[chucksabr]

Ordinary Match Turns Wild towards End.

The small crowd of a little more than two thousand who had shown up to Park Avenue grounds in Bradford on Monday were treated to a strange but wonderful game, indeed. It started out as a rather pedestrian affair, with the Sky Blues of Coventry City commanding a lead of five runs to two going into the bottom of the eighth innings when, in the words of Milton in “Paradise Lost”, all hell broke loose.

Avenue scored five in the eighth on three single, a two, a three, and a base on balls. Coventry recovered the two run deficit on a two run two base hit by Nash in the ninth, and the game proceeded into extra innings. Each scored one in the tenth for an eight-eight draw; then each scored three more in the eleventh for an eleven-eleven run draw. Suddenly, the game had a completely different texture to it.

Sky Blues came right back with three more runs in the twelfth innings when Delamare reached on a short stop error, followed by a base on balls to MacNicol. Cooke, the pitcher who had already surrender nine runs in relief but was spelling a spent bullpen, sacrificed the runner ahead one base each, and Jagger was then walked on set purpose to load the bases again. Parkinson flied out to deep left for the second out but also a run as Delamare scored. Thompson walked to reload the bases, and Hunt singled home two more runs before MacMichael grounded to first base for the third out, and three runs had crossed.

Avenue were not themselves finished, however. MacCambridge and MacNidder started off the innings with singles, and Townsend drew a walk to load the bases. Bateman hit into a fieldsman’s choice, short stop to second base, to force Townsend whilst MacCambridge scored, MacNiddetr to third base. Whittaker followed up with a single to score MacNidder, and Bateman went to second. Coventry City called in Smith to save the day, but alas it was for naught. Smith was off target with the first three pitches to Platt, who inexplicably swung on the next pitch only to miss with a foul ball straight back. Platt did not miss on the next pitch, however, as he smashed a three base hit down the left field line to score both Bateman and Whittaker, and just like that, the efforts of Sky Blues came to nought.