The 5th Annual Southern Maine Cornhole Invitational was held on Saturday October 26 at the Gorham Sports Complex.  A record 63 two-person teams competed for cash in the winning bracket (or beer in the consolation bracket).   In addition, the tournament planning team was able to sell 10 Leader Board sponsors, a new component of the event this year.  The Leader Board sponsors included: Desmond & Rand, Stroudwater Title, Hops & Vine, Elaine Spiller (Spiller for Mayor), Gorham House of Pizza, and Gorham Savings Bank.
 
During registration, each team picked a fun name for their team like Rotary Rockers, Team X, Guacahole, Four Baggers, Airmail, and Stuff that Hole.  The event kicked off at 1PM with “pool play” in which all teams played each of three other teams in their randomly assigned “pool”.  Based on those results, the teams moved on to “tournament play” with the winning teams from pool play competing for a cash prize in the “cash bracket” and the less successful teams from pool play competing for beer in the “beer bracket”.   The winning team, Stuff that Hole, took home $400 and bragging rights.  Alas, Steve Rand and Bill Chadwick, our Rotary Rockers, landed in the beer bracket and fell out of competition early.
 
Thanks go to many businesses and individuals who made the event a great success: Ethan Johnson, Steve Rand, and Aaron Paiton (among several others from GBE) for picking up and transporting cornhole boards purchased in previous years to be sure we had enough boards to support the competition;  Bill Chadwick and Christine Johnson who sold raffle tickets for cash and prizes, bringing in a new record of $220;  Allagash brewing for donating beer (and Ethan for transporting it); Gorham House of Pizza (and George Sotiropoulos) for donating pizza; David Willis for keeping the brackets and competition organized and running smoothly; Craig Belhumeur for website management, on-line registrations, photography, and digital support; and to Gorham Sports complex for a great rental rate and loosening some of their rules.
 
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone at the Gorham Business Exchange for bringing in Westbrook-Gorham Rotary as their partner again this year. A fun event!