Sugar River Euchre

The first half 8 and 0 Cowboys found the terrain a little steeper in their first match of the second half. Even with Don Field and Marvin Thompson putting up 114 points and Bob Darrow and Dean Disch adding another 110 points to the Cowboys’ saddle bags, the Pranksters were still able to pull a 12-point win out of the hat.
The second place team of the first half, the Kleeman Hay Shakers, rode into Riley ready to shake things up a bit. However, the Shufflers had a few new moves of their own. The Shufflers took a 13-point lead after one and added another 14 points to that lead by the end of the second frame. In the third frame, Shufflers Ed Chancellor and Pat Mclean were held to just 3 points by Steve Sponem and Don Williams. In the very next frame, Ed and Pat were shaken to the core when they were held to 3 points again, this time by Jerry Judd and Rick Skindrud. All of a sudden the Shufflers were down by 3 in the match. After winning their fifth frame, Ed and Pat were held to a 2 by Al Zimmerman and Jeff Goebler in the sixth. Even with the 110 points from Stan Hook and Randy Skogen, this was just too much for the Shakers to overcome, as Rick Skindrud and Jerry Judd countered Stan and Randy’s score with 111 points. In the end, the Shakers win by 7 points. Amazingly, Ed and Pat finished with an 81, to avoid recording this week’s low score. That honor went to Opie Taylor and Dave Steinhauer (Harley Blue Express). Opie and Dave ended the night with a 69 in their match against S’Wisco Taphaus. Not only was this the low score for the week, but for the year thus far. Engineers Shawn Farrell and Charlie Steinhauer attempted to keep the locomotive on the tracks by contributing 116 points to the Express total, this week’s high score. But the Express ran out of fuel before reaching the station when George Eichelkraut and Jeff Buesser syphoned 114 points from the Express tanks, for a 15-point S’Wisco Taphaus win.
Pipe Benders Jeff Ellingson and Tiny Zander had a rough night as well, contributing just 74 points to the Pipe Benders’ tool box. The J&M Bar River Rats had to borrow a monkey wrench, Chris Booth, from the Pipe Benders’ box to round out their team. The 109 points put up by Chris Booth and Ernie Sarbacker, along with the 114 points from Honker (Dan Palmer) and Mark Raders, clogged the pipes for Jones’ Plumbing, giving the Rats a 37-point victory.
Standings: J&M Bar 1-0; Kleeman’s 1-0; Norsk Pranksters 1-0; S’Wisco Taphaus 1-0; It’s Time 0-0; Harley Blue Express 0-1; Jones’ Plumbing 0-1; Norsk Cowboys 0-1; Riley 0-1.
Schedule for January 10: Harley Blue @ Kleeman’s (7:30); Riley Shufflers @ S’Wisco Taphaus (7:00); It’s Time @ Norsk Cowboys (7:00); Norsk Pranksters @ Jones’ Plumbing (8:00); J&M Bar – Bye.