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

58 did not allow Sunday fixtures. It was thus more or less impossible to re- arrange games which had been rained off: the movement to a percentage basis was realistic and indeed necessary. The weather in 1948 had not been as great as in 1947, no team had been able to play all its 20 fixtures, and Meigle had played as few as 15. On the other hand, at the same AGM, a bizarre motion fromMontrose that every Maiden Over should be rewarded by 6 runs to the bowling side failed to find any favour whatsoever. It was indeed odd, and jokes were made to the effect that as Montrose was close to Sunnyside Hospital, the local “asylum” for mental patients, it was not only febrile conditions like measles and chickenpox that were infectious! There was however another wise move towards the arranging of fixtures before the start of the season by what was called the “Emergency Committee” and Mr Laing of Brechin was beginning to get concerned about the use of what are now called “ringers” or “guest players” or “Johnny-come-latelies” who suddenly appeared for important fixtures. He appealed to all clubs to ensure that all their players were “bona fide” members of their clubs. If those who voted for the “percentage” idea rather than “points” thought that there would be more chance of a clear winner of the Union, then they were in for a huge disappointment in 1949. On the other hand “disappointment” was the wrong word to use of a terrific season with glorious weather and a three-way tie at the top between Mannofield XI, Perthshire XI and Strathmore. All three teams played 18 games and all ended up with 27 points, a percentage of 150.00. The only difference between the three of them was that Perthshire had won only 11 games and had 5 draws whereas the other two had won 12 games and 3 draws. It did not matter however for each team had 27 points. Had there only been two teams tying, it might have been possible to arrange a play-off, but a three way play-off was clearly impracticable to arrange in September. The issue was, in any case, not decided until as late as 17th September when Mannofield XI defeated Blairgowrie to join Perthshire XI and Strathmore and earn the three-way tie. One wonders what odds one would have got from the local bookmakers for this happening. The matter was much commented on at the AGM with everyone happy that cricket had been the winner in a really exciting season. In fact, these were the boom days of the game with cricket receiving almost as much newspaper space as football did, and crowds of four figures even to see