Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 28 July 1939, page 16


BASEBALL TEAMS

HERE TO-DAY

W.A. Side Strong

With the Claxton Shield-held by New South Wales-as their object, baseball teams representing New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland will ar-rive in Melbourne to-day to take part in the opening of the all-Australian baseball carnival at Richmond tomorrow.

The carnival is expected to be the most successful in the history of Australian baseball and interest in it has been in-creased by the fact that Queensland will take part for the first time. In addition a field games contest between Australia and the Universities of California, will provide an international aspect and Aus-tralia's chances of defeating the Ameri- cans at their own game are considered to be very bright. The American section of the contest will be held in California.

Although the teams will include young players who are new to interstate base-ball, an even contest is expected. West-ern Australia, which arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday, is probably the outstand-ing side, and is favoured to win the shield, but it will meet with strong oppo-sition from South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria.

Strengthened by the inclusion of three former Victorian players, including Char- lie Puckett, one of the best pitchers in Australia, it has a well-balanced team which may be too steady for its oppo-nents. South Australia's young team-the   average age is 23 years-also has a splen-did pitcher in J.E. Puckett, a brother of the West Australian, and it is a side that will be capable of surprising any

State.

Victoria may be weaker in attack than it has been for some years, but deter-mined batting may offset this to a great extent. New South Wales is weaker when compared with the New South Wales team that won last season, but it still has a capable combination while Queensland, about which little is known, will be the "dark horse" of the carni-val.

The programme for the opening day is:-1 p.m. South Australia v. Western Australia; 3 p.m. Victoria v. New South Wales; Queensland, a bye. After the opening games on the Richmond ground all matches will be played at the Albert

Ground.