If you can’t clear and hide, you could end up in the kitchen.
That isn’t a down-home saying you might hear from your grandmother.
It’s sound sports advice. In the game of shuffleboard, clearing and hiding are moves you make with your discs, and the kitchen is somewhere you don’t want to be.
(Michael Murillo/Staff Photos)
While they avoid the kitchen, members of the Zephyrhills Shuffleboard Club flock to their courts at 5209 Eighth St.
They play most mornings and many afternoons, too.
It might taper off a bit in the summer, but the courts are packed in the winter. And there’s usually a foursome willing to break out the cues and discs for a game just about any time of the year.
“This game can get in your head. It literally takes your life over if you really get into it,” said Chuck Moulton, who serves as the club’s treasurer and maintains the website.
Moulton isn’t really obsessed with the game, but he’s been an avid player since he first picked up a cue around 15 years ago. He took to it immediately, and over the years he moved up the ranks from novice to district amateur to state amateur to pro. The club has more than 150 members, and Moulton estimates that around 65 of them have reached the pro level.
That doesn’t mean it’s a cutthroat atmosphere when they play. Tournaments can get serious and players like to win, but what keeps people coming back is the friendships and camaraderie.
“Everybody’s really good friends. I’ll bet I have 500 to 600 friends through this sport that I can tell you their first and last name, where they’re from and something about them,” Moulton said. “It’s its own community.”
That community includes players like John Houghtaling, who moved to Florida from Cooperstown, New York. He used to spend winters here, but made it his permanent home a couple of years ago. And the shuffleboard club played a role in his decision.
“One of the biggest reasons why is the folks that I’ve met and the game, believe it or not,” Houghtaling said.
Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and Houghtaling sees similarities between that game and the one he plays almost daily. They both seem simple, but the nuances of each move and the strategies that go into each turn make them deceptively complex.
He said there is a game within the game of shuffleboard.
Some club members have been at the sport for decades.
Steve Barnett has only been playing a few years, but he’s already making his mark. Barnett qualified for the Central District Masters tournament, which requires accumulating points through good showings at tournaments. Only the top eight players for each gender get to participate each year, and the Zephyrhills Shuffleboard Club normally has multiple qualifiers, giving them a reputation for being one of the more talented clubs.
Barnett is proud of his Masters jacket, but it’s not the most meaningful part of the game for him.
“It’s probably the camaraderie, meeting new people, making friends with people,” Barnett said. We just came back from the Keys, my gal and I, and took one of our shuffleboard couples with us. We had a ball.”
Players can have a ball just sitting around the court and socializing with friends. Even if Moulton isn’t playing on a particular morning, he’ll still make his way down to chat and laugh with other club members. One of those members is R.L. Lay, who doesn’t go to tournaments anymore. After 14 years, he now chooses to play a few casual games most mornings and take in the social aspect of the sport.
“I’ll come in and I enjoy myself. I have fun, and I’ll play three or four games in the morning, and if they can talk me into the fourth one I’ll play. And they enjoy beating up on me,” Lay said with a smile.
Lay might take a good-natured ribbing from his buddies, but he’s no slouch with a cue. His specialty is sending opponents to the kitchen, the section of the court that subtracts 10 points if a disc is there at the end of a turn.
“I win my share of the games and lose my share,” he said.
Win or lose, the goal is for members to have fun at the club. And if there’s an inexperienced person who wants to give it a try, the regulars are ready to greet them with a handshake and tips on how to get started, Moulton said.
“If you came down and said ‘you know, I’m a newbie and I’d like to learn this game,’ all these guys would help you,” he said.
For more information about the Zephyrhills Shuffleboard Club, call Moulton at (813) 779-9513, email ">, or visit ZephyrhillsShuffle.com.
Published July 29, 2015
