So the final night’s entertainment at the inaugural Bicycle Press Camp featured a killer BBQ in Sun Valley and games galore. OutsidePR president Gordon Wright teamed with Dirt Rag publisher and mtb savant Maurice Tierney to destroy Bike Magazine in horseshoes as an aperitif. After dinner, the serious competition got underway, as Smith Optics hosted a rare and raucous GuwndneQuaffe tournament. Apologies for the spelling, but there seems to be little in the way of consensus, and wikipedia fails me.
Gordon was appointed one of eight captains, possibly due to his rugby background, and we all chose sides from the assemblage of 70 or so media, manufacturers and Smith ringers, ably assisted by Smith PR pro/raconteur Greg “Chopper” Randolph, who served as Master of Ceremonies.
I’m sure Youtube will have the videos soon, but basically this is a game combining chugging skills with physical dexterity — you have to catch a hurdling beer mug (with style points awarded) in a cycle of four teammates, one large table and 90 seconds to drink youself silly and show off.
Perfect. Except our team, The Queasy Quaffers (GW, Chips Chippendale, Mark McClusky and Chris from Pedro’s), got wiped out by the hometown Smith team in the first round.
Relgated to the consolation bracket, the QQs dominated the field, winning three straight matches against other losers, to find themseles in the podium round against some random team…it was getting dark, and drunk, so the details are sketchy.
We got annihilated, largely because McClusky bugged out, citing work, and because Gordon’s audacious “Double Handle Grab with 360 Stylie” in the opening toss went awry, leading not only to the loss, but a coursing handful of blood.
Fun times, even if it meant writing this post with one hand. Big props to Lifeboat Solutions for coming up with this event…we hope to return!
