The Crime of a Cripple?

     This is a story I couldn't let pass. It was published on Easter Day, 5 April 2026 in the Sunday Mail (Brisbane, Australia) p 33. It was written while the Iran War was in progress.

Forget Iran, amputee cornhole killer's yarn of the week

by Rory Gibson

    One of the casualties of war is non-war news. Because missile barrages tend to hog the headlines, more interesting stuff can get lost in the fog. Consequently you may have missed a ripper yarn involving a bloke called Dayton Webber. One report about Webber carried the most intriguing headline I've seen in years: "US quadruple amputee cornhole pro suspected of murder had a dark side, ex-girlfriend claims."

    There's so much to unpack from that headline, but I know what's top of the list for most: What the hell is cornhole? It know it sounds vaguely obscene, like what a rival to Pornhub might call itself, but it couldn't be more innocent. For those who don't know- and that would amount to millions of Aussies - cornhole is a game in which participants chuck a small bag of corn kernels at a board with a hole in it about 8m away. Like many weird activities, it's big in the US, with pro tournaments and TV coverage.

    Our man Dayton has won a few tournaments, which is incredible given he has no hands or feet. He lost his limbs to infection when he was a baby. If that wasn't evidence of the 27-year-old's dexterity, consider the events that earned him a murder charge. [I understand he is claiming self defence.] He allegedly shot and killed one of his mates, who was a passenger in his car while he was driving.

     Driving? Shooting? Cornhole? No hands? There's true-crime book and TV series that practically writes itself, and that's before we examine Dayton's "dark side". Mind you, anyone who spent their [sic] life coping with such profound disabilities should be forgiven for having a few gloomy moments.

     While the stories about Dayton's dilemma have provided a much-needed diversion from the blood and dust of the Middle East, my inquiries revealed something I don't think has been given the coverage it warrants - cornhole has carved out a foot hole in Australia! The Australian Cornhole Association says on its website (iplayaca.com.au) that although the sport is new here, as the governing body it is dedicated to promoting the sport, helping people run their own tournaments, and running official competitions.

    The timing couldn't be better. When we runout of fuel and fertiliser and no food is going to shops, we're going to need some fun games to take our minds off our problems.