The Duel / J & B

written by Hilts

Ah, so the famous game last nite - what exactly earth shattering happened? Well, for most people - you can care less, I guess. But for all the rest ('the rest' numbers about five people), last nite was very different and very wild - well, not in the normal sense.

So - for normal people -nothing much happened. There was a game, a winner, some chix, one beer for me, and three teammates - Gf, Dragon, and Chemical man. He'd called me the day before to make sure I was coming - I'd missed five of the last six games (unprecedented absence for me) - because it was gonna be a lite team. Lazers on a business trip, Stix wavering about coming - he missed - because he's sick in a medical heavy sorta way, and old regulars Peppys and Moho on the inactive list. Since I'd missed those five games (Sox and Fire games got in the way) and the rest of the team iffy, Chemical Man had to make sure I was going. So, I felt we were weak this week. But several things made this game unique - and brewed up that ‘storm’I mentioned earlier.

One was the paucity of teams. The limit is 8 teams, but it’s been a long time since we had that many. Usually, it’s 4-5 teams playing. I named this game ‘the Duel’ because when it came down to it, this game was a duel between the two squads - J and B and Da Bar - the two regular heavies. The third team -what was their name? - burnt, and burnt brightly before bowing out before their bedtimes. They were one of those late joining teams - benky likes to add teams even after the game starts to build up business and hope that they play the next fortnights game. They joined in the first quarter, gobbled up some points, but quickly were engaged w/ a running battle with the bar -not Da Bar, the team - but w/ the people who were working. Lots of yelling back and forth - Thersea has yelled @ me, but it was pretty amusing to watch the altercation this nite. I’m not exactly sure why they were yelling w/ those working - but after several raised voice exchanges, they were evicted from the place. Their parting shot - “I’ve been coming into this bar since I was 18!!” got a laugh out of us, as did their earlier exclamation about Benky’s running of the match “Hey -are you making the rules up as you go along?” I though that even though they were in their first game ever, they had came upon one of the basic truths of Benky’s Trivia.

So -basically, two teams. What else accounted for this nites brew?

The ease of the questions. This almost certainly the easiest set of questions ever. There were very few missed questions, and the points piled up for both squads (There was that other team, but from now on I will write of only two teams, since that is what it came down to.). Now, there were some tough questions - and some that we missed. But the tenor of the nite was established after we realized that certain cats were even easier - Chemical Man, after the team before us answered one of the easiest questions ever, he said : “Stay there.” Here are some samples from the first half cat‘s “Sports Mix“, “Music“, and “another category I can‘t remember”:

Sox no hitter 1967 -who pitched it?
Game four, 2005 W.Series - who did Willie Harris pinch hit for?
Who replaced Earnie Banks @ First Base when he retired?
Which team did the Bulls have to play a seven game series against in the late 90’s?
1989 NL MVP?

@ the half, it was thus:
Da Bar - 1630
J & B - 1310
X team - 1080

Second half

These cat’s were “Mish mash”, “Streets and Spanish”, and “Brand Names”. Did I mention earlier these cats were easy? There wasn’t a wrong answer in Brand Names - so ridiculously easy. Chemical Man made the remark that this category -lame as hell when announced - was still better than ’brand prices’, which we’ve even tortured w/ before several times. Street names were slightly harder - and I was happy to get many right here. And mish mash was an easy mish mash.

Several questions in the second half:

Laura‘s Perty‘s marriage age in “D.Van Dyke show“?
Highest ranking show - on twice - for last week?
Name four of the six ‘Friends’ real names?
English for the Spanish word “Camisa”
English for the Spanish word “ceilo”

And, gloriously = “Gwen Stafani’s birth year”

And that last question really highlighted “The Duel”. The game - even during that time when the other team was still involved - resembled a very tite basketball game. Since the questions were so easy, it was a real key whenever a team got a “Defensive stop” against one of the other teams. Once I remember Da Bar got one of the questions wrong. It went to the next team, but they also got it wrong. We got it right - and it was kick ass to not only get the points but to deny the other team from those points. There was another stolen question that Da Bar and the other team missed: yes, this most reused of all Benky questions:

“What is Gwen Stafinis birth year?”

This is an in joke w/ J and B - Benky has reused this question so often we have all memorized the answer - we believe that Benky throws this in from time to time to see which of the established groups were paying attention.

Final note on this days phenomena: what I recognized about the missed questions -so did Da Bar. Later they stole points from one of our questions and Lawyer loudly trumpeted up the stolen points from J and B That missed question was a key to keeping them in front of us when it came time for the final question.

The cats were: Dave Matthews, the Grass Roots, Bulls, and one of the greatest of all categories: “What I watched this week on TV”.

We chose TV, Da Bar chose Dave Matthews. We had 3350 points, Da Bar had 3560. Stunningly close. Three questions, and we had bet it just about all: after a small discussion about betting zero, Chemical Man wrote down 3250, and I amended it to 3333.

For us, the questions were thus :
Who played Goober?
What was stolen from Seinfeld that he later talked to the thief's.

And, finally, the one that gave us trouble:

Reba’s sisters gay agent told his client that “Reba ______ _______”

J & B watchers??

Final qustion revealed

So, the perfect storm secnario of only two serious teams, easy questions, and a very close final - how does it end?

We went first. We got the first two right, and after a lot of discussion, we put dowen the simplifed "Reba is Gay", instead "diggs chics", which -if Benky was inthe right mood - might be good enough for ma correct answer. But - out answer was even more right. I was really worried about getting that last one tite, and when Benky said we got it, only then did we realize the point total - 3350 plus 3333 plus bonus of 3000 = 9683.

Benky paused, thought about , and then announced that if this wasn't the highest point total ever in thre entire history of Benky Triva - then it was one of the tops of all time.

And guess what? This glorious stinking point total - it meant nothing, because Da Bar answers were now being read; and if Da Bar went 3-3, almost certainly they would win - and push us off of our new all time record.

Benky read their first answer, and then read their third answer - then I knew we'd won, as that was Benky's way of drawing out the drama to those in the audience.

I, for one, was stunned. Quickly, like it would go some place, I circled the score on my scratch sheet. Gf took a look @ it as well. Outstanding.

Even Benky reacted to it. He came over to give us the little winners share - and instead of $15, it was $20. Nice.

For me, it's always important to get as many 'trophies' under the teams belt. Before I was a regular, J and B won Benky's season ending championship once. Teams in that competition that I have been on twice were in first going into final question and once ended up second after the final question). We have won the Bedes trivia twice in row. We had an eight game regular season winning streak in, say, 2003. And now - possibly a fleeting record, for sure -and not even official - but this game for me is a proud addition to the J and B tradition.