ESPN announced that Sunday’s cornhole tournament at Dale’s Dip & Drink in Clunge, Virginia will be “the biggest live televised sporting event available this weekend” after many leagues have cancelled their events due to coronavirus concerns.
The semi-annual cornhole tournament, originally scheduled for 4pm in the fenced-in area behind Dale’s locally-famous corn chip restaurant and bar, was moved to 8pm to accommodate ESPN’s prime-time schedule.
Cornhole, a game involving throwing beanbags into a hole along a sloped board, has been a bar and tailgate favorite for years.
Now, it’s poised to capture the attention of every sports-starved viewer in the country.
Proprietor Dale Durban says that the semi-annual tournament usually draws the best cornholers in the tri-county area, but might be able to attract contestants and fans from “a few counties out” with all the added attention of ESPN covering the event.
With the NBA, NHL, MLB, PGA and NCAA cancelling events due to fears of the virus, ESPN correspondent Nobé Spaulever says the network “went into a panic” looking for alternative entertainment. It came across Dale’s tournament via a social media announcement declaring that the tournament was “still on”.
Likewise, many locals worried that Dale’s cornhole tournament might be cut from the bar’s events schedule. Instead, Durban said he saw an opportunity to bring prominence to cornhole by showing that contestants and fans for the events won’t cave to fear, that they were willing to challenge every aspect of common sense to provide entertainment, and that “the men and women of cornhole are just as tough” as competitors of any other athletic event.
“This is the new March Madness”, Dale declared.
“This area really gets excited about watching cornholers go at it fast and furious,” Dale told reporters. “With everything else going on, this is bound to be the the hottest tournament yet, with some of the best cornhole action ever. Even with all the fear about the virus, we expect a lot of people to show up and and eat some chips and dip and grab their favorite beer on tap and get behind their favorite cornholer.”
Dale’s Dip & Drink’s Semi-Annual Cornhole Tournament airs on ESPN this Sunday at 8pm, with replays on ESPN2.
Brown Valley Observer 