A Record Game of Weekend Trivia!

February 16, 2020

We’ve hosted some crowded games in the past, but nothing in our history came close to what host Ian handled last weekend at Vanish Brewery in Leesburg.  Obliterating the previous PHT record for the biggest regular season game, Ian welcomed an astonishing 33 TEAMS to Friday’s throwdown.  Hopefully someone bought him a beer after that game!  Overall, our five games of weekend trivia featured a total field of 76 teams.

FIRST ROUND:

We wasted no time in challenging our Friday teams, as the first question of the night included a wickedly difficult bonus question.  When asked to identify the second-most populous city in Utah, Killer Snails (P. B. Dye) was the only squad out of 53 Friday teams to give us the correct answer of West Valley City.  Our Saturday teams also faced a difficult first round question, as only five out of 23 teams recognized the plot of the current Matthew McConaughey film “The Gentlemen”.  Other first round topics included the video game “Centipede”, singer Peter Gabriel, and notable NBA trades.  The opening round did not yield any perfect scores.

SECOND ROUND:

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we featured three “LOVE” songs in Friday’s audio question.  We listened to “Love is a Battlefield” by Pat Benatar, “Real Love” by Mary J. Blige, and “Love Story” by Taylor Swift.  Meanwhile, our Saturday teams were asked to identify Oscar-winning songs from the films “Rocketman”, “La La Land”, and “An Officer and a Gentleman”.  Another diabolical bonus question was asked of our Friday teams, as only two teams knew that Bill Clinton and Harry Truman were the two most recent U.S. Presidents to father only one child.  The second round also looked the language of Klingon, the R&B group TLC, Alexander Hamilton, and Ludwig van Beethoven.  Two teams from Belles’ earned a perfect second round score: Xanatos Gambit and Smarty Pants.

HALFTIME:

Last weekend’s halftime pages featured topics such as U. S. military bases, celebrities with ‘occupational’ surnames, and phrases containing the initials ‘P. G.’.  The overall average score reached 15.9 points, as seven teams (all playing on Friday) posted a perfect score of 20 points.  Here is the weekend leaderboard after one half of play:

THIRD ROUND:

Our Friday teams were not finished with the treacherous bonus questions, as we opened their second half with the nightly Three Clues question:

CLUE 1: A Broadway musical depicting the life of this singer is currently playing at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City.

CLUE 2: Often referred to as “The Queen of Rock and Roll”, she has sold more than 200 million records worldwide.

Very few teams even attempted a guess at this point, while only one team (4-Ever from Springfield Manor) snagged the two-point bonus with the early correct answer of Tina Turner.  Things did not get much easier from there, as this next question yielded a success rate of just 13%:

–> If you add one letter to the title of the film that won the Best Picture Oscar in 2013, you’ll have the title of another film that was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in 1997.  Identify both of these films.

The two films that fit this clue were “Argo” and “Fargo”.  Though our Friday teams struggled mightily in their third stanza, the most difficult wagering question of the weekend was actually asked at the close of Saturday’s third round:

–> A 1984 Bananarama hit features lyrics that mention which celebrity “waiting, speaking Italian”?

Only two Saturday teams gave us the correct answer of Robert De Niro (the full title of this obscure song is “Robert De Niro’s Waiting…”).  The third round also discussed topics such as Wayne Gretzky,  the novel “Robinson Crusoe”, and the Tower of London.  None of our weekend teams recorded a perfect third round.

FOURTH ROUND:

Final round topics from last weekend included U.S. Presidents from the Whig Party, the song “Happy Birthday”, the alcoholic beverage, and the state of Ohio.  We saved the most difficult bonus question of the weekend for Saturday’s final round, as none of our teams knew that “The Lion King” is the second-longest running American musical in Broadway history.  After stumping Friday’s field with numerous bonus questions, we let off the gas in their final round, as nine Friday teams posted 36 points en route to a perfect score.  Heading into the final question, the weekend leaderboard included these teams:

FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (37.8% success rate):

–> What is the only regnal name used by four consecutive British monarchs?

SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (33.3% success rate):

–> Musician Ray Charles raised money for people suffering from which affliction, saying “To me, it’s the worst thing in the world”?

The correct answers to these questions were George and deafness.  Continuing an impressive streak, Killer Snails (P. B. Dye) was the only weekend team to record a Perfect 21 for the third week in a row.  Here is your final weekend leaderboard:

LAST WEEKEND’S WINNERS:

Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD:  Five Heads, One Brain   (Next week’s first category: ABBA)

Vanish Brewery in Leesburg, VA:  Flight Level Awesome   (Next week’s first category: “Rush Hour”)

Black Walnut at P. B. Dye in Ijamsville, MD:  Killer Snails   (Next week’s first category: Alan Rickman)

Dragon Distillery in Frederick, MD:  NO GAME THIS WEEK   (Next week’s first category: Tottenham Hotspur F.C.)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD:  Xanatos Gambit   (Next week’s first category: Biographical Films)

Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD:  D.C. Swampers   (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Prescription or Over the Counter Drug?)

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