PITCHIN'HORSESHOES AND TELLIN' TALES AT BENTON

BENTON -- Their warm-up isn't complicated -- just an ice cold frosty one in the shade while they wait for the horseshoe contest to begin Saturday afternoon.

"If we didn't like it, why would be out in this heat?" said Larry Burford, a Scott City resident.

While the younger players practiced a half an hour before the tournament, the older guys were relaxing. The contest is a regular event at the Benton Neighbor Day celebration in Benton. Other events included a watermelon seed spitting contest, tractor pull and a parade that wound around through the heart of downtown Benton.

But the main event for Burford and his friend Irvin Vandeven, of Scott City, is the horseshoe contest. The men have been competitors at the festival for more years than they can remember.

"I started back in 1981," Vandeven said. "Hell, I was an old man back then."

Both men are in a horseshoe league and compete in regional tournaments. Vandeven has won six of the last seven tournaments he has entered.

"'Cause I missed most of them is the reason you won," Burford said to Vandeven.

There is the occasional ribbing, but the horseshoe contests are mainly about friendly competition

"I just have a good time,' Vandeven said. "I meet a lot of good friends. Everywhere I go, it's, 'Hi Irv.'Everybody knows me."

The years have caught up with both Vandeven and Burford. Anyone 65 and older can throw 30 feet away instead of the standard 40 feet.

"We don't want to throw with the young boys," Burford said. "We throw with the women."

But just because they don't have the arm strength to throw 40 feet does not mean the pitches aren't accurate. Larry Glastetter, of Oran, said Burford is still one of the best.

"Of course, you never know who your partner is going to be," Glastetter said. "But I would love to have him on my team."

The way the contest works is names are drawn from a hat and people are teamed up with one partner.

"It is the luck of the draw," Glastetter said.

In a field of 18 teams, only three will claim the top three trophies.

"Horseshoes is half luck," Vandeven said. "You've got to draw a partner."

And apparently Vandeven, Burford and Glastetter drew good partners because all three won their first two matches to advance to the winners bracket.

But there is more skill than the three of them are willing to admit. Burford said he uses the one-flip method when he tosses. That means as releases he tries to flip once to send it to the target.

"The one and three quarters flip and the one and a quarter flip are probably a little better," he said. "But they came up with that a little too late in our day."

The winners take home bragging rights for next year. The losers get to try harder next time. But it is all just good fun among friends.

"Anyone can join in," Glastetter said. "It is just for fun. It is not for blood or nothing. If it was, I wouldn't be in it."