"We never have discrepancies," Neville says. Instead of mediating disputes, she sets up the boards — SBS uses plastic dealies from a company called Baggo — and makes sure everyone has someone to play with, sometimes filling in herself. In the colder months, when cornhole moves indoors to Game On, she sits behind the DJ booth, announcing teams and stoking the crowd. Last winter, in a particularly spirited match, the Bruins mascot Blades happened to drop by. "It was awesome — we were all doing the wave."
Neville, a Boston native, fell in love with cornhole three summers ago while visiting friends in California. She spent her days and nights cornholing, falling for the simple pleasures of throwing a bag into a hole. As soon as Neville returned to Boston, she built her own regulation boards, ordered some bags, and converted her friends. When SBS started its league a year and a half ago, she was thrilled.
"I like that anybody can play," Neville explains. "I can convince my friends who don't know how to play, and everyone is willing to give it a try. It's not as intimidating as team sports."
THE DIRTY DIAPER
When Neville first joined the league, she kept getting creamed. She wasn't too upset: "Most people aren't that good," she says. "Even if you aren't necessarily good at it at first, you can learn it and be pretty decent."
Everything changed after her third official match. Now, whenever Neville sees a cornholer get discouraged, she shares what she calls her Cinderella story.
"When I first played, on the Hyatt terrace, we were getting annihilated by these two guys." Instead of giving up, she scrutinized her victor. "What is he doing that I'm not?" she wondered. After an hour, she figured it out.
To this day, she won't divulge what she learned, and she clams up when I ask her to name her technique. After some coaxing, she relents. "I call it the Dirty Diaper," she says.
Rapt, I look into my lap and realize I have been stroking the bag as though it were a kitten.
The match reaches the end of the first hour. The Great Cornholios, Bags Deep, and the Bean Crushing Blondes clear the field, making way for 2 Girls 1 Hole, the Glory Holes, and Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Corned.
I catch Jon Platt and Michael Burns of Bags Deep, who trounced the Amateur Corn Stars when one of their members failed to show. Both learned the game while tailgating in college.
I needed to know the secret of their success — did they have their own Dirty Diaper?
Burns spins a detailed explanation of how he deals with slippery plastic boards. "You need to brush the ceiling [with the bag] so it doesn't slide or bounce," he says.
Platt raises an eyebrow, laughing as he answers: "It's just how much you drink."
Learn how to cornhole in Boston at socialbostonsports.com.
