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

49 took place, and the League was won by Strathmore, something they had not achieved before the war. The club had clearly got off on the right foot since the war with appointment of Davie McLean as President and of Fred Mann, the Classics teacher of Forfar Academy and a former player for Arbroath as Vice-President. A major change since before the war was that games were now allowed to be played on a Sunday, something that attracted a surprising lack of criticism from bodies like the Church. A few letters of disapproval found their way into local newspapers, but there was no sustained campaign from any religious zealots, other than from the occasional crackpot who complained that God was most unhappy at this sinister turn of events. Voting for a Labour Government first, and now playing cricket on a Sunday! What were things coming to? Before thewar, there had been the occasional game (normally a Charity game) played on a Sunday, but the cracks in the dyke had now been replaced by the flood removing the entire dyke. Nor is there any indication of a decision beingmade, either at Governmental or Strathmore Union level to change procedure vis-a-vis Sunday play. It just, as it were, slipped in and the benefits to cricket were immediately apparent. On Sunday 23rd June 1946, for example, The Courier talks of a crowd of 1,200 paying £40 to watch Strathmore take on Brechin at Lochside Park; the Forfar crowd being particularly delighted with the 8 wicket victory for Strathmore, and in particular the 8/17 figures returned by star man Henderson. A school master by profession, his name was James Douglas Henderson, but he preferred to be known as JD, possibly in conscious and flattering comparison to football’s “JD”, the great Jimmy Delaney, the man who had won the Victory International for Scotland that spring. The League was won by Strathie at Seafield, the home of Gordonians on 31st August in a thrilling game won with only 6 minutes to spare. There had been a certain amount of friction between the two sides when Jock Farquharson of Strathmore had been given out “hit wicket” when felled after being hit on the jaw by a bumper from George Youngson. This, and the fact that Strathmore had only reached 70 made victory seem unlikely but Gordonians could only manage 64 with Henderson taking a “five for”, although perhaps the damage was done when the dangerous RHE Chisholm was run out for 6. The Forfar Dispatch chortled, not least because of the financial success