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Aldershot Finish Season Falling Short in Thrilling Last Innings.

The end of the Baseball League season arrived on Saturday, the first season in the League for the Aldershot club. They had a fair season for a newly arrived team from a very small town nestled in the lulling hills of Hampshire, known mainly for the garrison barracks and the new Boxall Lane speedway track and the Adventure of the Crooked Man. It has been most definitely not been known for baseball, since in fact the town club have toiled in the nether regions of amateur and professional leagues for nigh on three decades. But they became quite good over time and earned their try at League ball, and in the Southern Section of the Third Division this year they more or less held their own, winning 58 of their first 125 matches, going into the 126th and final match Saturday against Crystal Palace at Recreation Ground.

Things were going fine for the Shots initially, as they had taken a five runs to one lead going into the sixth innings, at which point they fairly collapsed. Pitcher Smithson was keen to avoid the badge of dishonour that might come with losing his twentieth match of the season, but he simply could not hold the fort against the Eagles. Seven singles and a run scoring outfield fly ball in quick succession brought home half a dozen runs, and Smithson was on the losing end of the score yet again, to his awful chagrin. Relief did not come to him until after having yielded two more in the seventh innings and, when the Manager Fuller come to get him, Smithson shuffled off the mound and towards the dugout, to the disapprobation of what was said in the official record to be 2,489 supporters, but what appeared to the eye to be a couple thousand less.

Pitcher Wade could scarcely do better, conceding single tallies in the eighth and ninth innings, and as the Shots stared at a scoreboard reflecting a six runs deficit with but three outs left, they appeared to be merely waiting for the close of play so they could lick their wounds and contemplate during the close season what they could possibly do to be competitive next year in a Division that was proving very difficult for them.

The bottom of the ninth innings dawned coldly as Dow grounded out to the third base man against Palace starter Hill. Marsh singled deep into the hole between second base and first, for a single, a bit of luck there. Birt hit sharply to centre and Zorkin, the beloved “Mayor of Aldershot”, “blooped” a short fly that found the ground behind the short stop, and a run scored, other runners moving up a base each on the throw to the home plate. Hall hit a line drive to left, and there came another run, Zorkin to third. Pitcher Hill was getting nervous, a fact which revealed itself in a walk to Dewar. Murray then singled to score Zorkn, the third run of the innings, and now the bases were "loaded", three runs had scored, and incredibly, the winning run for Aldershot was now at the bat.

An epic battle ensued between Hill and opposite pitcher-now batsman Wade that went to three balls and two strikes, and then a foul ball, then another foul ball, then another foul ball, and then a very deep fly ball to left, closer and closer to the boundary, which was taken by left fieldsman Coleman with his right glove hand as he was bracing himself against the fence with his left, far enough for Hall to score from third and for Dewar to think very seriously about doing so from second.

But now with two outs and a spent Hill falling apart, Palace manager Parker had seen enough and summoned Taylor, erstwhile starter turned relief custodian, to clean up the mess. Hern came up and went for the fences from the outset, nearly twirling himself into the ground with a mighty swing on the first offering from Taylor. Hern repeated the swing on the next delivery and connected for a long hit between the right and centre fielders that bounced off the fence, sub runner O’Hagan scoring and Murray trying to bring the Shots level with a mad scramble for the plate. But the two throws, first from McFadden in right through to Musgrove at second, and second relayed to Turner at the plate, were absolutely perfect. Murray was out by inches, and that was it for Aldershot: innings, match, season.

Aldershot is known for a few things, mostly not quite so famous. But they will be known for the near victorious “comeback”, the fight to the end, the valiant desperate scramble to “snatch victory from the jaws of defeat”. It showed that even in a meaningless last match of the season, the pride of competition even amongst professionals can rear its head at odd times and remake a dreary lost cause into an exciting, valiant, exhilarating lost cause. They will talk about this match during the winter, and the effort will be attributed to the Shots of Aldershot, even if it is not remembered which club it was which actually won the game.