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

13 The closest challengers were Arbroath. Bob Sievwright always proved difficult to play against, but he was virtually a one-man team, and Brechin had so many good players, that even if someone like Davie Chapman (arguably their best player) failed, there were so many others. In mid July at Davie Park, Blairgowrie, for example, Brechin hit 227 for 8 before declaring, or as the newspapers at the time said, “closure applied” then dismissed Blairgowrie for 69. Willie Eddie, doubling in his role as secretary of the Union, tried to be impartial as he saidat theendof seasonmeeting “theexperiment of forming a cricket league has proved a decided success. There has been a renewal of interest in the fixtures which has shown itself in larger attendances and increased membership in some of the clubs at least”. He is not so happy about some of the clubs being dilatory in sending in their results to the Union Secretary (himself), - a motif that would recur regularly throughout the Union’s subsequent history - and there is the common gripe that the Press coverage was not as comprehensive as it could have been, meaning presumably that the Dundee based newspapers were still too interested in the fortunes of Forfarshire and Perthshire, and that the Aberdeen based Press and Journal hardly mentioned the Strathmore Union at all. The complaint about The Courier is hardly justified. Although the Scottish Counties Championship and Forfarshire’s activities therein take priority, there is a great deal of coverage of the Strathmore Union’s activities, particularly in mid-season, although by August, it is clear that cricket must bow the knee to the tyranny of football. “Twas ever thus”, and sadly, it would stay that way as well. The local papers in Forfar, Brechin and Arbroath are all “big” on cricket, however, even though it is often clear that the writer is not without his bias, and in some cases is a man who has himself played in the game! But the first season on the Strathmore Union seemed to be a rosy picture painted by Mr Eddie of Brechin. On the coast at Arbroath, where the season had been a little less successful and the grapes were therefore a little sourer, The Arbroath Herald is a little less happy. Their editorial says that “not much interest has been created locally by the advent of the League”. Arbroath were also a little more wary about accepting Dundee Downfield’s application to join the League in 1930, but their motion to block the Dundonians failed to find a seconder, and Downfield were admitted. More importantly, a start was made to a 2nd XI Championship, a very