Here is my 2nd report of the World Horseshoe Tournament in Alberta Canada.


Well, the 3rd day of pitching is done and all of the 'class' play is finished. I ended up finishing 2nd in the Men's class 'A' which is pretty good for me these days. I had some help from my opponents as only 2 of them pitched over 73% in the 15 games. Unfortunately for me I lost to one of them when we both pitched 70% on the 2nd day, he out pointed me. And I tied another when we both pitched 72.5%. Alan Francis, the 2001 Men's champion, had the best game against me of 87.5% which was too much for me and I lost that game. However I did beat Brian Simmons 24-22 in a very close game with us both finishing with 4 ringers in a row each. Brian had one of his poor games against me, 77.5%, while I managed 80%. Jim Walters pitched his worst game of the day to let me beat him with a 75% game. I ended up averaging 77.2% which isn't too bad for me these days, but still not quite as good as I would like. I had several good streaks against Brian & Jim, but some bad streaks kept the games a bit lower than they could have been. I ended up having the 3rd highest average behind Brian Simmons and Alan Francis and just ahead of Jim Walters and Kurt Von Kleist. Alan pitched a little below his normal game and most players seemed to take advantage of that as he lost 5 games and had 1 tie. On the last days class 'A' competition he averaged 81%, but so did his opponents with his opponents winning 3 of the 5 games.

Now the championship classes start and the games will be to 40 points. It will be tougher for the lower average players to beat the top players in a longer game. 16 players advanced to the Men's and Women's championship. It took 62.3% for the men and 59.3% for the women. There are 3 couples who made the men's and women's championship classes. Amy Francis led the women with over 86% to win women's class 'A' while her husband Alan qualified 3rd. Amy Hall made the women's championship again while her husband Ricky made it for the first time. Sylvianne Moisan, the 2000 & 2001 women's champion, is seeded 2nd while her husband, Andre Leclerc, qualified with the last spot in the Men's class. Sylvianne Moisan and Angeline Moisan are daughter and mother. There is also a brother/sister act in the men's and women's championship class as the former Jenny Walters, very recently married, made it to the women's championship class for the first time to join her brother Jim. Not to be out done by the younger crowd, one couple that I know of made the Senior Men's and Women's championship class, Art and Alice Sperber. Also, Stan Leis made the Men's championship while his sister-in-law Lucille made the Senior Women's championship class.

The Senior Men's class 'A' was won by Paul Stewart in a playoff over Bob Garber. Paul, who lives in North Carolina, is one of the many really nice horseshoe pitchers and received the Stokes award for his work in the NHPA, National Horseshoe Pitchers Association. Several years ago Gene 'Burly' Burlingame put on a paper bag over his head and had a sign saying that he was part of the Paul Stewart fan club. Burly then started the Stewlie fan club which has over 300 members and is still growing. 

		Men's Class 'A' final results

   Player			   Wins Loss Rngrs  SP   R%
   1.Brian Simmons                 RI    13.5  1.5  495  600  82.50  
   2.Walter Ray Williams Jr        FL    12.5  2.5  463  600  77.17  
   3.Kurt Von Kleist               PA    11    4    452  600  75.33  
   4.Alan Francis                  OH     9.5  5.5  483  600  80.50  
   5.Jim Walters                   OH     9.5  5.5  459  600  76.50  
   6.Stanley Leis                  ON     9    6    427  600  71.17  
   7.Rich Pintor                   CO     8.5  6.5  431  600  71.83  
   8.Paul LaCrosse                 CO     8    7    425  600  70.83  
   9.Ricky L Hall                  VA     7    8    383  600  63.83  
  10.Tom Westbrook                 SC     6    9    412  600  68.67  
  11.Robert G Hayes                NY     5.5  9.5  403  600  67.17  
  12.Mark Seibold                  IN     5.5  9.5  380  600  63.33  
  13.Richard Howe                  MA     5   10    367  600  61.17  
  14.Russ Phillips                 WA     4   11    370  600  61.67  
  15.Gary Opper                    ID     4   11    357  600  59.50  
  16.Don Kangas                    WI     1.5 13.5  331  600  55.17
And my results: 
			  My Opp		My	Opp
Game	Opponent		 Score  Ringers	Shs	Ringer %
 1.	Rich Pintor-CO 	19/  6  33  28	40  82.5 70.0
 2.	Gary Opper-ID  	37/ 10  33  24	40  82.5 60.0
 3.	Russ Phillips- 	31/ 16  28  24	40  70.0 60.0
 4.	Don Kangas-WI  	50/  6  28  15	40  70.0 37.5
 5.	Kurt Von Kleis 	31/ 27  27  25	40  67.5 62.5
 6.	Ricky L Hall-V 	51/ 14  33  20	40  82.5 50.0
 7.	Mark Seibold-I 	35/  5  34  24	40  85.0 60.0
 8.	Richard Howe-M 	21/ 25  28  28	40  70.0 70.0
 9.	Paul LaCrosse- 	44/ 12  34  24	40  85.0 60.0
10.	Stanley Leis-O 	26/ 14  31  27	40  77.5 67.5
11.	Robert G Hayes  	25/ 25  29  29	40  72.5 72.5
12.	Tom Westbrook-  	26/ 12  32  27	40  80.0 67.5
13.	Alan Francis-O  	12/ 24  31  35	40  77.5 87.5
14.	Brian Simmons-  	24/ 22  32  31	40  80.0 77.5
15.	Jim Walters-OH  	27/ 24  30  28	40  75.0 70.0
 		W- 12.5 L-  2.5  459 389    600  77.2 64.8

I was hoping to improve a bit on my 2nd days performance, but at least I didn't have any really bad games. This is the meat and potatoes of the World Tournament coming up. The Canadians are well represented in this years tournament with 4 in the Men's class, Stan Leis from Ontario, Colin Finnie of Saskatcheon, Tom Gallina of Ontario and Andre Leclerc of Quebec. First timers in the Men's championship are Ricky Hall, VA and Jerry LaBrosse, MN who I first played in the 1970 Junior championships. Teddy Guillotte is the only lady to make the championship class of the elder division.

Walter Ray