Long games relieve long winter nights at Indoor Bean Bag Toss League

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Wayward drivers tend to lose golf balls.

Lee Voyne lost a bean bag.

“I think it’s somewhere by the car wash,” Voyne said of the business next to City Tap on Main Street.

Good thing Voyne had a teammate to see where it went.

“Playing with Lee is fun,” Collin Fangman said, “the games just take a little longer.”

Voyne and Fangman were in a marathon match against Brennan Ott and Lori Kummer during Indoor Bean Bag League play last Wednesday at City Tap.

“Sometimes games can last an hour,” Kummer said.

Or sometimes they can be over in a matter of minutes. For instance Kummer’s husband, Jay, hit a four-bagger good for 12 instant points in a game up to 21.

“But you’ve got to get to 21 on the nose,” Kummer explains. “You go over, you get bumped back down to 13.”

Bags on the board are worth 1 point; bags through the hole are 3 points. Teams can cancel each other out, i.e. both teams place two bags on the board and two in the hole will equal zero points all around.

Of course, strategy is always involved. If an opponent puts it through the hole on 19 or 20 — like Voyne did on repeated occasions — the other team will usually opt to intentionally slide or throw any bags they have left well off target to allow their opponent to be sent down rather than taking aim which could cancel out points and right them back down to 21 or below.

When the marathon match reached its 61st minute, it seemed it had another hour left in it. Kummer, while trying to place two more bags on the board after her first attempt landed there, pendingly moving her team up one to 19, she inadvertently put one through the hole — busted at 22.

But then Fangman made a crucial error. He haphazardly flung his two remaining bags across CT’s dance floor and turned to scoring poll to gleefully send Kummer and Ott back down to 13.

However, Kummer had two more throws. And when she was able to knock the bag off the board on her fourth attempt, the score was adjusted to 21.

Game Over.

“Bean Bags are really popular in the summer, especially in Charles City,” Voyne said. “There are tournaments all over the place, and a real big one at the Iowa State Fair.

“We started this indoor league to give us something to do when the dart season is over.”

The league gathers every Tuesday and Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at City Tap where Voyne, the league organizer, often serves as a DJ. Doubles teams are formed on a rotating schedule with individual stats compiled from week to week.

“It basically started as a social thing,” Voyne said. “Some people are new to Charles City, so how do you go out and meet people?

“This is a great way to do that.”

Voyne constructed the targets himself, and points out the varying dimensions that distinguish Bean Bag Toss from Cornhole.

“With Cornhole, you play on a 2-by-4-foot board … in Bean Bag the board is 2-by-3-foot,” Voyne said. “You got a much smaller target in Bean Bag.

“Plus in Bean Bag, the board starts six inches up from the floor unlike Cornhole where the board starts up from the floor. You’re not going have throws come up short and slide up the board in Bean Bag like you would with Cornhole.

“There’s a little more skill involved in Bean Bag.”

The Indoor Bean Bag League is 13-weeks long.

“We’re only five weeks into this one,” Voyne said last Wednesday. “When we’re done, hopefully we’ll be playing outside.”

Longer days, longer games.