Кубок Бингема: Международный турнир по регби среди гей-команд

The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament or the Bingham Cup is a biennial international, non professional, gay rugby union tournament, first held in 2002. It is named after Mark Bingham, who died on board United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The most recent tournament was held in Ottawa, Canada, in August 2022 and was won by the worlds first gay and inclusive rugby club the Kings Cross Steelers.

In October 2000, gay and bisexual rugby union teams worldwide founded the International Gay Rugby Association and Board (IGRAB) as a body to promote rugby union as an all inclusive non discriminatory sport which everyone can play, regardless of sexuality. An informal invitational tournament, held in May 2001, was formally inaugurated by IGRAB as a new international rugby union competition — a gay rugby union world cup — which in a unanimous decision by all the members of IGRAB became known as the Bingham Cup. The tournament was named after Mark Bingham, a former University of California, Berkeley rugby star who had played in the May 2001 tournament for San Francisco Fog RFC and cofounded the Gotham Knights RFC. Bingham died in the September 11, 2001 attacks on board United Airlines Flight 93. According to Jon Barrett of The Advocate, he is generally accepted to be one of a group of passengers who fought with the hijackers aboard the flight, which eventually led to the hijackers crashing the plane into a vacant field in Pennsylvania instead of targets in Washington, D. C. At the time of his death, there were around eight gay inclusive rugby clubs worldwide, and he was helping to create others.

In May 2001, in a precursor to the tournament, the Washington Renegades hosted an IGRAB International Invitational for gay rugby union teams in Washington D. C., United States. The event was officially a Rugby sevens tournament among the existing IGRAB teams at the time. In addition to the tournament, there was an exhibition rugby union or XVs matches. In the exhibition match between the San Francisco Fog RFC and the Renegades, the two played against each other for the first time in a XVs match. The Fog won 19 0.

In October 2001, following the 2001 invitational, the San Francisco Fog successfully lobbied IGRAB for the right to put on a XVs rugby tournament in San Francisco in June 2002. The tournament was fashioned in the style of the Rugby World Cup, both the tournament and the cup prize were named in honor of Mark Kendall Bingham, a club founder who died on United Airlines flight 93 during the September 11th terrorist attacks. Later the name Bingham Cup become the informal name. Eight teams traveled to San Francisco during gay pride weekend of June 28–29, 2002 to compete over two days with the Fog coming out on top as the Cup’s first winners. The event was sponsored by Nike and Guinness and was covered by press from around the world, including ESPN. The Fog A side emerged undefeated, defeating the London Kings Cross Steelers 27 5 in the final. Alice Hoagland, Mark Bingham’s mom, presented the Fog with the trophy. The event was profiled in a two page article in Rugby World magazine.

In May 2004, the Bingham Cup competition was hosted by London, England, club Kings Cross Steelers. From eight teams just two years prior, twenty teams from four countries were fielded for the 2004 cup, which was won for the second time by the San Francisco Fog RFC. During the 2004 cup, the Bingham Bowl Division was introduced, a middle tier award won by the Philadelphia Gryphons. the inaugural bowl was literally a bowl from the kitchen of the Esher RFC in London.

On December 1, 2006, IGRAB announced the success of the bid of Emerald Warriors to host the 2008 competition in Dublin Ireland. Other bidding cities included Sydney, Australia, and Paris, France. In addition, Las Vegas, Nevada, Seattle, Washington, Cardiff, Wales, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada also considered bidding to host the 2008 tournament. The fourth Bingham cup was held in Dublin on the weekend of the 13–16 June, at Dublin City University campus. 32 teams competed across four divisions (the Cup, the Plate, the Bowl and the Shield). The Sydney Convicts (A Team) took the cup back with them to Australia after winning the Cup competition for the second time in a row, this time defeating the Kings Cross Steelers (A Team) in the Cup final. The IGR World Barbarians team, made up largely of the Nashville Grizzlies, beat the Sydney Convicts (B Team) in the Plate final. Belfast team the Ulster Titans won the shield. The Atlanta Bucks defeated the Kings Cross Steelers (B Team) in the Bowl division, making them the only North American team to win a title in this year's tournament.

On January 21, 2009, IGRAB announced that the hosting rights for the 2010 Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial Tournament had been awarded to the Minneapolis Mayhem. The tournament was held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota, June 17–20, 2010. The Cup returned to US soil as the 2006 tourney hosts, the Gotham Knights pulled an upset win over the reigning champions, the Sydney Convicts. The 2010 tournament introduced the Crest and Spoon divisions. The Phoenix Storm won the Crest after defeating the Gotham Knights B Side in the final. The Bingham Spoon was claimed for the first time by the Seattle Quake B when they defeated the Ottawa Wolves in the final.

It was announced on September 29, 2010, that the Manchester Village Spartans RUFC, England, would host the 2012 Bingham Cup, beating the Sydney Convicts' bid by 6 votes. Notably, Manchester's bid was actively supported by straight professional English rugby player Ben Cohen. The competition was held at Broughton Park RUFC, Manchester, June 1–3 and boasted the largest number of inclusive teams in the tournament's history.

In August 2014, the Sydney Convicts brought the Bingham Cup competition to the southern hemisphere. Twenty four teams traveled to New South Wales, Australia for three rainy days of competition at the home of the Woollahra Colleagues RFC. The home town Convicts ultimately won the Cup for the second consecutive tournament.

On October 4, 2018, IGR announced that the 2020 Bingham Cup was awarded to the Ottawa Wolves and that the tournament would be played in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Ottawa was to be the first city in Canada to host the tournament, which was originally scheduled to be played August 8–17, 2020. On March 28, 2020, IGR announced that the 2020 Bingham Cup was postponed until August 2022 because of the Covid 19 outbreak.

The 10th edition of Bingham began on August 18th, 2022, in Ottawa, Canada.

The 11th edition of Bingham will be held in Rome, from the 23rd to the 26th of May 2024.