Shoe down

By Andrew Fish / Lake County Leader

Local tavern goers might be surprised that they are taking part in a game with Greco-Roman origins.

According to the Web site of the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association of America, the precursor to horseshoes, known as quoits, began with the ancient Olympic discus toss. According to the Web site of the United States Quoiting Association the quoit is a round object with a large hole in the middle based on an ancient throwing weapon. The original discus was a quoit and at the time was made of stone or cast from bronze, lead or iron. These discs were expensive to produce and only the wealthy could afford an actual discus. However, the discus toss was the most popular of the Olympic sports so people of lesser means , particularly soldiers, began to fashion crude discs from discarded horse shoes. At the beginning, the soldiers only held competitions to see who could toss them the furthest.

Eventually, nobody knows exactly when, the idea of pounding a stake in the ground to use as a target came into vogue. Eventually, and once again, nobody knows when, the second stake was added. As the Roman Imperial army conquered territories in Europe, the game spread with it. At some point the horseshoe tossing and quoit tossing began to develop in parallel.

Both games came to North America with British Colonists. The NHPA quotes the Duke of Wellington saying of the Revolutionary War, "The war was won by pitchers of horse hardware." The game continued was a perennial favorite of soldiers, most likely because it of the availability of discarded horseshoes. As soldiers would return from war, they would popularize the game with their families. The NHPA arose from shoe tossing in Union camps during the Civil War. The first official tournament for which records were kept was held in 1909.

The tradition of pitching shoes continues in the Mission Valley. Players from a league sponsored by local taverns met at Ricciardi's near Finley Point last Thursday to toss it out in the pits behind the restaurant.

Each match continues until one of the two person teams scores 21 points. The scoring is simple. A shoe touching the stake or within a horseshoe distance of the stakes earns 1 point. A ringer, which means the shoe lands on the stake, is worth 3 points. Two ringers by the same player is called a six-pack.

While it's an organized league and the top team at the end of the season wins a trophy, most players gave their reason for playing as, "It's fun."

Horseshoe results for Ricciardi's Tourney:

Ricciardi's 1 - 113

Cheers 1 - 68

Hi Male - Chris Larson

Hi Female - Mellisa