SUCCESS

 I’m not really for sure how you measure success. But, last week’s News Journal Corn Hole Tournament had to be classified as a success. There were 22 teams in the double-elimination tournament. Everyone seemed to have a good time and a lot of competitors dished out compliments.

A pair of brothers from Buckhorn won the $350 first place prize while another brother and his neighbor took the second place prize of $150.

Mark and Jack Rice literally walked through the tournament, winning seven games with ease. They started with a 21-8, 22-0 rout of Eugene Surratt and his partner, Donald Burns and ended with a 21-6 one-game win over their brother, Wayne Rice and neighbor David Estep.

The tournament got underway around 7:15 p.m. and was over 45 games later at 11:00 p.m.

There were some really good teams in the tournament and we (Trent Knuckles and I) were very impressed.

Jo Davis and Bobbie Parker, two ladies from Barbourville nearly put the men to shame. They lost their first game to veterans Sidney Strunk and Jerry Hamlin, 26-16, 12-25, 26-3, but won three straight including their 21-2, 22-5 win over News Journal entries Trent and Chris Parsons. They lost a hard-fought three set match to David and Roger Richardson, 22-16, 10-25, 21-12. The Richardson’s went on to finish in a tie for fifth with Surratt and Burns, came back to win five games after the loss to the champions.

Trent and I felt like we learned a lot from this tournament and hope to repeat the event next year with a little more experience.

I know I learned a lot from the old-timers from Williamsburg. Sidney Strunk, David Richardson and Wendall Lovett offered their advice which really helped and promoted the tournament in a few places they had played and it really helped turn out a nice field of teams.

I decided what better way to promote the tournament than to give a subscription for third place. Kenneth Veach and Jason Prewitt took third after losing a hard-fought match to Rice and Estep, 21-19, 21-0. It was especially hard because Veach and Prewitt led 19-8 at one point in the first game.

I can’t recall any discrepancies in the tournament, if there were the teams worked them out without letting Trent or I know about it.

There were several other people that made the tournament a success. It was Chris Parsons idea to have the tournament and we quickly jumped on the bandwagon. He didn’t get to help with running the tournament as much as he would have liked because someone had to take NIBROC photos of the other events.

Fatemia Fuson and Linda Carpenter helped more than they know behind the scenes. Fatemia helped secure the game boards that we used. A huge thank you goes out to Kris Strebeck and the University of the Cumberlands for those boards. It really made the tournament run smooth using five sets. No one team had to wait very long and the games went rather quickly.

Of course, thanks to Don Estep for letting us have the tournament and to Wyatt’s Car Wash for letting us use their lot. It was just the right size and the right place.

Congratulations to the winners and hope to see you next year!