August 5, 2006 2006 World Horseshoe Champions Canada

Lucille Leis new Senior Women's World Champion


The 82nd Annual World Horseshoe Pitching Tournament, was held in Gillette, Wyoming from July 10 through 22, 2006. There were 904 entries with 46 States, 6 provinces and Norway represented. There were 33 from Canada: 5 from B.C., 10 from Alberta, 2 from Sask., 11 from Ontario, 4 from Quebec and 1 from Nova Scotia. See the list of entries by State, Province.

World Champions were crowned in 8 divisions. Here they are:
Men: Alan FRANCIS, Defiance, OH 19-0 87.83
Women: Joan ELMORE, Mt Juliet, TN 18-2 82.20
Elder: Ed ARIONUS, Texas 11-1 75.59
Senior Men: Tom WESTBROOK, Edgemoor, SC 11-0 66.86
Senior Women: Lucille LEIS, Wallenstein, ONT 5-0 63.84
Junior Boys: Thomas LEE, South Dakota 11-1 73.14
Junior Girls: Aleena COOK, Wisconsin 4-1 44.74
PeeWees: Travis SLUYS, California 7-1 15.63

The year 2006 will be remembered as the "playoff year" as 4 of the 8 division titles were decided that way following ties for first place. One of the most exciting was in the Pee Wee division where Travis Sluys (who averaged 15.63% overall) finished the game with a double scoring "six" to win 26-24! He also threw another double two innings earlier! Ed Arionus won a playoff to edge tournament leader D.W. Story and regain the title that was his in recent years.

The other two playoffs involved unfortunate Canadians. In the Junior Boys, Drew Becker lost his final-round game to Thomas Lee who then forced a playoff. Lee won the playoff 40-30 in a lenghty 80 shoe game. Sylvianne Moisan, who also lead the Women's division most of the way, lost her last game to Gert Wilczek and then succombed to Joan Elmore in the playoff. Joan won a first and well-deserved title helped by an 89.6% game in that playoff. She finished the game with a long string of doubles while Sylvianne lost ringers on the hard clay.

For the 7th consecutive year, one of the World Champions comes from Canada, and again in the Senior Ladies division where this time Lucille Leis captured her first title edging Edi Holland and defending champion Angeline Moisan. Angeline could have created a three-way tie for first if she would have defeated Lucille the last round. But Lucille won 42-28 with a 63.8% game. Lucille recorded the only games over 70% including a high of 72.7% against Marlis Timm. Carol Sperber gave the new champ her closest game when she reached 35 points. We didn't have any Canadians who qualified in the Senior Men's and Elders' Championships.

In the men's division, it was the "Alan Francis show". He won the preliminaries with a 13-0 record and 90.96% average (his new personal high). He then played the Championship chasing Elmer Hohl's record of 88.2% for overall tournament average. In his first 10 games he missed from 1 to 5 shoes per game, often beginning with a string of doubles that came close to converting into a perfect game. The closest he came was against Stan Leis, starting with 34 straight ringers and missing at 39-0 by topping the peg! Alan fell just a bit short of the record as he averaged 87.83%, clinching his 12th men's World title. His opposition was again left far behind (he averaged 36 shoes per game). Walter Ray Williams was runner-up with 72.48% but came-up with his worst game of 46.2% against Alan. Such was the case for Paul Lacrosse, who shot 87.5% in the prelims against Alan, but could only pitch 46.9% in their championship game. Mark Mauthe and Gale Greene (with 68.8%) recorded the best game against "the machine". Our three Canadians are among the rare ones who pitched over 60% vs Alan. They are Duncan McKenzie (66.7%), Colin Finnie (64.6%) and Stan Leis (60.5%). Duncan, in his first appearance at the Worlds, beat Walter Ray Williams 43-36 with a 72.4%. He took 13th place, just behind Stan Leis. Our best Canadian was Colin Finnie who finished 6th with a 63.6% average.

If Elmer Hohl's record was not beaten, there were a couple of new World records set during these championships. Alan Francis had an 18-shoe game vs Heinritz, beating the record for shortest game (20 shoes) set in 1925 by Putt Mossman! Sylvianne Moisan set a new record for high game in the Women's with a 97.6% (41 for 42) against Lucy Thibault. She actually started the game with 17 doubles in a row, and her miss was when she knocked off one of her own ringers (shoe #35). The previous record was 97.5% set by Sue Snyder in 1992. Speaking of Sue and Sylvianne, they had a great game during the round-robin. After Sylvianne took the lead 25-6 and 29-14, Sue shot 18 straight doubles to climb 35-29. Sylvianne came back to lead 38-35 only to see Sue score the last two innings and win 41-38 in 100 shoes pitched. Sue had 84% and Sylvianne 83%.

Besides World Champion Lucille, two other Canadians won their group: Drew Becker (Junior A - prelims), and Earl Vanderhart (Senior Mens E). All our three winners came from Ontario.

The inductee into the NHPA Hall of Fame for 2006 is Ralph Spencer.
The next World Tournaments will be held in:
- 2007 - Ardmore, Oklahoma (July 23, August 4, 2007)
- 2008 – Decatur, Alabama (July 14-26, 2008)


Other interesting links about the World Tournament and our Canadians:


Congratulations!


(by Andre Leclerc)


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