Langford man wins Canadian and world horseshoe pitching titles

It’s a game many of us have played at the cabin or in a sandbox, and a Westshore man has pitched it at the highest level.

Tom Moffat, a retired Canada Post letter carrier more than brought the mail home, winning a Canadian championship and a world championship in the last two weeks, something he calls “a dream come true.”

“I never thought I'd accomplish that,” he tells the Westshore. “I mean, it's always a goal, but I never thought I'd accomplish it.”

Competing at the Canadian Elders Championship in Abbotsford, Moffat compiled a 14-1 mark en route to winning his 65+ age class. Less than a week later, last Sat., he chucked at Tri-Cities in Washington state, and captured the world title in that category, by again winning 14 of 15 games.

The grandfather of four calls it some “great days of competition.”

Going 28-and-2 and taking two titles certainly qualifies as great days, indeed.

Moffat is one of roughly 100 members who play at the Greater Victoria Horseshoe Pitching Association (GVHPA) club at Glanford Park, which opened in 1935 on Pandora and has had a few homes, including Beacon Hill Park and its present location in Saanich.

The game is exactly what you think it is—and just the way you may have played it—minus the beer in your hand.

Game of percentages

“Yeah, it's the same game, and basically, we divide people into their abilities—we’re all in ringer percentage,” he says.

“So, if you throw 50% ringers, you're going to play against people that throw 50%.”

Moffat, 69, and his world competitors are, of course, playing at a higher level.

At the Canadian Elders Championship, he shot at 76.8% en route to a 14-1 record to defeat defending champion Jacques Houle of Quebec.

What does this have to do with baseball?

It’s fitting that a baseball Hall of Famer—and former Montreal Expos manager—the late Frank Robinson, is credited with popularizing the expression “Close only counts in horseshoes and [hand] grenades,” because Moffat did a very baseball thing at the Canadian championships: he pitched a perfect game. That’s the rare 22 shoes and 22 ringers.

“A great achievement, Tom has been working hard to accomplish that. Myself and everyone at the club is thrilled that Tom was able to achieve that goal,” said Bob McCauley, president of the BC Horseshoe Association (BCHA) and a 2022 Canadian champion.

“There’s probably only about maybe four of them done it in a whole year,” he said.

Try, try, try in Tri-Cities

To qualify for the National Horseshoe Pitching Association (NHPA) World Horseshoe Pitching Championships in Washington, Moffat shot 79.83% and his perfect 15-and-0 record got him into a 16-way battle for the world title for his age bracket. There, Moffat shot 77.2% to take his category.

Competitors came from Germany, Norway, Canada, and the US, where the sport has its biggest profile, with approximately 15K people participating, according to the NHPA.

The BCHA said 207 are registered to play provincewide, and 644 are registered across Canada.