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08/02/2018 12:00 AMCris Christensen has had a ton of practice around the horseshoe pits over the course of his 88 years. All of that experience has led to some exceptional scores for Cris in the Deep River Horseshoe League (DRHL) this summer.
Last month, Cris threw the highest score that the league had seen in two years with his total of 167. The Deep River resident followed up that performance by tossing the season’s second-best score with a 158 just two weeks later. Among the 60 players in the DRHL, Cris ranks second in total points (1,964), second in ringers (492), and first in doubles (88) on the year.
Cris is an A Division player who competes for the Dodgers and faces off against the opposing team’s top player every week. Cris and the Dodgers are currently sitting in third place in the league standings. Last year, Cris was a member of the Braves, who finished with the most wins in the league.
Cris attributes his success at the pits to maintaining his throwing form. By practicing the repetition of his motion year after year, Cris builds up muscle memory that increases his chances of consistently posting solid scores.
“It’s got to be the same motion every time. I try to do the same thing every time,” says Cris. “You have to point your foot at the pole and push off when you throw. It’s not just your arm. You have to use your legs, too. Then you only want the shoe to turn once in the air on a throw.”
There are different ways to pitch a horseshoe. The way that most people learn is what’s called “the flip,” which involves the shoe tumbling end over end on its way to the pin. Instead, Cris throws what’s known as “the turn.” There are variations to this form and, while the shoe can still tumble, the end result is that it spins on a vertical axis. With either form, the shoe should approach the pin open-ended, although the turn generally results in the satisfying sound of a ringer hooking the pin and sliding down into the sand or clay.
Cris learned how to throw the turn after having flipped his shoes for many years. One day in 1962, Cris was working on a ranch in Newberg, New York, where he learned the turn from a highly skilled shoe-pitcher. It took a lot of practice, but changing techniques has definitely paid dividends for Cris.
“I went out to feed the horses, and he was pitching shoes. We played a game, and I was throwing the flip. He said that I have to learn how to turn them, and he would show me to throw the turn. Then he made me promise him that I would never throw a shoe with a flip again,” said Cris, who served the United States Air Force for five years. “I threw 30,000 shoes in 30 days. I took a two-week vacation and, when that was done, I took another one, so that I could learn to do it. I’ve never thrown the flip since.”
Cris got his start with horseshoes while growing up in Hamden. He would often spend summer getaways playing with his family. Cris’s father, Harold Christensen, was a talented shoe-pitcher who first showed Cris how to throw.
“I started when I was eight years old. My pop was a big player until he broke his arm. Then he lost his percentage,” says Cris, who played football at Hamden High School. “We used to play at Lake Quonnipaug back in the day. We would have a quartermaster tent up in the woods, and we would play up there.”
Cris has always reveled in competition, and he’s kept active by participating in a variety of sports throughout his life. While Cris has played racquetball and golf, the sport where he was able to put his horseshoe skills to good use was slow-pitch softball. Cris got a real kick out of playing a men’s league in which most players were many years younger than him, yet he still baffled hitters with his arcing pitches.
“I used to play softball, too. I was a pitcher in a men’s league down in Guilford about 30 years ago,” says Cris. “I had that motion down pitching, and I racked up a lot of strikeouts.”
DRHL president Frank Jolly gives high praise to Cris for his skills at the horseshoe pits. Jolly says that Cris is not only a great player, he’s also a nice guy who’s a pleasure to have around each week.
“Cris is a very friendly guy, very congenial. He’s probably the best horseshoe player in the league,” Jolly says. “He’s in great shape, and he’s the best out of 60 players, and that’s saying a lot. We’ve got horseshoe players ages 20 all the way up to his age.”
Cris enjoys helping his fellow members of the DRHL improve their games. Cris is always willing to show the other players a thing or two, but in the end, he says that it all comes down to practice.
“I tell people it’s not a throwing motion; it’s a feeling motion. Too many people try to throw them way too hard,” says Cris. “We had a guy who hit a car across the street. That’s how hard he threw the shoe. The main thing playing horseshoes: Slow down and get it up in the air. And you have to get out in these pits and keep throwing.”