VILLA HILLS — The city police were the bad guys Friday, when they played a friendly shuffleboard grudge match against Madonna Manor's maintenance staff.

        About 40 nursing-home residents caught the competition, cheering against the police in favor of the men who help maintain their residence.

        “They're the ones that fix everything for me,” said Louise Perraut, 83.

        The match kicked off in high spirits, which continued until the police trounced the maintenance guys, 57-37. They won a silver fish trophy.

        “We had a ball. That's the whole name of the game, to have fun,” said Bill Zerhusen.

        He has worked 14 years at Madonna Manor, yet played shuffleboard for only the second time on Friday.

        About three months ago, police Chief Mike “Corky” Brown stopped by the nursing home and saw Mr. Zerhusen playing with some residents.

        The chief remembers daring Mr. Zerhusen to a match — their staffs against each other — even though the cops had never played before. Mr. Zerhusen rose to the challenge.

        High spirits were the name of the game when the match finally took place.

        The nursing-home residents held signs, which they waved in the air whenever one of the players took a pole, shoved a disc toward the opposite end of the shuffleboard and landed the disc on a high-point location.

        They also clapped and cheered whenever the home's activity director, Nancy Hiltibrand, came tromping by, rooting on the maintenance men.

        To get the game going, Chief Brown frisked Mr. Zerhusen. When free, Mr. Zerhusen pulled out a water pistol and squirted his opponent.

        “See,” he said, “that goes to show he didn't search me right.”

        The revelry continued until the end, with Chief Brown asking for cheerleaders, and maintenance worker Ron Schulkers saying that “it's a house game (and) you ain't going to win.”

        The discs often didn't reach the other end, but Eleanor Faehr, 90, didn't mind.

        It was the first time she saw a shuffleboard match.

        “I don't know what the rules are, but they're having an awful lot of fun,” she said.

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