Once again, a crazed group of horseshoe pitchers braved the January weather to get together for some fun and games in Stuarts Draft at our annual SnowShoe Festival. Although it was a little bit nippy, the constant wind made it feel much worse than the temperature said it was. Thank goodness, the club members had thought ahead about things.

Yogi Guyer had surrounded half of the pavilion with tarps to block the wind. We all said “Wow, why haven’t we thought of that before?! What a great idea!” He lit his big propane heater, and aimed it into the corner of the pavilion, making it a snug little warm-me-up spot for the pitchers. Combined with Kevin’s heaters and the bonfire in the grill, we could all get out of the cold in between games. For warming up on the inside, we had clam chowder, red-beans-and-rice, and a pot of coffee kept hot all day.

By noontime, the wind had died down a little, and it was actually bearable on the courts when you kept moving. There were some really tight games all day long, everyone enjoying the mid-winter get together. We set up three round robin classes with pitchers randomly assigned. Then the class winners vied for the annual “very-special-Grand-Champion trophy” and split of entry fees.

Michael Toye, our defending champ from last year had to work, so couldn’t make the event, but showed up just in time for the championship playoffs between Chuck Duymich, Ed Thompson and Tamara Burke. Flipping a shoe, odd man sits out.. Tamara got the buy. Chuck gave Ed a run for the money, keeping the score even right up until the last throw. Chuck got a point, Ed got a ringer taking the game. Then Ed faced off against Tamara. He did a good job at keeping up with her, but she gained points here, points there, and finally on the last throw, got a ringer he couldn’t cover.

Tamara Burke is the 2012 SnowShoe Festival Champion!!