/Minden Seniors Shuffleboard Club going strong

Minden Seniors Shuffleboard Club going strong

Minden Seniors Shuffleboard Club going strong

By Sue Tiffin
On
a Monday morning in September, just past 9 a.m., the streets of Minden
village are quiet with students in school and traffic from the workday
commute at its destination, so the sound of weighted discs sliding along
the shuffleboard courts located next to the tennis courts on  Prentice
Street fills the crisp air.
Almost
20 Minden Seniors Shuffleboard Club players who have met there for a
game or two of singles and doubles shuffleboard are as relaxed as the
morning feels, stepping into place to take their turn and quietly
enjoying the sport, chatting about current events, family meet-ups, the
status of their health, or their game itself while watching their
partners across the court, noting which discs “count” in the scoring
area. Every once in awhile someone will call out to gently tease a
player down the way, sometimes their own partner, sometimes simply
calling attention to their own playing that day.  
The
shuffleboard courts have been busy since the club had them built in
1986, with a $15,000 federal New Horizons grant, on land donated by the
then-municipality of Anson, Hindon and Minden. Members of the
shuffleboard club, which included then-club president Bill Ingram on a
board of 10 directors, used the courts that year for instruction for
beginners and fine-tuning of skills by the likes of the gold
shuffleboard winners of the 1985 and 1986 Ontario Adult Games, according
to a Minden Times article published in July 1986.
 
The
opening ceremonies were held Aug. 6 to celebrate the new facility,
which offered four playing surfaces, a small equipment shed and benches
for spectators and players that the club really began putting into play
the next year for a full season. That court is still being used today,
having seen a refurbishing in 2009 with another federal government grant
for $15,600. 
“We’ve
redone everything, we’ve redone the cement, the benches … everything
was getting to a point where it needed to be repaired,” said John
Fortune, who has been president of the shuffleboard club for the past
eight years. He got involved in the club here about 12 years ago, after
he and his wife moved to the area.
“I
liked shuffleboard, we had played it down in Florida,” he said. “I went
out, and said, ‘let’s go see shuffleboard.’ We went out and started
right away. So I became a director, and from a director I became a
vice-president, and from a vice-president I became president.”
  
Together
with fellow board members he helps manage the club, which has stayed
strong for more than three decades and today has 75 members, ranging in
age from about 60 to their late-80s (the club is generally open to those
55 or older). Members sign up in the spring, and start playing,
weather-permitting, during the last week of May until the middle of
September on Mondays and Wednesdays, with a fun game on Friday.
“Everybody
pays 50 cents, and you pull a poker chip with a number [to match you to
a partner],” said Fortune. “The winning team wins the money, depending
on how many players are out. If there’s eight players, that’s $4, split
between two people, you win $2. And I’ll tell you, regardless of how
much money it is, they want to win.”
 
“They’re
serious about it,” said Wally Reed, who joined the club about four
years ago, becoming a director this year. He said he used to curl, but
can’t do so as much with a “bad knee,” though he notes some shuffleboard
players also curl and play pickle ball. 
The
cost of a season is $35 for a full member, or $15 for a spare player, a
fee which includes game play and use of the equipment, and also a
barbecue held at Fortune’s house. An awards banquet is held at the end
of the season.
“How
the barbecue started, was my wife said, ‘oh, we only have a banquet,
why don’t we have a barbecue?’” laughed Fortune. “And that’s how the
barbecue started.”
Games run about 45 minutes each. 
“Being
a member of shuffleboard, you don’t have to really be active at all,
you just stand there and do it,” said Fortune. “It’s a good social club.
It gets seniors out and socialized with other seniors.” 
“It’s
a real social, shuffleboard,” said Reed. “You’ve got the banquet,
you’ve got the barbecue, and then the people joking and laughing while
they’re playing the game.”
They both laugh as Reed explains the club
plays so that those who “go into the kitchen,” a minus 10 point square
on the board, lose 10 points but also have to pay up a dime. 
“And
of course, that gets people going all the time, yelling and shouting,”
said Reed. “It’s lots of fun. The object is to knock the other person
out, or get them in the kitchen if you can. We’ve got one there, who’s
really deadly. You don’t dare get in front of him if you don’t want to
end up in the kitchen. It’s a bit cutthroat but all in good fun.” 
The
club takes care of the outdoor courts themselves, with volunteers
beginning at 6 a.m. some mornings to prepare the space for play, cutting
the grass around the courts and planning maintenance, including this
year the resanding and repainting of courts and repair of benches.
Through the club, for the past five years, the Haliburton Red Wolves
have come in every Friday afternoon for practices and games. 
With
support from the community, including a petition, Fortune and Reed as
part of the Minden Seniors Shuffleboard Club have been requesting that
the new arena and recreation complex being built in Minden include an
indoor shuffleboard court for the fall, winter and early spring
seasons. 
“A
lot of seniors won’t travel in the wintertime,” said Fortune,
acknowledging an indoor court available in Algonquin Highlands. “Once
you say, we’re working on getting courts, everyone’s excited.” 
Mark
Coleman, community services director, said the township is working to
include two full-size or four compact courts in the gym design of the
new complex, “pending line configurations between the other sports such
as pickle ball, badminton, basketball and volleyball.” 
It’s clear the Minden Seniors Shuffleboard Club members love the game, ensuring it thrives locally.  

“That’s one of the reasons we want to keep it going in the winter if we can,” said Reed.