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Special Event Liberty, MO Here is a report of a special horseshoe tournament that was held in Liberty, MO on October 14th, 2002. Charles Kilgore, one of the top local horseshoe pitchers in western Missouri contacted me about setting up a horseshoe tournament when I was in the area for the PBA tournament at Blue Springs, MO. He and Elwyn Cooper, the regional director, set up a special tournament including 7 local players and myself. Since we were scheduled to start at 6 pm in the evening and I showed up a bit late, we played 30 point games. My first game was against Elwyn Cooper. We have played many times over the years and he has beaten me a couple of times. We both started out throwing ringers and after having a lead on me Elwyn started missing at the end of the game to allow me to win 30-18. The 2nd game was against Oden Sullivan and I pitched a great game missing only twice and a 33-6 win with a 93% game. Unfortunately the next game I struggled against Melvin Bray and we had a close game with me coming out on top 30-21. I continued struggling in the next match as Pam Henderson pitched a nice game in her win over me 30-25. In game 5 I had a real nail biter against M.O. Turner who was pitching in his first tournament since his heart surgery in early August. He was pitching very well in the games before he played me and I think he was getting a bit tired as I squeaked by with a 30-29 win. In the next match I played against the man responsible for the building we were playing in, Don Harris. Don donated most of the money which was used to construct the building. Don is also one of the top elder pitchers in the world. I had a very poor start which included back to back double misses. And then I started to pitch a lot of ringers. I finished the game with a very good percentage of over 84% and a 33-12 win. The last scheduled game was against Merlin Potts. Merlin came over from nearby Kansas where he has been the Kansas state champion over 20 times. I had a pretty decent start, but started missing near the end of the game and Merlin closed the gap of the score before double missing on my double at the end of the game to allow me to win 30-22. This gave me 6 wins and 1 loss to be the winner of the tournament. I wasn't too happy about the way I pitched after my last tournament a couple of weeks ago, but I had some good competitive games and it was a good group of players to pitch against. Player Win Loss Ring Shoes R% 1.WR Williams Jr 6 1 235 316 74.4 2.Oden Sullivan 5 2 184 260 70.7 3.M.O. Turner 5 2 223 320 69.7 4.Melvin Bray 3 4 212 302 70.2 5.Don Harris 3 4 202 294 68.7 6.Pam Henderson 3 4 178 262 67.9 7.Merlin Potts 3 4 198 310 63.9 8.Elwyn Cooper 0 7 122 236 51.7 My Opp My Opp Opponent Score Ringers Shoes R% 1.Elwyn Cooper 30-18 24 21 34 70.6 61.8 2.Oden Sullivan 33-6 26 17 28 92.9 60.7 3.Melvin Bray 30-21 30 27 42 71.4 64.3 4.Pam Henderson 25-30 37 41 56 66.1 73.2 5.M.O. Turner 32-29 35 34 50 70.0 68.0 6.Don Harris 33-12 44 38 52 84.6 73.1 7.Merlin Potts 30-22 39 38 52 75.0 73.1 6 wins 1 losses 235 219 316 74.4 69.3Walter Ray |