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

61 this was about we do not know but it seems that Blairgowrie may not have been able to raise a team and cancelled the game claiming adverse weather conditions. In the context of the 1949 season and given the late date, Perthshire XI may have felt that if the game had been played, they could have won the League outright. On the other hand, they might have lost. In any case, the matter was dropped. 1950 brought the 20th century to the half-way mark, and also gave England a rather uncomfortable reminder that the cricketing world was no longer theirs. (They were also beginning to realise that the geopolitical world was no longer the property of the British Empire either and had fallen into the hands of the two superpowers). The West Indies came to England and beat them on their home grounds for the first time ever. In particular the Lord’s Test caused a certain amount of angst to those who felt that Britannia should still rule the waves. The defeat was caused, not by West Indies pace – that would come later in the century – but by the two spin twins of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, and Lord’s in particular was treated to the spectacle of Caribbean dancing from some not particularly heavily-clad West Indies young women and calypso singers praising “these two little pals of mine, Ramadhin and Valentine”. Far from the cricketing revolution that was taking place in London, it was Strathmore’s professional Aston Powe who won the Union for his side in 1950, topping the Batting Averages with 42.21 and taking 83 wickets at an average of 6.24. Strathie lost one game and won the League by a considerable distance with second placeMeigle some 60 percentage points behind. Harris Academy FPs had been admitted to the Second Division and duly won it, but could not be presented with a Cup because it had been “lost and had not been seen for some years”. At the AGM, Dundee High School FPs were admitted. The Three Counties Cup was retained by Gordonians against Meigle in somewhat contentious circumstances, not so much because of the game itself as the date which had required a meeting of the Emergency Committee to decide. Both teams had turned awkward about arranging a date between themselves. The Committee fixed the game for Brechin on 19th July, and although Gordonians played “under protest”, they nevertheless won the final which now lasted 25 Overs each, any idea of a time game being abandoned. Presumably, the objection of Gordonians to the date was because of player