out to the Fish Market tonight… Oddly, it seemed like no one cared about the basketball game.  Oh, well, maybe they came for trivia night!  It was huge!  We had 16 teams tonight, lots of people excited to show off their trivia prowess and hoping to take home some $$$ tonight!

We saw lots of teams but only a few regulars. Great to have back PC Principals, Poe Pouree, Slytherin, A Team Has No Name, and You’re Killing Me Smalls; they were among the regular teams I noticed stopped in tonight!  There were a bunch of new teams who were making noise tonight too!  ECU was very strong, leading after the first half, ahead of some very good teams!  Team Douglas, a duo, played very consistently too and looked to try to win against a tough field.  It was anyone’s game here tonight!

After the third round, ECU fell down a bit and Poe Pouree moved into the lead.  PC Principals was on their tails and Team Douglas moved up as well.  Poe Pouree is a good team but their known weakness is sports questions.  With scores close, we rounded out the final round with a Sports Q, and Poe Pouree needed to earn their wager here and the two-point bonus to ensure they’d hold the lead.  In a rare occurrence (one that personally had me give a double take), Poe Pouree nails the Sports Q AND the two-point bonus to remain leading by two points going into the last question!

After our final, there were a lot of misses but no one in our top three were included in that group so no surprises when we read the final scores.  Third place went to Team Douglas, a first-timer team with just two members!  Great finish!  Second place went to PC Principals, and your winners are Poe Pouree!  A great game!  We’re back in a week with KING SOLOMON, in honor of a missing team member.

Until next time guys 🙂

~ Bill

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Guido’s Speakeasy in Frederick, MD

We had a changing of the guard at our Thursday night game at Guido’s Speakeasy!  Tuna Noodle Casserole has taken first place in each of the last three weeks, and then promptly chosen a “Jon Sings…” winner’s choice category after each win!  Could they make it four in a row?

The story of the first half was Unathletico Madrid, who blazed to score of 93 points at the break, one of the highest scores I have seen here in a long time.  But Tuna Noodle casserole put up an impressive first of its own, and trailed by just four points as we started the second half.  A third round question on cyanide proved to be ‘poison’ for our trivia teams, as no one as able to surmise the correct response.  Tuna Noodle Casserole was able to tie for the lead after the 6-4-2, but missed a five-point wager to start round four, giving Unathletico Madrid the lead once again.

THANKFULLY, the team that was leading in first place nailed the final and hung on to the “W”!  Finishing in third place we had Clit Eats-Wood!  All good things must come to an end, and finishing in second place was Tuna Noodle Casserole!  Ending a three-week winning streak and stepping into the spotlight with a victory was Unathletico Madrid!!  I was feeling happy about having a different type of winners choice category, but I guess T.N.C. helped “encourage” Unathletico Madrid with their pick, “Jon Sings Nickelback” to be next week’s opening category.

So it looks like another week of embarrassing myself on Thursday at Guido’s Speakeasy, come join us for a GREAT time!!

~ Jon J