Punks O'Tawny
repeated as champion Phil-Finders in a very exciting
Groundhog Day Night Hunt! They duked it out all night
against the Gang of Five (okay, I made this name up). The
Gang struck first by correctly answering all 14 trivia
questions, but the Punks struck back (literally) by
winning the first Whack Off. They struck again by
correctly solving the Blab puzzle (yes indeed, I do want
a pony!). The gang stuck back by winning the brand new
Whack-a-Mole Tower to even things up. It seemed very
likely that one of them would find Phil... but which?
The night started on an
interesting note as the Tritone forget we were coming
- only opened the doors at 5pm (for the 5pm start), despite
assurances a week before that they would open early for
us. No matter. I got organized and gave out the stuff. We
had eight teams and just over 30 hunters. After enjoying
some Specials, team left for the short stroll to the Ten
Stone. There they tried the Whack-a-Mole pad and began to
piece together the clues (finding the hidden envelope
under the sink and the Blab in the PW box outside). The
group then moved back down South Street to Bob &
Barbara's, where more Specials awaited us, along with the
new Tower.
We WERE the bar at
the Tritone, a good chunk of the bar at the Ten Stone and
almost the whole bar at B&B's. When we arrived at
Dirty Frank's, the bar was hopping with the usuals, so we
packed the place full (thank goodness for the smoking
ban!!!!!). I began to text out hints to all the teams.
Some had settled in for the evening, but most were hard
at work trying to solve the puzzles. In the end about
four teams were pretty close, but, true to form, Punks
O'Tawny came through with the "I know where Phil
is" shout first and correctly identified his
location.
With Phil safely
out of his hiding spot, I could give out the valuable
prizes donated by Woodchuck Cider (because you know a
woodchuck is a groundhog). The hunters then settled in to
view Groundhog Day, which miraculously was playing on the
television! Thanks to everyone for attending and a
special thanks to Val, who was in town for a conference
and agreed to take photos (and take photos she did!).
Till next year...