The Amargosa Days horseshoes tournament had a bigger prize than most of the events held during the year, and Mike Nicosia and Don Brown of Pahrump, along with Larry Fellows of Las Vegas, benefited the most.
With extra money donated to the prize pools by the Amargosa Days Committee and by Curt Thompson of Longstreet Casino, Nicosia took home $150 for winning the singles tournament. Brown pocketed $100 for placing second, and Fellows, the oldest player in the tournament at 80 years old, finished third and won $50.
“We had a great long day,” said Mike Norton, secretary-treasurer of the Nevada State Horseshoe Pitching Association. “We started about 11:30 a.m. and didn’t get done until 8:30 p.m., just before the 30-minute fireworks show.”
Norton said Mike Cottingim, of the Amargosa Days Committee, set up the event, providing a canopy and grooming the horseshoes pits before the tournament. The committee also added $200 to the prize pool, as did Thompson of Longstreet Casino. Norton added that Laura Haywood, of American First National Bank, supplied the trophies.
There was also a doubles competition, with Fellows and Craig Jahnke splitting the $150 first prize, Dave Barefield and Randy Salzwimmer splitting $100 for second place and the third-place prize of $50 going to Brown and Rudy Alvarez. splitting $50.
That gave Brown and Fellows a total of $125 each for their efforts.
Lathan Dilger of Pahrump set up the tournament and procured sponsors to add money for the prizes and supply the trophies, Norton said.
The next sanctioned horseshoes tournament will be the Best of the West Open at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Petrack Park in Pahrump.