A Trip to the Old Country at Wednesday Trivia!

With both the MLB playoffs and the NHL’s opening night in the background, we welcomed 92 teams across 13 PHT venues on Wednesday night:

FIRST ROUND:

The opening round offered few surprises, as our teams breezed through questions concerning foods named for U.S. states, the legend of Lady Godiva, human muscles, and this sitcom:

The final bonus question of the first round tripped up a few teams, as we asked for the surname of Joel McHale’s character on “Community” (which he shares with a real-life rock band).  With exactly one-quarter of our teams responding correctly with Winger, we saw 17 teams record perfect first round scores.

SECOND ROUND:

Film clips were the focus of Wednesday’s audio clue, as we listened to scenes from “The Dark Knight”, “Rain Man”, and “2001 (A Space Odyssey)”, which respectively topped the annual box office chart ten, 30, and 50 years ago.  Later, a bonus question regarding American literary characters stumped nearly all of our teams.  After most of the field knew that John Steinbeck penned the novel “East of Eden”, only seven teams could also remember the names of characters Caleb (or Cal) and Aron Trask.  Next up, we quizzed our teams about this hit collaboration:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt2oKbZKWEw[/embedyt]

We closed the second round with another difficult bonus question, asking our teams to name the capital of Mongolia, though our geography buffs had no problem coming up with Ulaanbaatar.  Thanks to the two treacherous bonus questions, we saw just one team earn 36 points in the second stanza: Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s on the Corner).

 HALFTIME:

Cereal box snippets were featured on Wednesday’s halftime page.  This must have been everyone’s wheelhouse category, as the halftime page yielded a very high scoring average of 18.8 points, with 37% of the field earning a perfect score.  Here are your highest scoring Wednesday teams at the halftime break:

• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s on the Corner):  92
• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  92
• Witiots (Nido’s Ristorante):  90
• It’s Mueller Time (Quinn’s on the Corner):  90
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories):  90

THIRD ROUND:

Wednesday’s second half began with everyone’s favorite category: the sport of cricket!  Our teams performed surprisingly well by naming the two countries that participate in the Ashes test matches: England and Australia.  Other third round topics included the plectrum (more commonly known as a guitar pick), the state of Colorado, and this TV series:

The final bonus question of the round asked our teams to name the singer (and supporting actress) who performed the theme song to “Ally McBeal”.  With just nine teams earning bonus points with the correct response of Vonda Shepard, only two teams ran the table in the third stanza: the powerhouse squads of Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s on the Corner) and Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg).

FOURTH ROUND:

After the 6-4-2 question looked at Uranus, we opened the final round with a visit from “Mr. Mojo Risin” (otherwise known as Jim Morrison).  We also looked at the work of artist Frida Kahlo and this cult classic film:

A three-part question closed the fourth round, as we asked teams to identify three U.S. Presidents based on their respective lists of prior occupations.  The final clue named these four positions: U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom, Governor of Virginia, U.S. Secretary of State, and U.S. Secretary of War.  Only 13% of the field earned bonus points by naming our fourth President James Madison.  As a result, the Witiots (Nido’s) notched the only perfect score of the final round.  Here is your Wednesday leaderboard after four rounds of play:

• Dave Martinez School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  168
• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s on the Corner):  166
• Witiots (Nido’s Ristorante):  164
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories):  162
• Amigos (Clover Theater):  155

WEDNESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (34.5% success rate):

–> Among those countries located entirely within Europe, which nation’s mainland area borders nine other countries, the most on the continent?

Your answer…

While just over one-third of our teams earned points on the final question, the top four overall teams after the final round ALL answered incorrectly!  After a game in which these teams missed 20 possible points COMBINED, this certainly was a shocking turn of events that provided for a couple of exciting finishes.  All four of those teams were also in line to earn the Perfect 21, but in the end none of our Wednesday teams were able to record that honor.  Here is your final Wednesday leaderboard:

• Roaming Gnomes (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg):  169
• Amigos (Clover Theater):  163
• Save the Clock Tower (Barefoot Bernie’s):  162
• Hamster Condiments (Memories):  162
• It’s Mueller Time (Quinn’s on the Corner):  161
• My Black Hole Just Exploded (Quinn’s on the Corner):  160
• Stupid Sexy Flanders (Valley Grill):  159
• Kitten Mittens (Quinn’s on the Corner):  159
• Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers (Clover Theater):  159
• Fliddlesticks (The Tavern):  158
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories):  158

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Valley Grill in Middletown, MD:  Stupid Sexy Flanders  (Next week’s first category: John Wayne Gacy)