Game called off because of bad light

Staff Reporter|Published 1 year ago

Kyle Ripepi of Athlone Athletics tries to oust Clayton Manual of Bellville Tygers during their Major league Baseball match between Athlone and Bellville played at the PP Smit sport complex in Bellville. Picture: Mark Ward

MARK WARD

Frustration and confusion surround the suspension of the Cape Town Major League Baseball match between Bellville Tygers and Athlone Athletics on Saturday at the PP Smit-sports complex in Bellville.

Chief umpire Lucien Shaffers ruled the match between these two sides to be continued on Sunday after poor visibility made it impossible for the game to carry on.

Athlone was leading 14-12 when fading light conditions became too dangerous for play.

Last week a similar situation played out between Bellville and Durbanville. The match was completed on Sunday with Bellville emerging 14-11 winners.

Tony Alexander, chairman of Athlone is not happy with the turn of events and contends that the results should stand because any match where five frames or more has been completed, should classify as a legal match. He believes the scores at the end of the eight frame (13-11) should be awarded to Athlone.

“I can’t say too much. But we will be lodging a formal complaint. As far as I’m concerned, the results as to when the match was stopped due to the conditions should stand. In this case we were ahead.

“Last week we had a similar scenario. It is simply not a healthy position for the sport. It’s deplorable in many ways and look at this. You cannot maintain the same momentum as what it was when the match was called-off. Now you must return a week later, worst of all go through all that expenses and on top of it expect players to perform. Worst of all, players might not be available, or the same venue cannot be used for various other reasons.

“You see, had we refused to enter the ninth frame we would have been in breach of the by-laws and we would have been adjudged to have defaulted and a nine frame win would have been awarded to Bellville,” said Alexander.

Bellville Tygers pitcher Lloyd Stevens during their Major League Baseball match against Athlone at the PP Smit sport complex in Bellville. Picture: Mark Ward

In other game results:

Bothasig Knights 17, Grassy Park Crusaders 0

VOB Macaws 10, Durbanville Villians 0

Helderberg Pirates 11, Thistle 8

Saturday’s fixtures: Bellville Tygers vs Helderberg Pirates; Bothasig Knights vs Thistle; Athlone Athletics vs VOB Macaws; Durbanville Villians vs Grassy Park Crusaders