36-806: New South Wales Patriots compete in the Claxton Shield baseball championship in Australia. The Patriots were one of the founding teams of the Claxton Shield in 1934 and competed as New South Wales until 1988 when the Claxtion Shield was awarded to the winner of the Australian Baseball League . In 1999 they were invited to join the International Baseball League of Australia which they competed in for 2 seasons (1999-00 and 2002). After this point
72-477: A three-game series: one series at home, one away. The division leaders then met in a best of three final series for the championship. 2009 marked the 75th anniversary of the inaugural Claxton Shield, and so a mix of old and new was used. A showcase round was held in Sydney, where each team met each other team once. After this, each team met each other once again for a three-game series on a home and away basis, much
108-561: A total of 17 games, followed by a best of 3 division championship with the winner of each division meeting in the best of 3 championship series to decide the Claxton Shield champion and IBLA champion. The second format was a four-team competition played exclusively on the Gold Coast at Palm Meadows Baseball Stadium . Teams involved in this championship were 3 composite teams; IBLA Australia, IBLA Internationals, MLB All-Stars and
144-416: A total of 2,090 first-class runs between 1899 and 1909, at an average of 29.43. He also bowled, alebit without much success at state level, as a right-arm fast-medium , and claimed 66 wickets at a bowling average of 34.42. After his retirement from playing first-class cricket, Claxton became an administrator for South Australia, acting as a selector between 1902 and 1905, and again from 1907 until 1909. He
180-477: A wicket, and scored no runs in the match; being bowled out for a duck in both innings. He had more success in 1902, scoring 61 and 83 for South Australia against the touring England team . He claimed five wickets in an innings on three occasions, during three subsequent appearances. He first achieved the feat in 1903 against New South Wales . In the first innings, Claxton took five wickets, and conceded 129 runs (styled 5/129) during his 36 overs . He repeated
216-403: Is presented to the Claxton Shield's MVP every year. South Australia's decade may well have been the 1960s, but the 1970s belonged to Western Australia who captured a title in 1975 and a hattrick from 1977 to 1979. The era saw a new dimension of Claxton Shield with corporate involvement and interstate rivalries becoming strong. It also saw the expansion of the competition to six teams, with
252-446: The 2008 series saw the return of a "home & away" format so that the game can be showcased nationwide. The Claxton Shield has followed numerous formats over the years. The original format saw a round-robin tournament used, with each of the three participating teams playing each other once over the course of a week. The tournament would be hosted in a single city, though in some cases multiple grounds were used for individual games,
288-509: The Australian Baseball League . After the 1988 Claxton Shield and the Australian Baseball League was formed to take over from the traditional Claxton Shield, the first game was between Perth Heat and Adelaide Giants at Parry Field in Perth 27 October 1989 with the Giants winning 8–5. The league ran for 10 seasons before being bought out by Dave Nilsson and his company Nilcorp due to
324-697: The IBLA season. It then truly became the top tier baseball competition in Australia again in 2003 when the IBLA folded. The decade has brought close to a hundred young Australians playing baseball in Major League Baseball and Japan , most of who return home to showcase their talents to local fans. The 2004 Olympic Games signalled a coming of age for Australian baseball when the Australian national baseball team won silver medals . More recently,
360-759: The 4th team was the Taiwanese national team . A cut-throat finals system was used in this championship with a 3rd place play-off. The third and final format was run jointly with the Australian Baseball Federation , The championship was held in Melbourne at the Melbourne Ballpark and used a more traditional Claxton Shield format, 6 teams over 1 week playing each other once again using a cut-throat finals system. The "State vs State" format of Claxton Shield returned in 2002 during
396-475: The Claxton Shield reverted to a competition similar to 1988. New South Wales Patriot's roster for the 2010 Claxton Shield , announced by Baseball NSW . This article about a baseball team in Australia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Claxton Shield The Claxton Shield was the name of the premier baseball competition in Australia held between state-based teams, as well as
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#1732798578414432-480: The Claxton Shield was restored to a national competition after the Queensland Rams returned to the competition after a four-year absence. It was a decade of close competition with each capital city holding at least one series during the decade. In 1952, Western Australia won their first title. The series in 1961 marked an expansion in the competition as all teams played each other twice that year. In 1962,
468-529: The achievement in the next match, claiming 5/56 against the touring English cricket team – the best figures of his career. His next appearance was not until the start of the 1904–05 season, when he claimed 5/130 against Victoria . His best season as a batsman was in 1905–06, when he scored 401 runs at an average of 36.45. He made his highest first-class score during that season, in a match against Victoria. After scoring 67 runs out of South Australia's first innings total of 181, Claxton accumulated 199 runs in
504-470: The admittance of the Northern Territory between 1981 and 1988. After a 42-year drought, the Queensland Rams won their first national title in 1982 before capturing two others in 1983 and 1987. The 1980s saw the likes of such names as Tony Adamson, Dave Nilsson , Graeme Lloyd , Adrian Meagher and Phil Dale. New South Wales Patriots won the last championship in 1988 before the introduction of
540-549: The arrangements had already been confirmed. A month after the tournament, Western Australia hosted Victoria in Perth for a three-game series as a form of preparation for their entry in the 1937 tournament in Adelaide. In a repeat of circumstances, the Queensland Baseball Association applied to send a team to the 1937 tournament, but as had been the case with Western Australia their application
576-535: The declining financial state of the league. In late 1999 Australian baseball player David Nilsson purchased the rights to the Australian Baseball League for A$ 5,000,000. Nilsson, who with Glenn Partridge had the vision of creating the International Baseball League of Australia , ran the next 3 Claxton Shields each using a different format. The first format used was the most similar to the former Australian Baseball League, 6 teams divided into 2 divisions, southern and northern division playing home and away games with
612-510: The efforts of Norrie Claxton in 1934. Claxton, who had played for South Australia in both cricket and baseball, and was a patron of the South Australia Baseball Association , donated a shield to be awarded to the winners of the annual carnival, with the intention of permanently awarding the shield to the first team to win three consecutive tournaments, and was named the Claxton Shield. The first tournament
648-508: The final Claxton Shield before the start of the Australian Baseball League in 1988 . When the International Baseball League of Australia collapsed and the Claxton Shield resumed in its own right in 2003 , the original format was continued. The 2008 Claxton Shield saw a new format for the tournament. A home and away season was introduced, splitting the six participating teams into two divisions of three teams each. The teams played within their own divisions, meeting both other teams twice for
684-641: The final series. It was the eighteenth time the Aces had won the shield, and the twenty-second time it had been won by a Victorian team—the most by any state—including three times by the Waverley ;/ Melbourne Reds and once by the Melbourne Monarchs . The Adelaide Giants currently hold the shield after overcoming the Perth Heat in the 2023–24 Australian Baseball League season . It
720-557: The finals series, the most for any Claxton Shield season. The three team playoff structure was kept. This season structure was seen as a template for the relaunch of the Australian Baseball League the following season: the only likely changes being the expansion to six teams meaning no bye rounds for any teams, and the possible change from a three-game series each round to a four-game series. Norman Claxton Norman Claxton (2 November 1877 – 5 December 1951)
756-499: The founding president of the South Australian Baseball League between 1913 and 1929. In 1934, he established a tournament intended to promote regular contests between state baseball teams. The trophy, which he donated, is still awarded to the champions of the premier baseball competition in Australia. Despite his request that the shield should not bear his name, it became known as the Claxton Shield . He
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#1732798578414792-569: The longstanding tradition of hosting the event in August was broken when host Adelaide scheduled the series in October, perhaps the first step in a long march to create the sport's eventual move in Australia to the summer season. Behind starting pitcher Neil Page , South Australian teams dominated the decade, winning six championships. The decade also marked the introduction of the Helm's Award, which
828-405: The name of the trophy awarded to the champion team. From the summer of 1989–90 until 2001–02, and again since 2010–11, the tournament was replaced by one of three other competitions: the original Australian Baseball League (ABL), the International Baseball League of Australia (IBLA), and since the 2010–11 season the new ABL . Despite other competitions being held in place of the Claxton Shield,
864-471: The physical trophy has remained the award for the winning teams. Though city-based teams have competed for the Claxton Shield in some seasons, the name engraved on the shield is that of the winning state; for the 2010–11 ABL season won by the Perth Heat , "West Australia 2011" was engraved. The Victoria Aces were the last team to win the shield under the Claxton Shield format, having won the 2010 tournament by defeating South Australia two games to nil in
900-466: The same as the previous season. The finals series was expanded to allow three teams to reach the playoffs. The second and third placed teams met in a best of three series, the winner of which met the first placed team. The 2010 season eliminated the showcase round, and used a double round-robin format: each team met each other team twice—once at home, once away—each time for a three-game series, resulting in each team playing 24 games over ten rounds before
936-541: The second, carrying his bat in the process. South Australia won the match by 120 runs. It was the only century of Claxton's first-class career. He captained South Australia in five Sheffield Shield matches, first doing so against Victoria in 1906. He made his final first-class appearance in December 1909, being dismissed for a duck during his only innings. Described in his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry as an elegant right-handed batsman, Claxton scored
972-408: The team with the most wins being declared the winner. With the expansion to four teams in 1937 , the addition of a final was made, with the top two teams playing in a championship game. Though there were many variations in the fine details from year to year, particularly when a team was added or removed from the competition, the basic concept of a round-robin followed by a final was continued through to
1008-487: The wake of national tournaments having already been played, the Australian Baseball Council was formed by representatives of the state controlling bodies. Because of conflict between the north and south Tasmanian baseball community, they were not among the states on the council, which included New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Further national tournaments were not organised though, until
1044-515: Was an all-round sportsman from South Australia . He was a prominent figure in South Australian cricket , Australian rules football , baseball , and cycling during the early twentieth century, both as a player and later an administrator. He represented South Australia in first-class cricket , playing 39 matches for his state, and finishing his career with 2,090 first-class runs at an average of 29.43. In Australian rules football, he
1080-753: Was held in 1934 , with matches played at the Adelaide Oval and Hindmarsh Oval in Adelaide . The hosts South Australia won the tournament, and would go on to win the next two editions as well. At this point, all participating states agreed that it should be a perpetual shield awarded to the winner each year. In 1936, the Western Australia Baseball League applied to join the other states in competing for that year's tournament in Sydney . However their request came too late, as
1116-582: Was only called off for a smallpox outbreak in 1913, but would not return until 1919 because of World War I . The first "national" tournament was held in Hobart in 1910, won by New South Wales defeating Victoria and hosts Tasmania. New South Wales repeated the feat in 1912 in Melbourne when they won again, this time with the addition of South Australia. None were held regularly though, and they did not always involve all baseball–playing states. In 1913 and in
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1152-785: Was part of the North Adelaide Football Club teams that won the South Australian National Football League in 1900 and 1902. He left a lasting legacy in baseball by donating the Claxton Shield which bears his name as the trophy for the champion baseball team in Australia. His contributions to baseball led to him being inducted into the Baseball Australia Hall of Fame in 2005. Claxton was born in North Adelaide , South Australia on 2 November 1877. He
1188-643: Was the Adelaide Giants second ABL title. There had been interstate baseball tournaments held prior to the start of the Claxton Shield. Prior to the federation of Australia , an inter-colonial series was held in Melbourne in 1890 between Victoria and South Australia at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground . South Australia were the eventual winners of the series, winning two games to one. New South Wales and Victoria started holding an annual series between themselves in 1900, that
1224-566: Was the son of William Denton Claxton and Hannah (née Parr) Claxton. He had a half-brother, William Claxton , who was twenty years his senior and who also played first-class cricket . He entered the Adelaide stock exchange in 1910, and had various business interests. He died on 5 December 1951, having never married. He was survived by two sisters. Claxton made his first-class cricket debut in April 1899, playing for South Australia against Western Australia . He bowled three overs without taking
1260-525: Was the team manager for a time in 1913, and sat on the state association's committee for twenty years. Aside from cricket, Claxton enjoyed a number of sports. He represented North Adelaide in both baseball and Australian rules football . He was a member of the North Adelaide Football Club teams that won the South Australian Football Association in 1900 and 1902, for whom he played as a half-back . He later became
1296-446: Was too late. Queensland would make their Claxton Shield debut in the 1939 tournament in Melbourne . The early part of the decade was interrupted by World War II , however the post war years provided many new players to the competition and brought Australian baseball to new heights. The Victoria Aces began their rise to the dominance of Claxton Shield by achieving their first hat-trick of titles between 1947 and 1949. In 1950,
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