Last Updated: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 3:28 PM CDT
Sports : Businesses sponsor men and women's horseshoe teams
by Vern Hollister - Correspondent
Last week, heavy rains forced Forest County Horseshoe League members to postpone their usual Monday evening competition leaving teams to re-schedule at a time convenient to both.
Thursday, at 6 p.m., last season's co-champs, Waters Edge 1 and Juniors 1, met in non-stormy conditions, perfect weather for horseshoe to their way of thinking. The early evening match occurred in a fenced and nearly isolated area behind Juniors Saloon located at the southern fringe of Mole Lake. The clank-clank of pitched shoes echoed in the cool and balmy evening. Occasionally, league president Terry Samz called out "woody" in good-natured teasing as a shoe caromed off wooden boxes which served as frames for the stakes and pit and as platforms off which male competitors threw. Women could choose to throw from in front of the platform, or not.
"It's a night out," league secretary Sue Samz said. "I always loved throwing horseshoes. It's an enjoyable sport."
Sue led off for the team of husbands and wives, "Sponge Bob" and Jackie Shepherd and the Samzs, with a six-pack, a pair of ringers to shoot the Samz half of the team to an early lead over the "Foxy" competitors representing JR. Clayton, Chet, Clinton, and Josh, all with Fox as a surname, collected themselves by the end of six games to tie, 3-3. Clinton had driven to the match directly from work, nary an opportunity to warm up before the action. Chet, the oldest competitor, let it be known that they had won the championship, not tied, in a playoff. He brought out the traveling trophy with "2006 Juniors" inscribed.
"They cheated," Terry said.
Above the 2006 Juniors, and starting with 2003, Pine Lake Pub had kept possession for the three years before until the two teams competing Thursday derailed them. "They weren't happy," Sue said.
The eleven teams follow championship horseshoe rules with uniform shoes. They play twelve games to 21 points in a night of friendly competition. Establishments sponsor the teams and pay $100 for each team they sponsor. Players give back with their patronage. Terry said that at one time, players were to pay $5 each night, but when that became confusing and arduous, sponsors said to just have the one fee.
Juniors, Water's Edge near Lake Lucerne's shore, Duck's Bar in Crandon, and Kathy's Inn from Argonne each sponsor two teams. Pine Lake Pub in Hiles, Copper Country west of Crandon, and Pack "Em Inn in downtown Crandon, sponsor one team each. The relaxed competition mixes men and women. Though Juniors 1 consists of all men and Water's Edge 1 is mixed, Duck's Bar sponsors one all women's team, and Pack 'Em Inn weighs heavily in that direction.
"It's an equal sex sport," Sue said.
People familiar with horseshoes probably remember it as a backyard game when grandfathers, uncles, parents, stepped off distances, pounded in stakes, and competed at picnics and family gatherings. Now and then, younger kids got their chance when adults finished. Ringers counted three points, leaners two points, and closest to the stake counted one point.
Today's official rules don't include the two-point leaner. According to information from the National Horseshoe Association (NHSA) website, leaners were disbanded in 1920 for world competition, but those who played the game as a backyard sport had little knowledge and association with what was done on the national and world stage. In one sequence when the Foxes competed with Water's Edge, a player tossed a leaner. Shortly after, a competitor flopped a leaner against the leaner. The first one, being closer to the stake, scored the point. A ringer on top of a ringer by competing players cancels both.
After each set of throws, players dug in the pit sand, brushed off dirt, and called out scores, as in 3 red or 1 white. At one end, players moved clothespins down to pre-marked totals like pegs on a cribbage board. At the other end, players recorded six-packs and called out player rotations.
Chet Fox showed off a wire hook which he used to pluck horseshoes from the pit without having to bend too far. He shrugged off friendly teasing about his age and ability to bend, content in his creativity.
Terry said that they don't compete other than in the Monday night outing, but that some teams are in other leagues.
See Horseshoe, Page 2B
They also do not go beyond though there is a state competition and a world championship. The National Horseshoe Pitchers Association World Championship is scheduled to take place in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where the Horseshoe Hall of Fame is located, from July 23 through August 4. For the Forest County players, their competition goes 11 weeks and ends August 13.
The grip most used by professionals is from the side, a thumb grip on the top, fingers below. In the air, the shoe has a one and one quarter turn before circling the stake. The credit for this method is attributed to a New York doctor who just threw that way. Other players discovered that with his pitch, the fork rotated toward the stake. Unusual, because it seemed unnatural to point the side to have it slip in with the fork first.
Team members at Juniors used grips stamped with their personal tastes and methods. Most held the shoe at the back with the open end toward the stake. Josh Fox used two fingers to hold the shoe, and it spiralled rapidly in the air. Most others used a variation of that grip but with fewer rotations. The wily Chet Fox gripped the shoe more to the side like most experienced pitchers.
Some historians connect horsehoeing to the Civil War when Union soldiers competed in camps with mule shoes. Others place its beginning farther back to a game known as "quoits," when competitors tossed an iron disk with a hole in the center in an effort to have the disk drop over a stake. When soldiers returned from the war, the game of horseshoes continued on local levels, and leaners were part of the scoring. Without connection to what was happening on the national level, leaners continued to count in backyard play.
The first world championship was held in 1909; and in 1921, two leagues merged to become the NHSPA. As recently as 1950, stake lengths were raised to 14-15 inches. When they were quite short, two ringers filled a stake, and a third and a fourth couldn't be made.
As secretary, Sue Samz keeps track of games won and lost, and weekly each host team reports the number of sixpacks towards season-end prizes for both men and women.
"All the money goes back to the players," Terry said. "Every team gets some of the money." Samz said that the co-champs last year received $115, second $110, third, $105, and on down the line. The final season gathering rotates among sponsoring establishments.
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Jackie Shepherd lines up a pitch. Behind her, Jackie's husband, Bob Shepherd waits after completing his game from the court behind Jackie. Four players on a team separate, play from two courts, and rotate throughout the twelve games.
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