Tossing the steel into Nationals

Doug McIntyre
Wednesday August 10, 2005
Source: http://www.cochranetimes.com/story.php?id=177570

Cochrane Times — A local competitor has qualified for the Canadian Horseshoe Pitching Championships, and hopes to ring the peg for a shot at a medal. Bryce Thomas, a student at Cochrane High School, qualified as a junior in the event, held Aug.10-13 in Halifax. The fifteen-year-old honed his trade as a member of the local Cochrane Horseshoe Club, which meets every Thursday evening at 6:45 p.m. from May until September at the horseshoe courts behind the Cochrane Curling Club.
“My grandpa plays and he got me interested in it,” said Thomas, who has competed in the sport for three years. Thomas qualified for the big event in Halifax after a strong provincial showing in the junior category.
The Cochrane Horseshow Club held its 17th annual provincially sanctioned tournament on July 23, with 32 players from across Alberta competing. Thomas rang the peg for a strong third-place showing in the D class. Other local club members recorded strong results, with Jane Cordingley finishing sixth in the A class; Water Wiggins, second in the B class; Don Courville, fourth in the B class; Jack Campbell, fourth in the D class; and Donna Tomecek, first in the E class.
Thomas explained that the class levels in the sport pertain to a competitor’s throwing accuracy. “It’s the players abilities based on their percentages so the higher the percentage, the higher the class,” he said. Competitors in the A class, for example, typically throw in the 60 to 75 per cent accuracy range, he said. In junior and seniors’ competition, competitors throw from a distance of 30 feet from the peg; for everyone else, said Thomas, it’s a distance of 40 feet.
Most important when gearing up for a throw, he added, is to focus fully on the target. “You just have to concentrate on the post and not let anything else distract you,” he said. Thomas’s mom, Linda, said the sport of horseshoe pitching is a fun, and inexpensive, way for people to experience some competition and increase their hand-eye coordination.
The local club costs only $5 to join, with an additional $1 charge for each Thursday evening. Membership to the Alberta Horseshoe Pitchers Association, the provincial governing body for the sport, is only $10. Henry Veldhuis, statistician for the Cochrane Horseshoe Club, said both experienced and new players are welcome.