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

157 caught behind on the grounds that he “heard something”. It was nice to note a growth area in cricket at a time when some of the more established teams were beginning to struggle, sometimes through their own fault by their failure to develop their youth teams, but sometimes simply through unfortunate circumstances. The Second Division was won by Montrose who completed a Double by winning the Two Counties Cup as well, while Aberdeen Grades retained the Three Counties Cup. At youth level, Arbroath United won the Under 18 and Under 15 League, whereas the Under 13 was shared between Dundee High School and Meigle. This year also saw a lesson in the different cricket cultures throughout the world. In a match at Brechin, the home side were making steady, if slow, progress towards a relatively modest target against Aberdeen Grammar. The local pro, from India, had been dismissed cheaply and was now umpiring. Jerry Moir returned from the Pavilion End in an effort to dislodge Brechin’s blocker. Mid-way through his over, a call of “No Ball!” came from the umpire, something that was very unusual for the 6’ 8” bowler. The over was completed and during the next Moir over, another no ball was called. There was much examination of the popping crease by the Jerry who again re-marked his run. By now, suspicion was growing that something unusual was going on. The non-striker and the fielding captain exchanged knowing glances. At the start of the next Moir over, the non- striker, the captain and the bowler had a quiet conversation and decided to run a sweepstake on which ball would be called. The captain positioned himself at mid-off, level with the popping crease and the non-striker, rather than backing up, kept an eye on the same spot. Sure enough, the third ball of the over was called with the front foot well behind the line, the captain, bowler and batsman fell about laughing and it was suggested to the umpire that perhaps enough was enough. In conversation afterwards, the professional explained that it was the custom where he came from to call one no ball per over in tight games! Fortunately, the Grammar side took it in good part; the match was already going against them and the umpire’s assistance didn’t have a material impact but with a less forgiving opponent, it might have been different. At the AGM of 1996, a further effort was made to restrict the influence of non-local players on the league. Although the regulations brought in for 1989 had largely succeeded in stemming open abuses, changes