1937 Claxton Shield

January 2018 May 2020 Australia Interstate Baseball Carnival 1937 7 – 14 August South Australia Adelaide, SA South Australia 4 New South Wales 1 Victoria South Australia 1936 1938 The 1937 Claxton Shield was the fourth annual Claxton Shield, an Australian national baseball tournament. It was held at Unley Oval in Adelaide from 7 to 14 August,http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11101498 Baseball Carnival 6 August 1937 The Argus Melbourne 18 3 January 2010 the second time Adelaide had hosted the Shield. New South Wales won the Shield for the first time. Western Australia joined the tournament for the first time, becoming the fourth state to be represented. The other participating teams were Victoria and hosts South Australia. Format With the introduction of a fourth team to the tournament, changes were made to the format used in the three previous years. The four teams played a round-robin schedule, meeting each other team once, with two competition points were on offer in each game. The points were awarded as follows: Win – two points Tie – one point Loss – no points At the end of these preliminary games, the top two teams played each other to determine the champions, while the remaining two teams faced each other to determine third place. In the event of a tie between teams in terms of points, the tiebreaker used would have been the net runs for and against, with the team achieving the greater value placing in the higher position. This became a factor in the final preliminary game, between South Australia and Victoria. If South Australia had won, they would have tied with New South Wales and Victoria on points. Given the previous results in the tournament, South Australia needed to win by four or more runs to overtake Victoria on for and against, and therefore meet New South Wales in the championship game. Leading 1–0 in the bottom of the ninth inning, South Australia intentionally allowed Victoria to score a run to tie the game, and force extra innings. The plan failed though, as neither team was able to score any further runs, and the game was called after 14 innings because of the light. As a result, Victoria and New South Wales contested the final.http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17392594 Baseball Incident The Sydney Morning Herald 13 August 1937 3 June 2011 16 South Australia's Tactics Fail Results Preliminaries Team Points Wins Ties Losses For-Against Victoria 5 2 1 – +4 New South Wales 4 2 – 1 +7 South Australia 3 1 1 1 -3 Western Australia 0 – – 3 -8 7 August 1936 Western Australia 2 – 5 Victoria South Australia Unley Oval 7 August 1936 New South Wales 6 – 0 South Australia South Australia Unley Oval 10 August 1936 Western Australia 0 – 3 South Australia South Australia Unley Oval 10 August 1936 New South Wales 1 – 2 Victoria South Australia Unley Oval 12 August 1936 Western Australia 0 – 2 New South Wales South Australia Unley Oval 12 August 1936 Victoria 1 – 1 (F/14 Game tied – Bad light) South Australia South Australia Unley Oval Finals Third place final 14 August 1936 Western Australia 0 – 2 South Australia South Australia Unley Oval Championship game 14 August 1936 New South Wales 4 – 1 Victoria South Australia Unley Oval bb-state 1937 Claxton Shield Champions New South Wales 1st References Clark 2003, pp.52–4 Harris 2009, p.27 Bibliography Clark Joe A History of Australian Baseball: Time and Game https://books.google.com/books?id=rIXGQra02mAC&pg=PP1 1 January 2010 2003 University of Nebraska Press Lincoln, Nebraska 0-8032-6440-2 refClark Harris John O. Baseball Queensland 1905–1990 http://www.qld.baseball.com.au/default.asp?Page=52210 19 July 2009 2009 refHarris https://web.archive.org/web/20110706101958/http://www.qld.baseball.com.au/default.asp?Page=52210 6 July 2011 dead Claxton Shield Claxton Shield Category:Claxton Shield Category:August 1937 sports events in Australia Category:Sports competitions in Adelaide Category:1930s in Adelaide