September 8, 2009
2009 World Horseshoe Champions - Canada
2009 World Horseshoe Tournament
29 participants from Canada
The 84th Annual World Horseshoe Pitching Tournament was held in Springfield, Illinois from July 27 through August 8, 2009.
There were 1330 entries with 46 States and 3 Countries represented, including Norway and Canada (with 4 provinces).
There were 31 entries from Canada: 2 from B.C., 8 from Alberta, 18 from Ontario, and 3 from Quebec. But there were 29 who officially participated (see list below).
World Champions were crowned in 8 divisions. Here they are:
Men: Alan FRANCIS, Defiance, OH 19-0 90.26
Women: Joan ELMORE, Mt Juliet, TN 19-1 84.99
Elder: Herschel E. WALTERS, Bourbon, IN 10-1 80.29
Senior Men: Ron DECKARD, Tampa, FL 8-3 64.60
Senior Women: Sheila SHEPARD, Wesminster, CO 7-0 78.29
Junior Boys: Michael BOWMAN, Archie, MO 11-0 79.90
Junior Girls: Lisa ATWELL, Burbank, CA 6-2 58.99
PeeWees: Daniel MILLER, Cambridge, MN 7-0 33.47
The new portable courts developed for the NHPA in 2008 (thanks to Jerry Labrosse) are definitely record-setters.
Matched with the marvelous Chenoa blue clay, records tumbled again in Springfield like they did in York 2008.
In the Men’s division, Alan Francis naturally broke a few, again. He set a new record for a complete tournament average with 90.26% (917 ringers out of 1016 shoes),
improving his own record set in 2008. He pitched 7 consecutive games over 90% and an incredible total of 14 games over 90% out of 19. Previous record was 13 set by Elmer Hohl and Casey Jones in respectively 35 and 31 games!
Alan also extended his winning streak at 105, still distancing the previous record of 69 set in the 1950s by Fernando Isais. With such a performance one would think he easily captured his 15th World title.
Not the case as Brian Simmons (2000 and 2002 champion) was determined to give Alan the game of his life. Starting with 34 out of 38 shoes, Brian had the lead 13-9. He then fired 15 consecutive doubles, gaining but 9 points to climb at 22-9. After 100 shoes, Brian was still leading 28-18 and had 93 ringers compared to Alan's 90.
After 114 shoes Brian got to 37 points while Alan was on 21. Five doubles later it was 37-30 and Alan missed on his 126th shoe! With a double, Brian could be the new champion, but he missed also on his 126th shoe, Alan keeping the important single point. Alan never missed again and won the record 140-shoe game 40-37 shooting 90% to Brian's 89.3%.
They had a total of 44 fourdeads in what is considered as one of the best games ever played! Alan had rallied with 25 out of 26 after trailing 37-21...
We again had 3 Canadians in the top group. Tom Gallina took 6th place, his highest finish to date, with an average of 69.8%.
Andre Leclerc finished 12th with 66.0% and Drew Becker ended 14th with 66.9%. Drew recorded his two best games against the top two men:
73.7% vs Alan in 76 shoes, and 75.7% vs Brian in 74 shoes. It took 62.67% to make the top 20 and Terry Steinke (62.0%), Alberta champion, missed it by 4 ringers.
In the Women’s division, as she did in her last 3 participations, Sylvianne Moisan recorded the high average (85.7%) and most shoes pitched (1444) but lost a playoff
this time to Joan Elmore 24-40. Sylvianne had a tough road to get there, pitching 5 games over 100 shoes, including 3 the last day.
Her longest was 130 shoes (second longest 40-point game ever played) in the next-to-last round vs Sue Snyder. Sylvianne (87.7%) rallied to win 40-37, thus eliminating the defending champion from the race.
The women's group was probably the strongest ever. The 5 women over 80% equals the record set in Kitchener (1997). An impressive total of 10 different women recorded games over 90%, the highest being 96.4% by Judy Curtiss.
While Sylvianne's performance was her 3rd highest ever at the World Tournament, many other women recorded their best World Tournament ever.
That includes Joan Elmore, Debra Odum, Marlene Ray, Tamara Burke, Debra Brown, Sharon Chiddister, Maxine Griffith, Vicki Kunde, Pam Aiken, Stacey Robinson, Dale LaValley, Terry Beagle and Trisha Hoshaw.
New records were set also in the Senior Ladies division where the new champion Sheila Shepard and defending champion Rivers Prewette both recorded their best ever. Rivers overall average (82.9%) beats her own record set in 2008. She lost the deciding game to Sheila Shepard 39-41 in 86 shoes.
Angeline Moisan from Quebec, former champion, qualified and finished in 6th place.
No Canadians won their group this year but a good number of them placed among the top 6 in their class.
The inductees into the NHPA Hall of Fame for 2009 were Joan Elmore, Frank Bohun and Jack Freeman.
For more details, see the 2009 World Tournament Report Main page.
Congratulations!
(by Andre Leclerc)
Canadians (29) in Class-Play at the 2009 World Tournament:
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Elders D: 8.Roy Spelrem AB 7 8 356 600 59.33
Elders F: 16.Maurice Stern BC 3.5 11.5 268 600 44.67
Elders J: 4.John Jansen ON 10 5 271 600 45.17
Elders T: 9.Tim Haynes AB 3 8 36 440 8.18
Mens A-1: 4.Tom Gallina ON 9 6 416 600 69.33
Mens A-1: 8.Drew Becker ON 7 8 424 600 70.67
Mens A-1: 11.Andre Leclerc PQ 6 9 387 600 64.50
Mens A-3: 4.Terry Steinke AB 11 4 372 600 62.00
Mens B-2: 10.Gilles Roy ON 5.5 9.5 251 600 41.83
Mens C-2: 7.Ray Schermerhorn ON 9 6 264 600 44.00
Mens C-3: 8.Ric McIvor ON 7.5 7.5 206 600 34.33
Mens E-2: 10.John Taylor ON 7 8 200 600 33.33
Mens I-3: 4.Ralph Koopmans ON 10 5 145 600 24.17
Mens J-3: 10.Kevin Davis ON 8 7 89 600 14.83
Mens K-1: 14.Mike Holley AB 5 10 90 600 15.00
Mens K-3: 15.Bruce Davis ON 2 13 64 600 10.67
Mens M-2: 4.Pete Skiehar AB 8.5 4.5 32 520 6.15
Sr Mens D: 13.Kenneth Drury ON 4 11 158 600 26.33
Sr Mens E: 5.Gaston Dallaire ON 9 6 211 600 35.17
Sr Mens E: 7.Charlie Fromm ON 8 7 227 600 37.83
Sr Mens E: 9.Bud Davis ON 7.5 7.5 211 600 35.17
Sr Mens H: 14.Walter Leis ON 2 13 85 600 14.17
Womens A: 3.Sylvianne Moisan PQ 11 4 483 600 80.50
Womens C: 4.Angeline * Moisan PQ 8.5 4.5 318 520 61.15
Womens F: 11.Elaine Stern BC 7.5 7.5 253 600 42.17
Womens I: 11.Kerri Alderson ON 4 9 109 520 20.96
Womens J: 4.Mary Holley AB 8 3 119 440 27.05
Womens K: 4.Deane Haynes AB 7.5 3.5 95 440 21.59
Womens L: 7.Linda Skiehar AB 5 6 37 440 8.41
Five Canadians then qualified in the Championship groups:
Canadians in Championship Divisions at the 2009 World Tournament:
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Women 2.Sylvianne Moisan PQ 18 2 1237 1444 85.66
Men 6.Tom Gallina ON 12 7 737 1056 69.79
Men 12.Andre Leclerc PQ 9 10 719 1090 65.96
Men 14.Drew Becker ON 7 12 733 1096 66.88
Sr Women 6.Angeline Moisan PQ 2 5 178 340 52.35
Congratulations to all!
NHPA convention:
Held on Sunday August 2, Andre Leclerc was the delegate for Canada. Here are the items of interest for us: The next World Tournaments will be held in:
2010 – Cedar Rapids, Iowa (July 26th to August 7th)
2011 – Monroe-West Monroe, Louisiana (July 18th-30th)
The 2010 World Tournament will be held at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. A special website can be visited about Iowa 2010: http://wt.ihhpa.com/
The NHPA officers elected are Stu Sipma (President - replacing Paul Stewart), Dan Sanders (1st Vice-Pres.), Lorraine Sternberg (3rd Vice-Pres.) and Debby Michaud (5th Vice-Pres.).
Glenn Jamieson, Natstats director, announced that they are working on a new web feature (with login and password) which will allow the State statisticians to enter and update results online.
Four changes to the rules were brought for voting. Three of them were adopted. They can be seen here: http://www.horseshoepitching.com/rules/proposals.html
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