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

24 cricket pavilions and well documented cases of young children trying to buy a bottle of lemonade, only to be asked if they were Members before being told that “Yes, there is lemonade… but not for you!” A more inclusive attitude would have reaped many benefits, one feels, but this awful social discrimination prevailed long into the 1950s. In spite of this, cricket was still much talked about in the area, particularly in Brechin where their teams once again in 1933 won both the 1st XI and the 2nd XI Championships with Eddie, Laing and Chapman all to the fore. Arbroath pressed them hard in the 1st XI Championship, beating Brechin at Lochlands in June before a large and enthusiastic crowd, but it was Brechin who won the crucial return game at Guthrie Park on 19th August with Willie Eddie taking a hat trick as he mopped up Arbroath’s tail. Sievwright once again topped the Bowling Averages, but the Batting prize went toDavieMcLean of Strathmore, an interesting sporting characterwho, now that his lengthy and prolific footballing career was coming to a close, spent more and more time playing cricket. He had played football for both Celtic and Rangers, Preston North End, Sheffield Wednesday and Dundee before finishing his career with his beloved Forfar Athletic. He scored more goals than Jimmy McGrory, and played once for Scotland against England in 1912. On the cricket field, he was a fine aggressive batsman with an Average in 1933 of 43.57, a reasonable bowler and a crusty competitor who always enjoyed his duels with his friendly rivals, Bob Laing and Bob Sievwright, neither of whom were shy about “dishing out the verbals” on the field, however much they were friends off it. People tend to talk about “sledging” as if it is something comparatively new, brought into the game by the aggressive Australians of Denis Lillee’s generation who were over- endowed with too much testosterone. Not so! The Union played two Representative games in 1933, beating the North of Scotland League in Elgin, but losing to the Border League in Hawick. These games showed that the Union was expanding its horizons, although looking at the teams selected, one wonder whether they were the best teams available. Elgin and Hawick were both a long way away and it was very tempting for a player to have an “injury”, which was, however, not serious enough to prevent him playing on the same day for his club! Meigle brought an interesting motion to the AGM in October, wishing all League games to be played on a Saturday. This was clearly aimed at Brechin, Arbroath and Strathmore who all arranged friendly games against