Strathmore Cricket Union: the first 90 years a history 1928-2018

102 This meant that there had to be a hastily arranged series against the Rest of the World, and although the Rest of the World contained some fine players (including ironically a few South Africans), it was difficult to get anyone excited about such artificial and contrived cricket. In addition there were counter-attractions in the shape of a General Election campaign in mid- summer, and an excellent World Cup in Mexico which showed Brazilian football at its best. It was difficult for cricket in such circumstances. In the Strathmore Union, the predictability about who was going to win was becoming monotonous, and although interest was dwindling even in Forfar itself, this was hardly the fault of the excellent Strathmore side who lost only once in the Championship. But Bob Laing the Secretary was moved to mention in his report that “it looks as if the public have lost much interest” in the context of the poor attendances in the Three Counties and the Two Counties Cup finals. Strathie’s one loss in the Championship came at Mannofield in July, but they had two rather surprising defeats, one to Perthshire XI in the Three Counties Cup final, and the other to Kilmarnock at Kirkstyle early in the season in the Scottish Cup. The architect of their destruction that day was none other than the Australian professional Bob Massie who took 6 for 28. Massie would, of course, earn his moment of cricketing immortality at Lords in 1972, but before that happened, Strathmore would have their spectacular revenge over Kilmarnock in 1971. Strathmore XI also won the 2nd XI Championship in 1970 and the Two Counties Cup, and three Strathie players topped the Averages – Don Crighton and George Myles for the 1st XI, and Mike Thornton topped the 2nd XI Batting while the veteran Angus Ogg, one time of Strathmore but now of Arbroath, topped the 2nd XI bowling. At the AGM in November, Brechin proposed a motion that games should no longer be determined by time – something that lent itself to abuse by deliberate slowing down of Overs etc., -but that games should last 100 Overs. This motion was defeated, but it would not go away. The other thing that happened at the AGM was that the veteran Bob Laing at last managed to resign from the Secretary/Treasurer job, and was replaced by Tommy Hart of Strathmore. 1971 saw Strathmore win the Union for the sixth year in a row, thus beating Brechin’s record of five from 1929 until 1933. Blairgowrie once again