The second place finish for the 1943 Athletics put them in the best possible position going into the playoffs. They would meet the fourth place, 4 and 20, Toronto Lakeshores, while the strong Army Bullets and the Brampton-Mimico Combine teams would hammer it out in the other series.
But two things happened before the playoffs started that may have affected the outcome of the Athletics – Lakeshores series. First of all, many of the A’s received their call-up notices, and secondly, the Lakeshores airlifted in some old Owen Sound and Orillia players, and suddenly they looked more like a 20 and 4 team. Wait a minute! Piper Bain, Bucko MacDonald! In Lakeshores uniforms! Now where were the “solons” of the O.L.A. on that move.
It’s not fair for me to say why the twin-blues were beat, but beat they were and quite badly I may add. But in 1943 there were much greater concerns than any lacrosse game and, after all, better years were ahead for the Haig Bowlers and for the country.
The Standard’s sports editor Clayton Browne, in his usual folksy
manner, would address the A’s quick playoff exit and he also would
talk of a few of the old A’s already in the big fight, one being Mann
Cupper Roy Barnard who was wounded in action with the Canadian Army
in Sicily.
By CLAYTON BROWNE: The St.Catharines Standard
Tuesday September 14, 1943
ST.CATHARINES -- The faithful of lacrosse are still cating around for reasons of the Athletics downfall by such an over-whelming score at the hands of Toronto Lakeshores and as usual, the wiseacres all have the remedy. One irate individual, in exposing views, forgot (or deleted) his name and that note cannot be published. The rank and file, however, ascribe it to the fact of A’s being put off stride by receipt of their military call-ups, but this is discounted by the more casual followers.
However, and notwithstanding, several of the double blues got their marching orders to report to active duty and those in the mood propose to beat it by enlisting and thereby taking chances on choosing their particular units. The others must pass medicals and then there are the luckier boys who are rated as essential to war industry work and engaged in key positions on munitions, locally.
There were not many Garden City folk shivering in Mimico Bowl for the
final, but those that were will not hesitate to tell all and sundry
where the differences lay. We hear that one of the A’s supporters
“ribbed” the O.L.A. solons unmercifully for permitting Torontos,
winners of but four games during the season, to import six to eight
Orillia-Owen Sound stars to contest the playoffs—after merely going
through the motions all summer and often barely skimming over a game
with enough players to qualify. That was after the O.L.A. edict of
one player to a team for bolstering.
By CLAYTON BROWNE: The St.Catharines Standard
Saturday September 18, 1943
By the way, can you picture Bun Barnard and Bobby Melville, now hospital pals at the North Africa base, discussing the pros and cons of the Athletics downfall, when they get the belated news? Melville is a fever patient, but if he is anywhere in the dark continent, Barnard will look him up and see that he shares some of the fruit (that’s more plentiful than anything seen in the Niagara area) for the boys under medical care. Or ponder what “Spark” Urquhart thinks when he gets back to port from naval patrol and opens up the family paper for the news? A safe guess is that their chatter is not confined to gee and gosh, by a long shot.
Frank (Piper) Bain, who conducts the sports column of the Orillia News Letter and does not deny that he’s past the 36-year mark, modestly pens the following reason for Athletics’ ousting: “Take a combination of youth, experience, willingness to fight to the last ditch and the time-worn epic of ‘one for all and all for one’ and you have the honest-to-goodness reason for those sterling upsets. Unfortunately for St. Catharines, they came up against a gang that not only produce one unknown, but fifteen.” That last line rather rubs it in to the A’s.
Something for the A’s moguls to overcome for 1944 (if lacrosse is
played) is ball-getters at centre. No doubt of it, they were woefully
amiss in spots where Urquhart and McMahon cavorted, in short, the
legs to control loose rubber. Wandy McMahon, undoubtedly one of the
greatest fielders of the era and also the most under-estimated rover
in the game today, was a tower of strength A’s sorely missed.
Melville had all the makings of another ball-hawk and Barnard could
really bump ‘em for keeps. Strange to relate, Saints failed to adopt
body-checking against Lakeshores as a stop-gap and they used to be
adepts at that artistry. Well, it’s a long winter.
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