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

113 The main reason for Arbroath’s success in 1973 was the prolific form of their Indian professional. Dhiraj Parsana who took a phenomenal 101 wickets for 833 runs. He took 8 for 35 against Meigle at Lochlands, and on another two occasions took 7. He also came second in the Batting, and but for an unbeaten 152 by Colin Johnston of Gordonians, he would have topped the Batting as well. That things were stirring after a long era of disappointment and under-achievement at Lochlands was proved by the success of their 2nd XI who also won their Championship, just pipping Kirriemuir. The men of the Hill, however, lifted the Two Counties Cup as consolation, while Perthshire Cricket Association won the Three Counties Cup. But once again it was Jack Hirst of Kinloch who topped both the Bowling and the Batting Averages in the Second Division. In other respects, 1973 was a better than average season. The Union won their two representative games against the Scottish Counties at Arbroath and the North of Scotland Cricket Association at Huntly, local cricketers had an opportunity to watch the touring New Zealanders at Forthill in a game in which Scotland managed to recover from having to follow on. They earned a creditable draw, and the weather was consistently good all through the season. On the other hand, neither Strathmore nor Brechin did well in the Scottish Cup, and Coupar Angus, a team with a proud record, were struggling to get a team and resigned from the Union. Blairgowrie 2nd XI withdrew from the Second Division, but their place was taken by Forthill 2nd XI, effectively, Forfarshire’s 3rd XI. Such was the strength of cricket at Forthill in 1973. It would be forgiven if the cricket season of 1974 was quickly forgotten, for 1974was a very “crowded” year in history. Not onlywere there twoGeneral Elections in Great Britain as the country gave every impression of lapsing into chaos and words like “ungovernable” were freely used in respected newspapers like The Sunday Times, but in the United States, the President Richard Nixon was compelled to resign because of his involvement in the Watergate affair – the first time in the history of the USA that such a thing had happened. But there was even more than that for a Scottish sportsman, because for the first time since 1958, Scotland had qualified for the World Cup finals. What made it all the sweeter, of course, was that England hadn’t, and like it or not, the whole country, even the most avid of the “I don’t like football”