2001 HINGHAM CUP

The return of the Hingham Cup this year — and boy it was a beautiful Cup. Sure, its origins are modest — the fellow wearing the Toasters shirt found a dusty and abandoned Champagne Bucket, polished it up, and gave it to a friend who was an expert in making 17th century furniture (this is New England after all). That guy then added a beautiful hand-carved wooden base, and kicked it to an engraver for the delicate calligraphic flair of "Hingham Cup" and voila — hardware for the Ultimate boys and girls.

The trophy was big, brothers and sisters, big -- almost the same size as the God Cup. The Toasters guy (and pardon me I seem to have failed the name game. All I remember is that Lenny got the rights to the fields) told me that he could picture that beautiful Cup making its way across the country to Cali, after Corey Sanford promised to find a spot for it on his mantle in Venice Beach. After all these years stuck in the Boston environs, tucked away by boastful and ungracious marauders from up North (Hingham is 30 minutes South of Boston), he figured it could stand to travel the country a little, see some sights, take a dip in the Pacific, etc.

Sadly, the tarnished and cheap Cup went instead to a bunch of aging Boston ringers, more renowned these days for screaming at each other and tackling opponents in fits of greed-filled pique. What happened to the new Boston equanimity, the youthful adherence and love for Spirit of the Game? Why I'd dare say that the Boston cheat-team that won this tournament (Tea Party) even went so far as to roust and otherwise inflame normally mild-mannered Corky. He was like a junkyard dog out there on the fields, scraggy as ever and hard-charging, whelped on blood and layout blocks. But it wasn't just him. The whole team was boringly out-of-date, yelling at each other and moping towards the line after every point.

I am exaggerating of course, and making fun of the type of game that New York teams, and CRUD in particular, are more traditionally known for. Tea Party was no more cantankerous than CRUD, the finals team marrying New York attitude with Santa Barbara cool for an almost unbeatable combination of determination and free-flowing lassitude. Almost unbeatable — until that final game which saw Tea Party outlast CRUD 15-13 in an exciting match between old and new foes.

Tea Party, behind woofers Alex deFrondeville, Rob, Parinella, Jordan and probably that tall guy I guarded, managed to take half 8-6 in a point-for-point game. Confident as always, Parinella told us CRUDders on the line at 5-4 that the Tea Party score to take the lead was like "the game-winning RBI" meaning that we weren't going to come back on top.

And why not? No one could hold a candle to Tea Party all weekend. I think only Chinstrap gave them a game in semifinals. No one even got close previous to that — they were placed in the cake division (because Sanford himself insisted that the Adam Zagoria and Jim Gobeds-led combo team Blender Hottie be moved into a pool with CRUD, making a tete-a-tete for the New Yorkers with UPA newsletter bragging rights on the line).

But Jim was wrong — CRUD fought valiantly back with some late-game heroics from Sanford and Condor Mike Namkung (the guy in Orange). Corey, always a talker, stayed cool and collective as he notched goals over Corky, Parinella, Rob, any and all of those vanquished DoG players. That's not to say that Corky and crew didn't have their fun too — it was a great game for the spectators with CRUD's Brian Mahoney and Ben Reuter sending forehand hucks and crossfield hammers to Corey (maybe Sanford scored 8 goals this game? I'm serious) and Tea Party responding with deep looks to Corky.

CRUD took a 12-11 advantage but the Bostonites tied it at 13s, thanks to a dropped CRUD pull. Then at 14-13 Tea Party, the disc kroinked twice like lightning — another CRUD dropped pull resulted in an easy score for the game for Tea Party. And you have to give them props, they played well, fairly, and with great spirit.

Unfortunate team of the weekend was Blender Hottie. Stuck in the most difficult pool, they fell by 2 points early to upstart Andrea's Team, led for the most part by Der Monkey Man Volker. Their next game was against Chinstrap. Chinstrap, Flash's veteranized (though youthful version) ringer-like team (with Benji this time around) went up 9-3 and then proceeded to give up 7 straight points to Hottie. In the end, they persevered however, eking out the win.

This set up the final Saturday match of CRUD versus Hottie. CRUD had already outdueled Chinstrap, winning 15-13 with two big timely endzone mac'd disc layouts for scores by Mark Rosenthal and Ben Reuter and so were comfortably in first — but they had to win this game to insure themselves a place in semifinals.

Hottie jumped out to a mid-game three-point advantage behind this fellow Matt Taylor who was unstoppable en route to 6 or more goals, all on spectacular leaps and one-handed grabs, half of them over Corey Sanford. But at 14-12, advantage Hottie, CRUD patiently worked a couple scores to tie at 14s and send the game to OT. Hottie scored to go up 15-14 and on the next possession a CRUD player threw the disc into the hands of a poach defender, Adam Zagoria, on the second pass. An easy opportunity for Hottie to win the game, but the CRUD guy who threw it away got enough of the disc on a get-it-back layout near the endzone (OK, it was me) to stop what would have been a game-winning score from Zagoria, and CRUD again tied it. Then Hottie again went up one, 16-15, and CRUD, after a few nerve-rattling turnovers, found a way to score. Pulling to Hottie, CRUD got a block on a short huck and after 15 throws found Rosenthal in the endzone for the win.

Hottie, for the day, finished 1-3 with a positive point differential. Ouch. Now they will probably cut me, because I always get cut from teams these days.

So who exactly was CRUD? Turns out just a bunch of guys from around New York summer league and New Paltz, two Condors (Corey with New Paltz roots) and a gaggle of women from Ambush. Not a single player from New York's top team Bombsquad was there to lock horns with the Dog guys as they had two-a-days that weekend.

So Hingham Cup goes to Boston and Regionals goes to....?

Also of note for a Flash/Corey challenge earlier: CRUD managed to find a way to smoke a blunt before Sunday's play and they STILL made it to finals. Remarkable.

This was written for Rec.Sport.Disc.

ARCHIVE HOME

1996–1998 • 1999–2000 • 2001–2003

OTHER LINKS