J.R. Robertson Club Championships (Western)

at Riley Park, Calgary, Alberta

Report
The Western Canadian John Ross Robertson Tournament was held over the August 3 and 4th weekend at Calgary's Riley Park. Participants this year were supposed to be the B.C. Champion, North Shore C.C., the Alberta Champion, St. John's C.C., the Saskatchewan Champions Saskatoon C.C. and the Manitoba Champion Winnipeg Juniors C.C.

Unfortunately, Winnipeg Juniors were unable to attend and were replaced by Cavaliers C.C. from Calgary. Riley Park is one of Canada's more picturesque grounds, the two fields are side by side, although the smaller field really is small. All four teams began their warm-ups in extremely cold temperatures, there had been snow in Calgary the night before. In addition to the cold it was very damp and the matting on shale wickets were barely playable due to standing water.

The visitors from BC were kindly given the larger ground to contest their match with Cavaliers. At this point the organizing committee and the captains discussed the rules to be applied. It was decided that ICC one-day international rules should apply, with the exception of the fielding restrictions. The CCA should modernize the rules for the JRR and include the fielding restrictions which are now part of 50 over cricket the world over.

North Shore lost the toss and Cavaliers opted to bat. This proved to be somewhat of a mistake as they lost wickets quickly and were soon at 38 for 5, with most of the runs coming from wides. A useful middle order stand pushed their stand over 100, but a flurry of late wickets saw Cavaliers all out for 117. North Shore batted slowly, but sensibly, to knock the runs off in 40 overs with the loss of 4 wickets.

On the smaller field a much more exciting game was in progress. Despite the presence of Canadian seamer Eason Sinnanthamby in the St. John's line up the underdogs from Saskatchewan were swinging freely for the short boundaries and managed to put up a respectable 265 in their 50 overs. Not a huge score, given the size of the ground, but useful. St. John's didn't get off to the greatest of starts, but their middle order consolidated nicely and by the 35th over they required 110 runs with 5 wickets in hand. Thanks to a couple of dropped catches the next wicket fell with only 12 runs needed. St. John's won with in the last over to set up a showdown with North Shore on the Sunday.

Unfortunately, Sunday dawned under drizzle mixed with the occasional full on shower. The pitches were uncovered and, as a result, were basically unplayable despite the stalwart efforts of the Calgary organizers. The rain continued throughout the day and play was called off at 2pm. According to an elderly copy of the JRR rules, obtained by the organizers, there is supposed to be a provision for a reserve day. However, neither North Shore nor Saskatoon were aware of this and as a result had travel arrangements for the Monday. Despite some attempts to reorganize those arrangements it was decided that there would be no game on the Monday.

Pending confirmation from the CCA St. John's C.C. and North Shore C.C. are co-champions. However, the two clubs are attempting, independently to organize the final in Vancouver in September.

Report prepared by Iain Dixon, North Shore C.C. - Thanks to the Calgary and District Cricket League for putting on a well run tournament, especially Fitzroy Sargeant, Chris James and Makal Ahuja, it was a pity the weather didn't cooperate.

Schedule and Scores

North Shore and St. John's Joint Holders -
Western J. Ross Robertson Championships