“Don’t loaf and invite inspiration.
Light out after it with a club.” – Jack London
Monday league play is back at the Hamilton Horseshoe Club! April 30th was actually the first night of play, although the wins, losses, and other stats did not start piling up until this past Monday, May 7th. My ringer percentage was about 25% and change on both nights, with some hot and cold streaks here and there. I shot 40% for one game this past week, which I’m pretty sure is my best game to date. I won two games and lost one. I’m pretty happy with my start to the season. It feels great to see the gang and get back into the regular routine of weekly play. It doesn’t hurt that the resurgence of horseshoe play is also seemingly coinciding with the advent of warmer weather.
The three tournaments I played over the winter in Connecticut went a long way towards keeping my pitching steady, if not sharp, now that Spring has rolled around. I signed up for my first tournament, which is the Hamilton Open, scheduled for Saturday, May 19th. I’m going to have to get creative when it comes time to make the trek up to Hamilton, due to the fact that my more stylish half will be in the Granite State for the weekend. If we get a good turnout for the contest, maybe I’ll hitch with a pitcher heading north past Slummerville.
That shadowy figure in the shot below, pitching a horseshoe (trust me, he’s pitching a horseshoe), that’s yours truly.
grainy men on a granular planet
Things did not begin so swimmingly yesterday at the Central Connecticut Horseshoe Club for me. I had about 30 minutes to warm up before my class began shooting at 11:00. After a few horrid pitches, I got back into the swing of things and felt satisfied enough to relax for a few minutes before match play began. When the official play started, however, I had a bit of a rough time. It was a very slow start, but the ringers started coming. Fortunately they started coming before my opponent had built an insurmountable lead, and I won the first contest by a score of 35 to 17.
My second game turned out to be the toughest, at least on paper, though any of them could have had very different outcomes if not for a ringer (or a single point) at the right moment. I shot 31.25% to my opponent’s 27.1%, and won by a score of 36 – 28.
The score card does not lie. Here it is:
Opponents' names redacted by the self censorship bureau.
All told, I finished in first place in Class G, with a 5-0 record and a 32.24% ringer percentage for the day. It was my best day of pitching to date. I’m looking forward to returning to weekly club play at the Hamilton Horseshoe Club. If spring is here to stay, we should be off and running soon.
I’m about to hit the highway. Destination: East Hartford, CT. Occasion? Spring Thaw Horseshoe Tournament. The action starts at 11:00 a.m. Why am I posting about this before the event? Brace yourselves… You can watch the fast, probably not furious action from the comfort of your own living room! Yes, all you need is A.) an internet connection, and B) nothing better to do, and you can watch me play horseshoes today. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but horseshoes is not much of a spectator sport. You’ve been warned. If you’re still curious, wander on over to Central Connecticut Horseshoe Club’s home on the web. The link for the live video feed is in the upper left hand corner of the home screen. It will require downloading a small plug in. And the plug in does not work with Firefox, but should function fine with Safari or Internet Explorer.
This has nothing to do with the price of tea in China, or horseshoes, but it’s a nice way to start the day. Cheers.
I had a slight revelation about my horseshoe play last Saturday at the Stan Butkus Memorial Tournament, held in East Hartford, CT at theCentral Connecticut Horseshoe Club.
My class was scheduled to play at 3:00 p.m., and I showed up about an hour early. Fortunately the previous group finished up just after 2:00, and 3 courts opened up so that I could warm up before competition began. Even though it’s been a mild winter here in Massachusetts, I hadn’t been able to get any pitching in since the last time I made it to the CCTHC, which was back in November.
After hitting the chain link fence on my back swing, I remembered that I needed to adjust my position in the box forward a bit. I threw probably 40-50 shoes, trying to finish my warm-ups with a few ringers in order to end on a high note. In my first match-up I started slow, and ended up with a loss that I definitely deserved. I shot 16.67% in my first game. I won my next three games, averaging 26.87%. By the time my bye came, in round 6, I was 3-2. I lost my last match, to a very tough opponent, by a score of 36-22. So I finished 3-3 for the day, with an average of 26.87%.
I’m actually pretty happy with the way I shot, especially considering that I hadn’t thrown for so long. The competition was very tough, as I’m learning is the norm for this venue. Oh, and there was the revelation, which was thanks to two fellow horseshoe players at the tournament, one of whom was my opponent, and the other a scorekeeper.
As with lots of leisure activities, sports, music, etc… horseshoe players sometimes enter the fabled “zone”. Everything comes together. The ringers are effortless. I was in the zone more than once last Saturday, and I eventually found my way out. During two games, I started off throwing very well, and built up a comfortable lead. I then promptly cooled off, letting my opponents back into the game.
What I found out, through the kind advice of my fellow players, is that I started hurrying my pitches. My arm speed increased. I wasn’t aware in the least that I was doing this. Inevitably I start wondering what exactly I’m doing differently when I start to fall apart and lose momentum. Increasing my arm speed is one of those things, and now I know I need to make an effort to prevent this from happening. I’m not sure that it will drastically improve my pitching, but being aware of this tendency is definitely a step forward.
Here are the results, for the statistically minded.
Yesterday I made the trek down to East Hartford, CT for the Norm Rioux Open horseshoe tournament. The event was held at the Central Connecticut Horseshoe Club facility, which is quite a unique establishment. The CCTHC is an indoor pitching venue tucked away in an industrial nook of East Hartford. To say the place is unassuming would be an understatement, but it is a haven for serious horseshoe pitchers who want to stay active through the winter. The club hosts league play five nights a week from October through May. In fact, according to the club’s website, the courts are open seven days a week from 10.1 through 5.1. This level of participation is quite impressive, and is part of the reason I didn’t mind driving for a few hours to play there.
Norm Rioux Open action.
Neither the club, nor the players disappointed yesterday. The competition, as I expected, was tough. My group, Class H, was scheduled to start at 12:00 noon, and I arrived a few hours early. This allowed me to meet a few of the club members, including Tournament Director, Don Maine. I grabbed a sandwich across the street at the Greatful Deli. As luck would have it, I had a bye on my fourth game, which provided an excellent opportunity for a lunch break.
The previous group finished up a little bit early, which gave me an opportunity to throw some shoes and get used to the indoor courts. One adjustment I found that I had to make was stepping up a bit further in the box to throw. You’ll see in the photo above that there is a section of fence directly behind each pit. The fence is necessary because of the space constraints in the building and the fact that players need a protected place to stand between pitches. Normally I stand behind the stake a bit on the left hand side. I was confounded to find that my shoe was hitting the chain link fence on my backswing. This was corrected easily by stepping up about a foot closer. It was nice to have a chance to work this kink out before the competition started.
A view from the scorer's perch.
Before I get into the play by play, I should also point out an unusual feature of the CCTHC, which is the scoring. They tout the club as the “home of computerized scoring”. There is a scorer’s perch accessed by stairs and situated one level above the pits. Two scorers, each equipped with computers, receive the scores from the players after each inning. Practically speaking, this means that each scorer is keeping track of up to three games at once. The system works quite well, but it means that each player has to follow the correct protocol when reporting to the scorekeeper. As an example, if I were playing a game and got a ringer plus a point, I would make eye contact with the scorekeeper and report “ringer 4″. There is a monitor at the end of each court that is updated in real time with the players’ names, scores, and ringer percentages. It is a great feature, as long as you keep focused on pitching shoes and don’t get sidetracked by your ringer percentage.
Tale of the 'sheet.
Despite my warm up, I started off very slow. I think it was the sixth or seventh frame before I got a ringer. This allowed my opponent to build up a pretty comfortable lead. I did rebound and pitch a pretty good game, but my comeback wasn’t strong enough, as I dropped the first game 35 to 25. The game format was such that games went to 35 points or 50 shoes, whichever came first. I won my second game, although I was a bit off my average. My opponent had an off game as well, otherwise it probably would have ended differently. I had my best game in the fifth match, where I pitched 44%, which is a personal best for me. I almost finished at .500, but I lost my last game on the very last shoe, when my opponent threw a ringer to squeak out a win, 29 to 28. I knew I needed a ringer with my last two shoes, and I just missed high on my last shoe. So it goes. I finished with a record of 2 wins and 4 losses.
I ended up shooting 29.58% for the day, which is roughly 2 points above my average. I really liked playing indoors, after a fashion. It has a distinctly different feel. I found that even the acoustics came into play, with a very satisfying ‘clink’ when a shoe is buried on the stake just right. I plan on returning to the CCTHC a few more times over the winter.
What does Knoxville, TN have to do with it? Not much, except I found out from a fellow player yesterday that the 2012 World Horseshoe Tournament will be held there. I would love to attend, but we’ll see what happens. The New England Championship, held in Keene, NH, will be celebrating its’ 75th anniversary next year, so that’s something to think about as well.
As I alluded to in my last post, my next tournament is going to be an indoor affair in East Hartford, CT. It’s coming up next weekend, and I’m pretty excited about it. The host club, Central Connecticut Horseshoe Club, holds tournaments through the winter, complete with computerized scoring, to satisfy the cravings of hardcore pitchers who couldn’t possibly wait until the snow thaws and the temperatures rise again in April. I expect the competition to be fierce, and I’m hoping I’m not any worse for not practicing in the last 6 weeks or so. The lineups haven’t been announced yet -They should be posted on newenglandhorseshoes.com by Wednesday.
In other news, the little lady and I have undertaken the daunting, but not quite herculean task of revamping my Grandparents’ former residence in Silver Ridge, Maine. The house has sat vacant for more than eight years now, and is a little rough around the edges. Actually it’s a little rough everywhere. With some help from Mom and Dad, we got a good deal of it cleaned up last weekend. In just a few days it went from looking like it was going back to nature to looking semi-livable again. We’re both pretty excited about the prospects for the house. Just being in the place brings back a lot of great memories from my childhood. That old yellow house was a fantastic place to gather and share a meal and a few laughs in good company. With a little sprucing up, and a lot of sweat equity, I think we can keep that tradition alive. The next step will be hooking up the water again in the spring to do some further cleaning. After that? Remodeling!
Running, another of my leisure activities, has taken a back seat recently to more pressing things. I did manage to get out today, with my faithful companion Mushka, for a 10k jaunt in the golden afternoon of a late Autumn day in New England. It was a little rough for me during the first mile or two. It wasn’t painful or anything, no cramps, but let’s just say that if a comfortable looking couch would have presented itself on the sidewalk, I would have happily sat down for a breather. It wasn’t until the last mile or so that I really got into the groove. Running, at its’ best, feels as natural as breathing. No effort, no strain. Just one foot in front of the other. With any luck, the snow and frigid temperatures will hold off for another month or so and I can continue jogging in the out of doors. Running in place in our living room just doesn’t cut it.
Aside from the occasional trip to the constitution state for some indoor pitching, horseshoes will get damn near impossible once the snow starts flying. In the interest of keeping things, well…interesting, I’ll be filling this space with ramblings about other topics. Running may get knocked out of contention by mother nature as well. But then there are always musings about the nature of the cosmos, which I am lately very fascinated with, though I confess that I have never set foot in a Physics classroom. Go figure.
First off, I just want to say that my neighbors are building a backyard fence and leisure space, and I’m more than a little jealous. The smell of fresh cut cedar, coupled with the repeated sounds of a chop saw and a retracting tape measure are enough to send me to Zillow and thinking about putting down some tenacious roots.
Yesterday I was slated to play in the Andover (NH) Autumn Harvest horseshoe tournament. There were a few Massachusetts options towards the end of the outdoor pitching year, but I wanted to see a new set of courts and compete against a fresh set of faces. Unfortunately the tournament was called off due to lack of entries. As of last Saturday only 13 players had signed up, which isn’t nearly enough for a sanctioned tournament. The Massachusetts State Tournament, by comparison, had 39 entrants, which is still a little light. More participants logically makes for better competition, because shooting percentages are more evenly distributed throughout the classes. For the statistically minded, compare the outcomes of the following two tournaments: the Friday Night Challenge, from May of 2011, had 28 participants (yes, that’s yours truly at the bottom of class D); the Gale Green Shootout, by contrast, had 70 participants. Take a look at the percentage distribution in each class for both tournaments. The shooting percentages are much more evenly distributed in the Gale Green Shootout.
Let me get back to yesterday, and steer this post out of the statistical weeds. I decided to take a ride down to Lakeville, MA, where the Mass State Doubles tournament was being held. I figured I’d keep score for a couple of games, take some photos of the action, shoot the breeze, and just hang out. I also knew that there was an off chance that someone who had signed up to play wouldn’t show up, and I’d have a chance to play. I am planning to play in a few indoor contests over the winter, after all, and I need to stay sharp.
It was a pretty bleary morning, raining lightly when I left Somerville at about 7:45 a.m. My trusty forecast friends at Weather Underground had provided a radar map that looked relatively dry for the Lakeville area. It rained hard all the way through Boston, but let up as I passed Stoughton and the sky began to brighten as I neared 495. We were in business.
I showed up just before 9:00 a.m., when the matches were supposed to begin. As luck would have it, they were one person short for the tournament, and I happily obliged to fill in. I was paired up with an A player, which I initially thought was a mistake. What the organizers had done was to pair up A players with a C/D player in order to even things out a bit. My partner and I would be competing against 3 other teams in our class.
My partner, who shall remain nameless, is someone who I’ve seen pitch at a few tournaments in the past. I’m not one for hero worship, but I’ll admit to being slightly in awe of the elite players who can throw at least one ringer out of two shoes and do it consistently. It is no small feat. Perhaps sensing a little nervousness on my part, my partner told me not to worry about trying to keep up. “Just play your own game and have fun, you’ll do fine”, he told me. We had to share a pair of shoes, and it made sense for me to shoot his shoes. I don’t think I had ever thrown M&M Specials before, but they are a good shoe for those who throw a turn shoe. Mine is a turn and 3/4. It didn’t take too many warm up shoes before I felt relatively comfortable with the M&M’s, although they have a decidedly different feel than my Alan Francis All Ons, or my Dad’s DeadeyeEZ Grips.
Alan Francis demonstrating his 3/4 reverse, also a turn shoe, as opposed to a flip shoe.
We won our first match, against two of my fellow Hamilton Horseshoe Club members, then lost our second by only five points. The format was comprised of 30 shoe games (30 shoes pitched by each partner) with any ties to be broken by two innings of play. We had to play each team in our class twice, for a total of six games. At the end of the day, the tale of the score sheet would tell you that both my partner and I were a little bit off our respective games. I shot 23.89% for the day, with one 16.67% game hurting us quite a bit. We were .500 for the day, winning three and losing three. The team we beat in our first match ended up winning first place in Class A.
For a day that could have been a washout, and could have been a day of sitting on the sidelines, I was very happy with the way things turned out. I got to play with a Class A player who also turned out to be a class act, and had a great day. I’m looking forward to my first indoor tournament of the fall/winter season, which will be held here, in late November.
A Labor Day weekend without the aforementioned horseshoe tournament just isn’t complete, at least in my book. This year’s event was scheduled for Saturday, September 3rd. Last year’s tournament got delayed by rain. If I remember correctly the 9:00 a.m. start turned into a 1:00 p.m. start.
This year was looking better, at least to my eyes. I woke up and looked out across Plunkett Pond to see a mostly cloudy sky, with a few teasing streaks of sunlight poking through. I took these sparse rays as a good sign, but as it turned out it was raining pretty steadily by the time I found my way up to the horseshoe pits behind the VFW in Sherman. I knew it was a good sign that there were already 8-10 participants ready to go at just after 8:30 a.m. We just had to wait out a few raindrops.
The action started just a little late, around 9:30. This is a partners tournament, and the partners are drawn randomly (with wooden pills) for every game. Saturday we decided amongst ourselves to play 10 games. With 18 registered participants, we could either have a bye round or have each player play one round of singles play to make things come out evenly. We decided on the latter. Games were played to 30 points, and the amount of points each team ended up with got added to a running total. For instance, if I was on a team that won the first game 30 to 16, my tally (and my partner’s) would start at 30, and our opponents would start out with 16. Make sense?
There was a really good range of players in the group, and everyone was mainly looking to have some fun on a late summer day in Maine. Drawing new partners for every match evens things out quite well. It makes for some interesting scenarios as matches get decided.
Photo by Lavender Marsh at threadsquare
At roughly the halfway point I had lost two games, one with 27 points and one with 16. I was still in the hunt for first place, although a few players were undefeated until the 6th or 7th round. Another interesting aspect of this type of tournament is that you usually end up throwing a pair of shoes that are not your own before the day is through. Partners throw the same pair of shoes in any given game. Some players are willing to throw shoes that might be unfamiliar, and others are not. So it goes. I ended up throwing my own shoes in all but 2 games.
As the tournament was winding down it was looking more and more like one particular player had a lock on first place. I’m pretty sure he had only lost one game going into the final round, and his point total seemed insurmountable. For the very last game I had the good fortune of drawing a partner who was shooting very well, and we were matched up against the leader. My partner and I both started off strong, and didn’t let up. We won the final match 30 to 6. That shook up the leader board enough to propel my partner into first place and myself into second. It was my best finish yet in this tournament.
Back to my last post momentarily… I didn’t make the cut for the club playoffs that will be held next weekend. No matter. It was a great year at the Hamilton Horseshoe Club. My next tournament will be in Andover, NH on October 1st.
Monday was the final night of league play for the year. For some reason we only played two games instead of three. I was afraid I might be a little out of practice, being on vacation last week and all. (I didn’t manage to find any horseshoe pits on Hilton Head Island, but not for lack of trying).
I ended up losing both games on Monday, though I pitched pretty well. I shot 22.5% in my first game and 25% in my second. In both cases I was just bested by my opponents.
I finished the second half of the season with a 10-10 record and my average for the season is just a shade over twenty percent. Club playoffs will be held in the coming weeks and will feature the top 8 players (in point totals – we earn 2 points for a win and 1 for a draw). I’m not quite sure if I made the cut for the playoffs. I was definitely in the running, but may have been edged out on Monday night.
Next up: The Howard Guiggey Memorial tournament in Sherman, ME on Sunday.
There were two nights of shoes this week, and they happened to fall on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday was a planned make up night, due to some rain earlier in the second half of our season. Monday was a washout as well, and got pushed to Tuesday.
On Tuesday I shot well for one game, and thus came up victorious in one game out of three. I’ve been faring much better in my last two tournaments than during normal club play. I’m not sure if that means I’m performing well under pressure, or just getting lucky. Either way, I’ll take it. On Wednesday I pitched well enough to win two games out of three, but nothing to write home about.
Totals for two nights of play: 3 wins, 3 losses. 240 shoes pitched, 42 ringers. Combined ringer percentage – 18%. Not too shabby, just a few points shy of my 20.5% running average for the season. I think I’m in the running for the club playoffs that will come at the end of our season, which is coming up sooner than I’d like. The top 8 in finishers for the second half (we earn 2 points for each win) get to play off in a handicapped tournament.
The little lady and I are headed to Hilton Head tomorrow for a week. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a game or two.
