|
Want to Increase Your START A DOUBLES LEAGUE! The St. Clair Shores Horseshoe Club tried recruiting members to play in a fall doubles league in the late 1990's without much success. Of course, at that time, we only had a dozen or so members in the whole club. Then the Mount Clemens Indoor Horseshoe Pitchers Club started in 1999 and closed with 163 paid members. Many of those members were asked to pitch with the SCSHC, but most of them preferred doubles pitching or were in bar leagues during the summer. One of our indoor club members said that if we ever got a doubles league going at the Shores, he would take part and recruit some teams for us. So in 2005, we revised the dream of having a doubles league and advertised for pitchers. We got in contact with some key doubles pitchers and former indoor club members. Much to our surprise 14 teams showed up for the first season. Many of the players wanted to continue in the fall since the weather was still so nice. Again, we were surprised when 16 teams showed up. If you have never played in a horseshoe pitching doubles league, then you are missing out on some great fun. There are two pitchers per team, they have to furnish their own substitutes, if they are absent, or they might forfeit their games. There is an 80% handicap and three games are played of 12 innings each during the evening. It is a non-walking league so both team members must use the same pair of horseshoes. It only takes a little over an hour to play these games. It is nice for the working man/woman and kids because they get some exercise, camaraderie, refreshments, and return home at a decent hour to be with their families. In 2006 18 teams, and 20 teams in the fall, played doubles. We have 22 teams for the 2007 summer doubles league. We could have had 24 teams, but you always have to cut it off at the second week, because a set round robin schedule has to be made out. The fall 2007 league will be interesting because now we have teams on a waiting list to join the doubles league. Yes, we even got some of these pitchers to join the WSHPA. Not many, but more than if we didn't have a doubles league. |
I would say that the majority of the pitchers in our WSHPA cities are not WSHPA/NHPA members and those who want to pitch singles should probably join a sanctioned league in their area. Most pitchers don't like pitching singles or joining the WSHPA/NHPA with their rigorous rules and time-consuming tournaments. Just ask some local pitchers who play in bar leagues in your area. So how do you start a doubles league? On this web site, there are "start-up rules" and score sheets available for you to begin with. When I was secretary of a bar league, we revised these rules at our spring sign-up/recruitment meeting every year. Now our SCSHC executive committee does the revisions because with so many doubles pitchers it is hard to get a majority together for such a meeting. Not all doubles pitchers want to pitch in bar leagues. Some of them come from bar leagues because they were tired of some of the rowdiness and language of some bar league members. They wanted a quieter setting. Talk to your present members, they may know of people who would like to pitch horseshoes, but only with a partner. None of this singles stuff, which is taken way to seriously. Visit a bar league and see how it is run, or better yet, join one. You will get to know all kinds of people from all trades and professions in life who pitch in these leagues. We have husband/wife, father/son/daughter, brother, grandfather/grandson teams and mostly just good friend teams. Some come without a partner and they are paired up with others in the same situation at the start of the season. Horseshoe pitching is truly a family sport in this setting. They don't care what ringer percentage they have and aren't concerned about improving it. They are just simply out to have some fun. After all, isn't that what horseshoe pitching is all about? June 3, 2007 |