by Jasmine Ganaishlal and Taylor Beglane
The lights are dimmed, the arenas are set. Shiny equipment is laid out on both playing fields. Sixteen eager teams of two gather around the laminated floors, holding beers and munching on bar food, as organizer Andrew Leiweke waves his clipboard and explains the guidelines of the game.
With the rules established, half of the teams file onto the court, laughing and clapping backs, ready for an intense game . . . of cornhole.
The annual Cornhole Tournament at the Clubhouse bar, a restaurant and bowling alley in East Hampton, will be the first of many, Leiweke hopes. The tournament is his brainchild, a bid to give East End natives something fun to do in the wintertime.
“The game is great, it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s fun. It’s a game that takes very very little skill, just repetition,” Paul Jones of team Cops ‘n Robbers said.
Players stand next to their opponent and throw beanbags in underhand tosses to a board propped 20 to 30 feet away. They get only one point if the bag lands on the board, but they get three points if they throw a bag through the hole near the top of the board. The first team to match or exceed 21 points wins.
No one knows for sure who invented cornhole, according to the American Cornhole Association, though one interpretation claims Native Americans filled animal bladders with corn and threw them at holes in the ground. Many cornhole bags sold today are filled with actual corn feed.
The popular lawn game has been played mostly in the parking lots of football games and suburban backyards. It has an American league and became popular enough that ESPN aired the American Cornhole Organization’s World Championships of Cornhole X the past few summers.
Though it may not need much skill, cornhole still requires a certain level of attention for players to have a shot at winning. Teams get free drafts of beer whenever they advance to the next round, so players’ senses started to get a little fuzzy.
“If I stay focused I’ll make it to the finals,” Jones said. “The bar will make me lose my focus. As long as I stay away from the bar, I’ll be good.”
When the teams advanced, the 100-or-so people dining at the adjacent bar and restaurant clapped and cheered. Otherwise they focused on eating, playing games in the arcade or bowling in the alleys next to the cornhole arenas.
The Clubhouse opened in July of this summer, in the middle of a bustling tourist season. Many of its visitors this time of year are locals and friends. “It’s tough because I can’t buy everyone a beer, I can’t buy everyone a round,” Leiweke said.
Leiweke believes things have taken a turn for the worse for the island and the country in general, and the Clubhouse is a safe place to spend the wintertime with friends. “So for someplace like this to open up for kids, for all ages, somewhere to be, under a supervised, controlled atmosphere, is a blessing for this town,” he said.
“We’re definitely looking for ways to attract new clientele, and also to provide plenty of entertainment and things to do year-round,” Anita Boyer, the marketing and social media manager at the Clubhouse, said. “No one’s allowed to complain about an off season anymore.”
The first champions of the tournament were the Baggers, East Hampton locals Zeb Perinhas and Ernie Vorpahl from the fire department. “We didn’t think there would be that kind of competition here,” Perinhas said. “We heard a couple of people were showing up, but overall all the teams were pretty good.”
The winning team took home handwritten notes that act as $100 Clubhouse vouchers.
In the future, Boyer and Leiweke hope to use the tournament to raise money for causes and form a league. One thing is clear: The players are game to come back next year and show off their skills. “I’ll always be here,” Jones said. “I’m a winner, shooters shoot.”