Martz Nips Carson to Win March Red Mill Open

 

    In one of the toughest fought tournaments ever held at the Red Mill Horseshoe Club in Washington, Pennsylvania, Clyde Martz of Pittsburgh narrowly edged out Dale Carson of Baltimore to capture the March Red Mill Open Championship.  Going into the final round of the round robin play, it looked as though Martz had everything sewed up.  Clyde hadn’t post a game and was cruising around the 80% mark, while Dale had lost to Oscar Engle and appeared to be tired and discouraged.  Martz got off to a quick start, missing only four of the first 40 shoes and led dale 31-10.  Then Clyde, looking very confident, put his arms around Dale and apparently said something to spur on the gentleman from Baltimore.  Because, from that time on, Dale only missed two more shoes and Clyde died on 34.

    In the following playoff game, again Martz got off to a quick start throwing 38 out of the first 40.  But this time the lead was only 12-2.  Dale had only missed four.  At the end of the first 100 shoes, both players were well over 80%h the score tied at 38.  Dale finally missed a few, and Martz squeaked out.  Dale Carson showed, without a shadow of a doubt, that at age 67 he can still beat the champions that are 20, 30, and even 40 years his junior.  Hats off to one of the longest top flight pitching careers the horseshoe world has known.

    Participation in the Red Mill event was at an all-time high.  Players came from all over Pa; Ohio also had five representatives.  Congratulations to Ottie Reno of Waverly, Oh; Vince Sedlacek of New Kensington; Russ Welton of St. Mary’s; and Cliff Noland of Ostrander Oh.  All of them went undefeated to win their respective classes.

 

Class A

Clyde Martz

4

1

78.5

Dale Carson

4

1

74.1

Oscar Engle

3

2

73.9

Rich Maroni

3

2

72.9

Al Booth

1

4

64.4

Jack Rainbow

0

5

64.7

 

Class B

Vince Sedlacek

4

0

57.2

John Ruskin

3

1

56.3

Harold Clippinger

3

1

56.3

John Fulton

1

3

55.7

Ray Henry

1

3

44.1

 

Class C

Ottie Reno

4

0

56.0

Daniel Beshore

3

1

51.2

Richard Jorden

2

2

49.5

Clyde Falk

1

3

41.2

Vaughn Owens

0

4

35.4

 

Class D

Russ Welton

4

0

46.6

Pete Burkette

3

1

50.4

Norman Haggeman

2

2

43.8

John Clippinger

1

3

43.8

Glen Mitchell

0

4

38.4

 

Class E

Cliff Noland

4

0

32.9

Mike Roy

3

1

42.6

Dave Welton

2

2

29.6

Rich Parry

1

3

32.3

Don Larcom

0

4

31.9

 

 

©1999 by Steve Morris