1939 Claxton Shield

The 1939 Claxton Shield was the sixth annual Claxton Shield, an Australian national baseball tournament. It was held at Richmond Cricket Ground, Albert Ground,^[1] South Melbourne Cricket Ground,^[2] and National Park^[3] in Melbourne from 29 July to 5 August,^[4] the second time Melbourne had hosted the Shield. New South Wales won the Shield for the third time, successfully defending their title from the previous two years. Queensland joined the other four states for the first time in the tournament. The other participating teams were Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia.^[5] It was also the first year an Australia national team was picked primarily based on the Championships.^[6]

Australia Interstate Baseball Carnival

1939
Tournament information
Date	29 July – 5 August
Host(s)	Melbourne, VIC
Teams	5
Defending champions	New South Wales
Final positions
Champion	New South Wales (3rd title)
1st runner-up	Western Australia
2nd runner-up	Victoria
← 1938 1946 →

Format

As had been the case in the 1937 tournament, the four teams played a round-robin schedule, meeting each other team once, with two competition points 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 and placing in the higher position.

Results

Preliminaries

Team	Points	Wins	Ties	Losses	For-Against
Western Australia	6	3	–	1	+16
New South Wales	5	2	1	1	+23
Victoria	5	2	1	1	+20
South Australia	4	2	–	2	+22
Queensland	0	–	–	4	-81

29 July 1939	Western Australia	2 – 1	South Australia	Richmond Cricket Ground

29 July 1939	Victoria	4 – 4 (F/11)	New South Wales	Richmond Cricket Ground

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31 July 1939	Queensland	0 – 23	New South Wales	Albert Ground

31 July 1939	Victoria	2 – 8	Western Australia	Albert Ground

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1 August 1939	Victoria	6 – 5	South Australia	Albert Ground

1 August 1939	Western Australia	11 – 1	Queensland	Albert Ground

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2 August 1939	Victoria	25 – 0	Queensland	Albert Ground

2 August 1939	New South Wales	3 – 4	South Australia	Albert Ground

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3 August 1939	New South Wales	2 – 1	Western Australia	South Melbourne Cricket Ground

3 August 1939	South Australia	24 – 1	Queensland	South Melbourne Cricket Ground

Finals

Third place final

5 August 1939	South Australia	2 – 5	Victoria	National Park

Championship game

5 August 1939	New South Wales	1 – 0	Western Australia	National Park

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1939 Claxton Shield Champions
New South Wales 3rd title

All-Australian team

At the conclusion of the tournament, representatives from the Australian Baseball Council selected an All-Australian team. Though the selected team did not actually play together, it was the first time an Australian team had been selected.^[7]

Position	Player
Pitcher	J. Lanfear
	C. Puckett
Catcher	L. Miller
	A. Goodwin
First Base	A. Barras
Second Base	F. Catt
Third Base	W. Rankin
Short Stop	R. Corby
Outfield	N. Blanche
	S. Yum
	J. Denison
Utility	G. Borwick
Manager	D. Mould