DOWNIEVILLE — Last Thursday morning, Bob Ileson, the venerated winner of the 2023 Boomtown Lounge Trivia League championship, led Les Unbeatables to victory (by the slightest possible margin, 10 points) over the Sierra Cidiots, a newcomer to the weekly contest.

Unfortunately, Bob is now in Texas, having moved from Pike to a new spot in Houston. Yes, his friends on the Pliocene Ridge and in Downieville will miss him, and all look forward to the day when he returns for a lengthy summer vacation while Houston broils.

Meanwhile, the Sierra Cidiots, a father-and-daughter team, started slowly. During the first two rounds of the game (when each correct answer earns a team 10 points ), they got only half of the right answers. But, over the next three rounds they answered 80 percent of the 15 questions posed. Thus, at the start of the final round, the Sierra Cidiots were in the lead by 10 points over The Goodie Two Shoes (who had slipped into second place after leading the pack in Rounds 3 and 4), and Les Unbeatables were a distant 50 points away from the lead.

However, 150 points were up for grabs in Round 6, and Les Unbeatables “ran the table” to collect them. As a result, the Sierra Cidiots, while answering three correctly, better than all other teams except Les Unbeatables, fell into second place, and The Goodie Two Shoes were pushed into third.

As for those “out of the money” (that is, not winning one of the gift certificates Boomtown gives to the top three scorers): Hansen Bridge ran 4th after suffering sub-par rounds early and during the game’s final round; another new group, the Heavy Gunners, had fun and would have taken fourth if not for an uncharacteristic one for five performance in Round 4; The Goodyear Barbarian encountered the dreaded playing-without-a-partner syndrome (when a slew of questions about people, places, and things someone else might know (but not you) arrive and you “throw a dart” for a one-in-five chance of hitting the right answer) over the last two rounds; and, The Bar, a large group of Bob’s friends from the Pliocene Ridge, arrived late, had trouble learning the ropes, but still had a good time while bringing up the rear.