'Cornhole' Catching On

[Guest YFSC]

Recent News item... LOL:

 

'Cornhole' Catching on Beyond Midwest

 

U.S. National - AP

 

By TERRY KINNEY, Associated Press Writer

 

CINCINNATI - The projectiles are lighter than horseshoes and safer than lawn darts, but

the idea's the same: Players try to hit a target several paces away. The game is called

cornhole, or corn toss, because players try to throw cloth bags filled with corn into a hole. It

is an Ohio phenomenon that is catching on elsewhere around the Midwest and beyond.

 

"It's easy to play, you don't have to dig a pit, drive stakes or tear up your lawn," said Mike

Whitton, founder and president of the American Cornhole Association.

 

You don't have to work up a sweat, either. About the worst thing that could happen is you

could spill your beer. (Although it is not a drinking game by definition, alcoholic beverages

often are consumed. The Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. sponsors tournaments, and the

game is played at some Ohio bars.)

 

Beanbag games in various forms have been around for generations. Local players say the

corn bag game originated in Cincinnati — specifically the city's west side, where Whitton

grew up — although many lay claim to it.

 

Portable goals have let the backyard game travel to tailgate parties, bars and college

campuses, and an industry has sprung up supplying boards, bags, clothing and other

paraphernalia.

 

The idea is to throw a bag filled with corn into a 6-inch hole in a wooden ramp 30 feet

away. A bag in the hole scores three points, a bag left on the platform scores one.

 

As simple as that sounds, it was a scoring dispute at a family picnic that led to the

formation of the American Cornhole Association, which claims to be the arbiter of the

game, sanctioning tournaments, selling equipment and publishing the "official" rules of

play.

 

Whitton said the association has more than 3,500 members, and his business has been

shipping equipment to such places as North Carolina, Florida, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

 

Christy's Bierstube, Rathskeller and Biergarten, which caters to University of Cincinnati

students, has installed a game court. Teams also compete in leagues at Tommy's on the

River, a bar and restaurant on the city's waterfront.

 

Many of the players at Tommy's are twentysomethings who work at Procter & Gamble Co.

or Sara Lee, are new in town and are looking to meet people, said Donna Frey, a

bartender at Tommy's.

 

The game is so popular around Cincinnati that nearly 400 teams competed for the $2,000

first prize in the Cornhole Classic in February, and organizers are planning a Holiday

Cornhole Classic for Thanksgiving weekend.

 

The game has also taken root at the University of Kentucky.

 

"You can't go up and down the street without seeing boards and bags," said Del Proctor

of Lexington, Ky., president of the Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter. "I have some family in

Cincinnati, and they've been playing a couple of years. It seems to have migrated down

here through the students."

 

The game is not very physical, he said, but "it gets people away from PlayStation and

Xbox (news - web sites)."

 

___

 

On the Net:

 

American Cornhole Association: http://www.playcornhole.org

[Chuck50]

Is that what Cornholing really is??? HUGS Chuck