London team prepares for rugby’s Bingham Cup
Gay rugby club the Kings Cross Steelers is off to Dublin for the Bingham Cup on Sunday and players are looking forward to a good luck send off at the Two Brewers on Clapham High Street.
Formed in 1995, the Steelers were the first gay rugby team to play under the Union code.
The Bingham Cup tournament will take place next week at Dublin University and 32 amateur rugby teams will compete.
The event is the biggest international gay orientated event ever held in Ireland and the largest amateur XVs rugby tournament in fifteen years.
It has been held three times since its launch in San Francisco in 2002, once in London in 2004 and then in New York in 2006.
The Bingham Cup was founded in memory of September 11th victim Mark Kendall Bingham.
An out gay man and passionate rugby player, Bingham was part of San Francisco Fog RFC.
The International Gay Rugby Association and Board (IGRAB) strives to “promote rugby as an all-inclusive non-discriminatory sport which everyone can play, regardless of sexuality,” and from this came the first Bingham tournament in San Francisco.
Next week’s Dublin tournament is supported by the betting group Paddy Power, who have provided a €100,000 (£72,000) sponsorship deal.
Paddy Power’s marketing director Ken Robertson said: “We wouldn’t be the sort of company that does what you might expect a bookmaker to do.”
The send off is this Sunday 8th June at the Two Brewers in Clapham, from 8pm to 2am. Entry is £4. For more details visit www.ruggercub.com
