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

151 hear a great deal more, one Justin Langer (who, as it happened hailed from Perth in Australia!) of Perthshire XI who scored 5 centuries and finished with an Average of 91.82. At the age of just 20, he had a miserable run of form to start the season until he came up against the might of Lawside in a Sunday friendly, helped himself to 150 and never looked back. The top score of the season was Strathmore’s John Murtagh who hit 191 not out v Gordonians on July 27. The Bowling Averages were topped by Steve Hadley of Dundee High School FP who took 66 wickets for an Average of 10.97, and this included a 9 for 9 against Mannofield. For reasons best known to themselves, Strathmore appear not to have entered a team in the Under 18 League – sometimes this happens at youth level that talent and interest temporarily dry up - and Forfarshire won it easily. At this point it time, the Conditions of Play were that the game lasted 96 Overs, and the team batting first could declare at any time up to their 48. 20 points were awarded for a win, and it was possible to draw a game. In these circumstances, the team batting first would gain 8 points and the team batting second would gain 2 points, the idea being presumably to deter teams from batting out to a draw which was believed to be killing the enjoyment of the game. This is not always so, and it has long been the contention of some of us that there is a certain skill in “hanging in” and preventing the other side from bowling them out. There was also a system of bonus points, but they were only awarded in the event of a draw or a defeat. The rationale behind the system was, in essence, to ensure that teams which batted first, scored well and had their opponents “hanging in” could end up with up to 17 points from a game, thus losing little in the way of percentage compared to winning the match. An example of the absurdity of the points system however was displayed in the match at Rubislaw between Aberdeen Grammar and Strathmore in May 1992. Grammar batted first and were all out for 110. In reply, Strathmore had reached 110 for 9 with one ball remaining. Nothing was scored from that ball and the match was drawn with Grammar taking 8 points while Strathmore received 2. Had the Strathie skipper instructed his last man simply to tread on his wicket with the scores level or attempt the winning run, however suicidal, the match would have been tied and both sides would have received 8 points! 1992 was (ironically in view of later events) the European Year of Culture in which, for example, great stress was to be laid on learning a European