First Tournament Ever at NCHC

Peluso Cops New Castle, Penna. Open

The first New Castle Open Horseshoe Tournament was a huge success. A large crowd was on hand to watch as Frank Peluso of New Brighton with a 5 game percentage of 67.1% swept the class A-1 group and then played Harold Tuttle of Youngstown, winner of the Class A-2 group. Tuttle won 4 games and lost 1 with an average of 60.6%. Peluso won the playoff without much trouble! Paul Fleeger, president of the NCHC, presented first and second place trophies.

Class B 1^st place trophy went to Merle Brightshue of New Castle, 2^nd place trophy went to Ross Hitchcock of Boardman, Ohio. Brightshue and Hitchcock both won 8 and lost 1 in regular play so then had to pitch each other again for 1^st and 2^nd place, with Brightsue winning 50-48. It was anybody’s game up until that last shoe was pitched. Ted Corbett, VP of the NCHC presented their trophies to them.

Class C games were just as exciting as the higher classes, with Joe Owoc of New Castle making a clean sweep, winning all of his games, 5-0. Lee Ritchey of New Castle won 4-1 for the 2^nd place trophy. Grant Elder, New Castle, one of the scorekeepers and the chief grounds-keeper presented their trophies to them. An interesting note is the fact that Ritchey who came in 2^nd had an average of 39.8% and Owod who came in 1^st had 33.7%.

One of the highlights of the Class C pitching was the game between husband and wife, Ted and Opal Corbett, of New Castle with Opal winning 50-48.

This was the first tournament for a lot of the players in all 3 classes. Some had never witnessed a tournament before, now they are eager to know when the next tournament will be!