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OLD SCHOOL, NEW ENGLAND:
The Head of the Charles
Sports
If ever there were a weekend for breaking out your university striped scarf and popping your collar(s), this is it. The leaves are turning in New England, and to crew enthusiasts this can mean only one thing: Boston's Head of the Charles has arrived. Dreamed up in 1965 by three local rowers keen to emulate the English tradition of long-distance, against-the-clock racing (in contrast to the shorter distance, side-by-side racing favored by Americans), the Head has swiftly grown to become the largest competition of its kind in the world. Novices and Olympic medalists alike (7,500 athletes in more than 50 events) will race the same three miles in what, with poor steering and heavy traffic, can become more of a train wreck than a regatta. Of course, the real show is on dry land, where approximately 300,000 of the preppiest spectators ever assembled will line the carnival-like banks for people watching and bloody-mary drinking starting Saturday. If you’re in Boston, be sure to swing by our Rugby store on Newbury Street — electro pop rocker Jer Coons is ushering in the weekend of festivities with an in-store performance from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
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SUPPORT PLAY:
The New York Rugby Club’s U-19 Team
Sports
We Rugby enthusiasts know the passion players bring to the sport (just watch this video of the New Zealand All-Blacks’ pre-game rituals and tell us you don’t feel a bit intimidated). And since 2006, members of the New York Rugby Club (NYRC) have been channeling that same energy and drive into improving the lives of teens in the metropolitan area through their Under 19 boys’ and girls’ teams.
In 2006, while teaching at Sports Professions High School in the Bronx, former women’s national team member Lisa Lake decided to rectify the school’s after-school sports problem (which was that, despite its name, the school had no after-school sports) by forming a rugby team and affiliating it with her own Division I club...
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SHUTTLECOCKY:
Badminton Takes Minnesota
Sports
Nadal and Federer may be throwing down in Flushing this week, but we’ve discovered a new racket-sport capital emerging 1200 miles away: Orono, Minnesota. Earlier this month, the Twin City suburb played host to the first annual Minneapolis Badminton Club (MBC) Invitational Mixed-Doubles Championship. The MBC, a venerable men's club founded way back in April, requires rigorous participation (this one annual event) and a strict dress code for their members: Whites only, club polos and belts and a pre-approval tribunal for those hoping to wear colored wristbands. For the Championships, the 32 members carefully chose female counterparts to join them in battle on Club President Matthew Hemsley's lawn. Couples fought it out, jumping, diving, and swatting their way through to the finals.
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