Surviving members of WA's first Claxton Shield baseball team honoured

4/8/98

Surviving members of Western Australia's first Claxton Shield baseball team have been honoured at a ceremony at the WACA Ground.

Jack Beal (82) and George Dickinson (80) were presented with commemorative plaques by Sport and Recreation Minister Norman Moore at a 60th anniversary luncheon today.

The other surviving members of the team, Western Australian cricket legend Charlie Puckett (87), and Tom Nisbet (80) live interstate and could not attend.

The presentations were watched by members of WA's 1952 team -- the first of the State's six Claxton Shield winning sides.

Mr Moore said that the shield's founder, the late Mr Norrie Claxton, of Adelaide, was one of the great benefactors of Australian sport.

"Mr Claxton, a prominent member of the Adelaide Stock Exchange, was a forerunner of those generous individuals and corporations whose sponsorship of athletes and sporting organisations is so crucial today," Mr Moore said.

"And as a keen supporter of young athletes in his declining years, Norrie Claxton helped pioneer that other vital element of sport in Australia -- volunteering."

Mr Moore said that WA baseball resulted from an appraisal of the status of cricket in this State in the 1930s.

"It seems strange now, but in 1935 our cricket was not the best," he said.

"After being thrashed by a visiting MCC side, it was suggested that our players should start to play baseball in the off-season to sharpen their game.

"As we know, both sports went from strength to strength in Western Australia, and the Claxton Shield became baseball's equivalent of the Sheffield Shield."

Today, the West Australian Baseball League has 21 senior clubs and 26 junior clubs with a total membership of 4,000.

Media contact: Hartley Joynt, Minister's office, 08 9 321 1444

Bob Figg, Ministry of Sport and Recreation, 08 9 387 9749.

Media note: The presentation and luncheon will be in the President's Lounge at the WACA between 12.45 and 2pm. Vince Baker is the baseball contact and he can be contacted through the WACA if needed.