Brian Simmons beats Alan Francis 42-39!
The 2011 World Tournament was held in Monroe-West Monroe in Louisiana from July 18 to 30. Forty-six portable horseshoe courts were set up in the Monroe Civic Center Arena for the 2-week event and for the first time in history, the event was ran with electronic scoring systems on all courts!
Eight-hundred competitors from forty-five states, plus Canada and South Africa converged on Monroe. There were 12 entries from Canada, coming from Ontario (8) and Alberta (4).
The following Champions were crowned in 8 divisions:
Men: Brian SIMMONS, Bristol, VT 15-0 83.0%
Women: Joan ELMORE, Mt. Juliet, TN 14-1 81.1%
Elders: Russ PHILLIPS, Grandview, WA 13-2 81.9%
Senior Men: Charlie WEBB, Mascoutah, IL 10-1 59.0%
Senior Women: Sheila SHEPARD, Westminster,CO 8-2 75.1%
Junior Boys: Joey MUELLER, Ham Lake, MN 7-1 66.4%
Junior Girls: Bethany HEINRITZ, Pewaukee, WI 5-0 50.9%
Cadets: Bernard NAVARRO III, California 6-1 36.9%
Three Canadians qualified in their respective championship divisions. The best performance was no doubt that of Scott Lumb who ended up in a playoff with Joey Mueller and lost the Junior Boys World Title by a close score of 36-42. His overall average was 64.39%. Bethany Heinritz retained her Junior Girls title, winning the deciding last round 42-28 against Brianna McCormick.
Tom Gallina and Stan Leis both qualified in the Senior Men’s 40ft championship in their first appearance in that division. Tom, who recorded the high average (67%) during the preliminaries, did not play as well in the finals and finished 6th with 56.9%. Stan Leis took 8th place with 4 wins, one less than Tom, and an average of 50.5%. Charlie Webb (59.04%) from Illinois is the new Senior Men’s champion.
The tough Elders division was won by Russ Philips who went 13-2 and averaged 81.9%. His two losses were close ones: 38-45 to Paul McGee and 39-41 to Charles Dougherty. His longest game went 102 shoes when he defeated former champ Ed Arionus 44-36 with 85.3%.
In the Senior Women’s division, Colorado’s Sheila Shepard won her third consecutive title. Her two losses came at the hands of Jane Jordan (38-40) and Marlene Cooper (32-41), but that last round loss had no consequence for her when Rivers Prewette edged Gert Wilcziek 41-16 to avoid the tie for first. Wilcziek recorded the high game (93.3%) and high average (78.7%) of the group.
In the Women’s division, Joan Elmore also won her third consecutive title with a 14-1 win-loss record and 81.1%. Tied with Sue Snyder, going into the last round, Joan eclipsed Sue 40-13 in the deciding game. Marlene Ray, the only woman to defeat the champ, is the new runner-up. Her losses were 39-40 against Trisha Hoshaw and 20-42 to Debra Brown who was the only other woman to average over 80%. Debra (83.6%) was involved in the longest game, 110 shoes, with Trisha (79.1), winning 25-40.
The Men’s division was marked, for the third straight year, by another memorable clash between Alan Francis and Brian Simmons. This time, Brian prevailed 42-39 after 3 straight fourdeads with the score 39-39! The game went 124 shoes and both «machines» averaged 86.3% in the nail-biting match. This gave Brian his 3rd title, having won also back in 2000 and 2002. Just prior to the deciding battle with Alan, Brian had another long game. He shot 85.7% to subdue flip pitcher Dan Watson (83.9%) in 112 shoes. Dan maintained, during most of the tournament, an average of 80% and more, but finally ended with 78.7% in 3rd place. The only man to average over 80% with the flip, at the World Tournament, is Jesse Gonzales.
The inductees into the NHPA Hall of Fame for 2011 were Amy Francis and Joseph Faron. The next World Tournaments will be held in:
2012 – Knoxville, Tennessee (July 30 to August 11)
2013 – St.George, Utah (July 22 to August 3).
See 2011 World Tournament complete results here.
Electronic scorekeeping.
