Annual South Atlantic Ashes match ends in tragedy

The match was played on Saturday 27th January with the Governor, Donald Lamont, and the Commander British Forces, Brigadier Geoff Sheldon, both playing.

Initially there was concern that the match would be postponed due to a very heavy rain storm, but a pitch inspection at 11am gave the go ahead for the scheduled 1pm start. Throughout the afternoon the weather continued to improved and turned into a gloriously sunny evening.

The Governor's XI won the toss and elected to field, hoping to gain some advantage from the wet outfield and overcast conditions.

Tyldsley and Marlor opened the bowling. After his first 3 overs Marlor was replaced by "Spurs" Henry who bowled his allocated 5 overs straight through as did Tyldsley. Clapp came on for Tyldsey and Mc Innis to over from Henry. Marlor came on for a more successful second spell of 2 overs and Summers bowled the last over.

The Commander British Forces batting line up was strong and took advantage of the Governor's bowlers bowling too short for most of the innings. A massive score of 181 off 25 overs was achieved - a record for the South Atlantic Ashes.

Faced with this huge target Summers and Austin opened the batting. The Governor's team got off to a slow start and was 3 for 1 wicket at the end of the 4th over.

At this point tragedy struck, David Austin, who had just come off the field of play having been caught, collapsed from a heart attack and in spite of resuscitation from a doctor who was scoring and the timely assistance of the military medical service, unfortunately died.

The match was abandoned and at the time of writing this article it is not yet decided whether the match will be rescheduled for later this season or not.

This evening there is a meeting of the Falkland Islands Cricket Association in the memory of David Austin who was a thoroughly decent man, and inspite of his age, 63, still a very active sportsman and good cricketer.

A former oil tanker captain and port pilot in Dubai, David had been in the Falklands for some 2 years managing the port facility. He had taken an active part in the training sessions at our new nets facility in Stanley and had batted well in the President's v Chairman's match on 20th January. He will be sadly missed and leaves a wife and 2 sons, our sympathy is extended to them.