How York’s Barbara Taylor produced a stunning comeback to win horseshoes world title

Stunned by the immensity of her comeback, York’s Barbara Bayne Taylor told a newspaper reporter following her horseshoes world championship on July 20, “I can’t tell you how it feels, because I’m so happy. I never won anything.”

The last part isn’t exactly true.

Prior to overcoming what appeared to be an insurmountable deficit in the title game of the 2018 women’s senior division horseshoes world championship, Taylor had won 13 South Carolina state titles. Oh, and six tournaments on the Horseshoe Pro Tour. And about $9,000. And even some weird trophies, like the Utah tournament that gave her a rock.

“That’s all they’ve got out there,” she said.

Taylor has thrown over 14,000 horseshoes since joining the pro tour -- which hosts a handful of events across the country each year -- in 2009. But she was accurate in that she had never won a world championship. With over 1,000 players entered in this year’s tournament, the odds were slim of breaking that drought.

Her finals competitor in Florence, S.C., Utah’s Sheila Shepard, had previously won six, and looked set for a seventh. Shepard led Taylor 39-23 -- games are played to 40 -- and needed just one point to claim the championship.

“I’ll never catch her,” Taylor thought.

Horseshoe scoring cancels out, so if both players threw two ringers during their turn, nobody scored. Taylor essentially had to do one-up Shepard repeatedly until she caught up.

And she did.

The 72-year old Indian Land native chipped away at the lead, throwing 18 ringers in a row at one stretch. That kind of red-hot run is possible for a player of Taylor’s caliber. Her ringer percentage, according to the Horseshoe pro tour web site, is 65 percent. If she threw 100 horseshoes, 65 would clang the little pipe sticking up out of the ground at the other end.

Taylor’s hot streak cut Shepard’s lead to 39-37. While sitting on her front porch this week, she said that she doesn’t look at the scoreboard when she plays. Total focus. So she had no idea how close her comeback had brought her to a world title.

Taylor threw two more ringers, piling the pressure on Shepard to answer. Shepard’s first toss landed a ringer. Her second hit the pole and kicked away, and Taylor was the champion.

“I reached down to pick the shoes up and before I could call the score out, she stuck her hand out,” Taylor said. “And when she stuck her hand out, I looked around at that scoreboard and I said, ‘oh gosh!’ I was so excited I started crying.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 9:48 AM.