KELSO HORSESHOE TOURNAMENT RAISES MONEY AGAINST CANCER

KELSO -- The third annual Horseshoes for Herb Benefit Tournament will be held Saturday at 9 a.m. at Redbone's Tavern in Kelso. All proceeds will go to the area American Cancer Society in memory of Herb Steimle.

Steimle owned the Redbone Tavern for 38 years. He died of cancer over two years ago.

Marlene Morton, who now owns the tavern, came up with the idea for the tournament. "With Herb's passing away," Morton said, "I thought it would be a neat idea to have something in his memory."

Last year the tournament raised $1,000 for the Cancer Society. "Our goal this year is $1000, but we will try to make over that," Morton said.

The cost of the tournament is $25 per two-person team. "Some of the older people in town don't play, but they usually give a $25 donation," Morton said.

All paid entrants will receive a "Horseshoes For Herb" T-shirt.

"It's a fun day," said Morton. "You compete with other people but you're not trying to win money. It's just a lot of fun."

Morton said an important rule to remember in the tournament is to throw the horseshoes with care.

This is not a regular game of horseshoes; wooden horseshoes are used. "It's a safety feature," said Mitch Miller, field Marshall of the tournament. "We also found out it is more fair because good horseshoe players don't have an edge."

Morton said people do not just throw from one pit to another. "It's an obstacle course," said Morton.

She said: "Sometimes you have to throw through a fork in a tree to hit a peg on the other side of the tree. Sometimes you have to throw over a piece of plywood and hit a peg that you can't see on the other side."

Tom Ressel and A.J. Schott routed out the horseshoe course.

"I try to make anything that isn't real," said Schott. "We have a tub of water with a peg floating in it and a board with a hole in it to throw through. Wooden horseshoes can't be controlled. It's just luck."

Ressel said that he does the mechanics of the tournament. "We wanted to do it on an annual basis," he said, "because it's a worthwhile and good thing to do."

Ressel said the tournament is unpredictable and different every year. "You throw horseshoes in buckets and inn ertubes, all different targets," he said.

If a person hits a target it is three points, if the person gets the horseshoe in the circle around the target it is two points and the person gets one point if the horseshoe touches the circle.

"The team that ends up with the most points wins the trophy," said Ressel. Trophies will be awarded to first, second and third places.

Kohlfeld Distributing and the Kelso community are co-sponsoring the tournament and donated the trophies.