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

38 that dropped catches cost Arbroath the game “chances galore went abegging” and Blairgowrie were able to reach 173, a total which proved 40 runs too many for Arbroath. Some supporters moaned that, the County season having now finished, Blairgowrie were able to field two men who had played for Perthshire and one for Forfarshire, but there was nothing illegal about that, for they were Blairgowrie men first and foremost, and in any case, better fielding would have won the day for Arbroath. It had not been a great year weather-wise, and there had been no slots at the end of the season in which to organise a play-off game between Brechin and Mannofield XI. A half-hearted attempt was made to suggest a play-off at the start of the following season, but the Biblical quote “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” came to mind when it was decided simply to share the Championship. The batting prize went to the Brechin legend Davie Chapman with an average of 33.66, and special tribute was paid to Jim Samson of Strathmore who had won the bowling prize with an average of 6.36 which had even beaten all professionals. Three centuries had been scored, all by professionals - Blakey of Arbroath, Atkinson of Blairgowrie and Painter of Meigle. Arbroath may have had a disappointing end to their 1937 season in the League, after challenging hard all season, but they had had ample recompense in the winning of the Three Counties Cup. They did this against Strathmore in front of a huge crowd at neutral Guthrie Park, Brechin on the lovely night of Tuesday 13th July. Arbroath batted first and with professional Blakey on song with 64 did well to reach 137 for 3 in their allotted 80 minutes. Strathmore then began disastrously losing both openers for 4 runs, and then in the moment that won the game, Sievwright trapped Halstead lbw with a ball that kept straight and low, and Strathie fell 31 runs short. The AGM at the end of the 1938 season took place at Jarman’s Hotel in Forfar in October with the country in a state of (unjustified) euphoria, believing that war had been avoided at Munich a couple of weeks earlier when Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had agreed to the partition of Czechoslovakia and Hitler being allowed half of it. History has been cruel to Chamberlain over this, but people in 1938 were less so, because war had been at least postponed for the time being. Besides, the only people who seemed to want war over that “faraway country” were perceived as discredited war-mongers like Winston Churchill.