Horseshoes pitched

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32819, 20 January 1972, Page 3

Horseshoes pitched

New Zealand’s first national horseshoe-pitching contest began yesterday at the Bishopdale shopping centre.

One of the pitchers, Martin Small, is shown above. Competitors began at 9 pitching a 2jlb horseshoe to a peg 40ft away, and throughout the day all the eight pitches were in constant use.

The' contest organiser

(Mr D. W. Grady) said that in the first six hours more than 300 persons had taken part. It was expected that a large crowd would gather in the evening, and pitching was to continue until dark.

A number of adults, many of them women, tried their skill, but some found the contest much harder than expected, and only a few managed to get the shoe near enough to the peg to score points.

A member of the United States Air Force living in Christchurch, Mr J. W. Kelly, of 34 Kinloch Street. St Albans, showed he will be hard to beat when he scored the maximum, 21 points, from only 16 shots early last evening. The next best pitch was re-

corded by Mr M. Jamieson, of 34 Glenmore Avenue, Northcote, who scored 21 points from 24 shots.

Mr Kelly began pitching horseshoes at the age of 10 in Louisiana, his home state. He failed to score from only three of his shots.

Mr Jamieson is an experienced quoits player, and has been a member of the Papanui Working Men’s Club outdoor quoits team for the last two seasons. The contest will continue until Friday evening, when the first New Zealand champion should be known. The winner will receive a gold-plated horseshoe set on an anvil. Mr Grady said the championships would be held annually,