It's like yard darts. It's not horse shoes. It's "Corn Hole".
This past weekend my wife and I traveled to Cincinnati to attend my first cousin's high school graduation party (he's 12 years younger than me, oops - now you know how old I am). Usually backyards are set up for yard games such as yard darts and badminton, but this party was different. Set up in the backyard with plenty of players and interest was the equipment for a game called "Corn Hole". Apparently, the game is somewhat new and very popular in the Cincinnati area.
The game (as far as I can remember) is a lot like horse shoes. Instead of stakes, two closed boxes are set opposite one another some specified distance. Each box has a hole cut into the top which is centered to the width but placed three-quarters the length of the box away from the direction of the opposite box. Before a game is begun, six fairly large sided "bean" bags are placed at the foot of each box. I put "bean" in quotes because the bags are filled with corn instead of beans. Three of the bags placed at each box should be a different color from the other three. Each team has two players (or any even number I suppose) that are evenly distributed so that each box has the same number of players from each team.
To play, somehow it is determined which team will go first. Once determined, one player from that team will throw (underhanded) three same-colored bags at the box opposite him. The idea is to get the bag to go into the hole. If the player successfully gets a bag in the hole, then he has earned three points for his team. The player earns one point for each bag that lands on the box but does not fall into the hole. Once the first player has thrown all of his bags, the player from the opposite team that is located at the same box as the first player takes his turn. In addition to scoring points, the second player can attempt to knock any of the first player's bags off the top of the box. Any bags knocked off cannot be counted for points. Once the second player throws all of his bags, the points are counted up and the team that earned the most points receives honors. The players from the opposite box now play the same way, except the player that goes first is the player from the team that last earned honors. The game goes back and forth like this until a team has earned 21 points, at which point the team with 21 points wins and the game is over.
All in all, it's a perfect game for a backyard party with friends and family. Even though I'm a Michigander who has never heard of it, I sure had a lot of fun playing it. In this attempt to tell people about this game, I am sure I've made errors in the details, mainly because I didn't really find out all of the rules and such, and because and I'm reciting what I remember from memory.
For more information on "Corn Hole", check out this website: http://www.playcornhole.org
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