HOROWHENUA SOFTBALL

Chronicle (Levin), 24 February 1949, Page 7

HOROWHENUA SOFTBALL

Ajax Give Fine Grandstand Finish / (By "Strike One") Any oucstanding play in. Saturday's softoall competition would have been outshone by the wonderful grandstand finish when Ajax trebied their score -in the last innings to defeat Achilles 19 — 12. Although Achilles were not quite as strong as usual, they were holding a strong Ajax side 12 to 6 during the last innings, and a burst of enthusiasm on the part of Ajax forced their play beyond Achilles in a convincing manner. May and Manuel were responsible for keeping Ajax quieb early in the game, but the outfield in the last innings could have made sure of a nlan out at first base rather than throw to home when the catcher would have been too late anyway. I still think Ajax would have won, but not by so convincing a margin. In the Wanderers (31) v.1 Pirates (12) game it was disap-j pointing that the side was - not comple.e and although some good play was evident, V. Bonner *did a tremendous amount of work to make up the leeway brought about by the shortage of a player. S. Bonner and Neilson also played well. For Wanderers, Learmonth's pitching was very steady and he should concentraie on this departrnent more. Wanderers' combination on the bases, Marshall and C. and L. Winiata, were. playing too well for Pirates to take any liber-

ties. This game could have been very interesting with full sides. In Achilles (2) second game or the day against Kimberlty (26) it was obvious that Achilles were not in the same grade as the reformed Kimberley team. The latter looked every bit as hard as the score indicated, although Achilles had a chapter of fielding mistakes which allowed their opponents to rally a big score. If some of the other teams want to Keat Kimberley they had better start practising. The Rules I struck quite an interesting controversial issue this week -and the discussion- really summed up was how strictly should the softball rules be applied? In the rule hook there are 32 rules with an average of eight sub-sections to each. One can gather that if all these were applied the . approach to the game would be exceedingly strict, and players would have something of the "fear" of doing the wrong thing (as was explaine'd just prior to "^h'e war period) . Here are only some of the rules, which, if applied, would mean that no game would even start in the Horo whenua district. Because as a ibody the local association is afflliated to the New Zealand organisai tion, no game' can take place unless umpired by a registered umpire — of which there are none ih the jHorowhenua. No team should be 'allowed to .commence play unless j all nine players take the field — Ithat would have stopped one game ' last Saturday. Also, there are rules ! that base mats should be pegged to Ithe ground and the pitcher's plate •should be at ground surface level.. I Oh the other hand, in my opinion, a more toierant attitude should

be taken, especially when an association like ours is struggling for an existence. If players know that when competing in representative games they must strictly adhere to the rules, then in my opinion they should be allowed -to ride locally and so try to attract players to the game and not keep them away.