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

127 CHAPTER NINE DEFECTIONS AND THE EIGHTIES Meigle surprised everyone, not least themselves, one imagines, by winning the Championship in 1980 and the Three Counties Cup, in each case beating Strathmore into second place. With Ralph Laing now back and topping the Batting Averages and with Meigle having three bowlers – Bill Brown, Mike Walton and Sandy Pattullo – in the top seven, it was a good season for the men from Victory Park. Sandy Pattullo puts it well when he says that they just played their normal game without, at the beginning of the season at least, having any great pretensions of winning the Championship and then suddenly they saw themselves high up the League and realised “We’re quite good”. They had no professional that season either! On 1st July they had a major boost to their confidence when they won the Three Counties Cup at Lochlands beating Strathmore by 36 runs, Pattullo trapping the Strathmore professional Rathie (called inevitably “Rathie of Meigle 1980 - Union Champions, Three Counties Cup Winners and Scottish Village Champions Back:- Sandy Reid (Ump), Neil Pattullo, Mike Walton, John Walton, Sandy Pattullo, Bill Scott (Jun), Peter C J Drummond, Francis Bell Front:- Colin Mclean, Graeme Sturrock, Rab Dow, Jim Drummond (Pres), Bill Brown (Capt), Ralph Laing