This picture, courtesy of Stan Leis, was taken about 40 years ago at the Wellesley Arena.
It may have been for the Spring Warm-up (June 14, 1969) which marked the introduction of the "Schummer System".
George Schummer is pictured in the very front row (2nd from left) besides Harold Leis (3rd from left).
The two men are former Horseshoe Canada Presidents. We can also identify Stan Leis (back row, 4th from left),
and in the middle (shorter) row: Clayton Neeb (3rd from left, in white shirt and wearing hat) and Dennis Hohl (5th from left).
In the June 1969 edition of the NHPA News Digest, we could read the following:
At our recent membership and executive meetings, it was decided that all tournaments would be held indoors to avoid any possible conflict with weather conditions.
Also, that a new scoring system would be adopted for all tournaments which were conducted by our Association. This scoring system was devised by George Schummer
who put a great deal of time and effort into perfecting the details of handicapping. The Schummer system has several advantages with the primary ones being that there will
not be time lost in qualifying, the games on all courts should finish at relatively the same time and, most important, it permits the 40 and 50% ringer players to have a fighting chance of defeating
the 70 and 80% ringer players at any tournament. Consequently, tournament play should result in far more competitive play and greater interest for all players.
This new scoring system is too complex to describe in this notice (...). The new handicapping system operates with the players of all classes competing against each other regardless of ringer percentage. (...)
Some of the players who knew George Schummer often said that he was way ahead of his time with his revolutionary ideas.
Maybe some of those ideas will be tried again someday?
see the previous picture of the month.
