[chucksabr]

Unusual No Hitter

In front of a scant fifteen hundred supporters hosted by perennial mid table dwellers Manchester United, pitcher Edward Kemp proved as unlucky as a Red Devil can be whilst pitching against the Middlesbrough club.

Kemp pitched sharply from the very beginning. He allowed bases to Boro batsmen only in the second, fifth and eighth innings, and none of them on base hits. Yet, after the ninth innings had been played, the score stood at nil runs to nil, and a tenth innings had to be played.

The bad luck for Kemp commenced during that innings as he immediately walked right fielder Walsh, who was erased at second base on a ground ball by centre fielder Morris. Kemp then hit short stop Geary with a pitch, and he walked second baseman Brooke to load all bases. Obviously flustered, Kemp then served a flat pitch on a platter to catcher Chaplin who knocked the run in with a deep fly ball out to left centre field, scoring Morris. Not that it would have mattered, as Kemp’s own catcher Bliss let a ball pass him on a pitch to the opposing pitcher Deighton, moving runners to second and third bases, before Deighton let Kemp “off the hook” in seemingly collegial fashion by grounding out to short stop, thus ending the innings, but not before Kemp and the Red Devils saw themselves down a run.

The bottom of that innings also saw some excitement as, after two batsmen had made out, right fielder Blair drew his own base on balls on four straight and Bliss atoned for his passed ball with a sharp single to right, Blair making third on as close a play as you will see with the entire match at risk. Kemp had the chance to atone for his own mistakes as well, but it was not to be as he lofted a lazy fly ball to right field, and the game was done, Kemp the loser of a nil runs to one game in which he yielded not a single base hit.