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

166 “Player apathy” was now a serious problem for the Union with even established teams like Strathmore, Brechin and Kirriemuir obviously struggling. Various ideas were suggested to counter this – shorter games, speeding up Over rates, recruiting drives in schools – but there seemed little doubt that the game in this part of the country at least was now in a bad way. Yet the picture was not all gloomy. Many good games were played, some schools kept playing the game, and it remained a matter of some puzzlement why youngsters were not keen to commit themselves to what remains the greatest game of them all. “Player apathy” however was only half the problem. Teams like Arbroath showed that this problem could be counter-acted by a strong youth coaching structure, and also an attempt to make their club a social one with a family orientation. The real issue was that not every club tried as hard as it could have or did not have sufficient people prepared to pull out all the stops for the club. Arbroath, of course, reaped the rich award for their diligence and application when they won the Scottish Championship in 2013 and the Scottish Cup in 2016. Cricket was dealt a further blow by the dreadful weather of 2002, described in the following year’s Year Book as the wettest experienced by “most, if not all of us”. The Premier Division, for example, was won by Huntly who managed to play only 12 League games out of a possible 18, whereas second placed Dundee High School FP only played half of their scheduled fixtures, and while no-one would wish to take anything away from Huntly (continuing the pattern of Northern teams doing well) one would have to sympathise with any moans from Dundee High School FP that they did not get a fair deal and that the championship was a little distorted. Yet what could one do about it? Rain, sadly, always has been a factor in cricket – and a very irrational one. Kinloch and Perth won the other two Divisions, Kinloch beating into second place Rossie Priory, the 3rd oldest club in Scotland (after Kelso and Perthshire) who play at that lovely old ground in the middle of the country. Arbroath and Brechin XI won the Three Counties and the Two Counties Cups while Arbroath continued to dominate the Under 15 and Under 13 Leagues but there was no Under 17 League that year. Cupar actually had a good year as well with Russell Morris topping the Batting Averages and Davie Bell the Bowling, but increasingly as 2002