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

69 Meigle captured the Championship in 1954 bywinning 15 of their 20 games, finishing off in style with an impressive nine wicket victory over Perthshire XI at the now appropriately named Victory Park on 18th September. It was their first ever winning of the Championship, and it owed a great deal to the Batting of Sandy Reid and Peter Drummond with Reid topping the Union Averages with 40.69. JK Young of Strathmore took the Bowling Average prize with a haul of 75 wickets for an average of 5.88. 1955 was generally reckoned to have been a glorious summer – at least for the cricketing fraternity, the rain tended to stay away from Saturdays and Sundays – and the sun certainly shone on Forfar yet again, as Strathmore won both the 1st XI and the 2nd XI competitions with some ease. They were a good 23 percentage points ahead of their nearest challengers Meigle in the 1st Division and in the 2nd Division, they won all 10 games. The winning of the 2nd XI Championship was becoming a regular occurrence for the Strathmore youngsters, although it was often felt that the local Press did not do enough to publicise 2nd XI games, which were, as everyone agreed, very important for the future of the game. Indeed there was a local phrase which went “Is there cricket oan the day, or is it the 2nd eleven?” However it was decided for the following year that there would be a Two Counties Cup (Angus and Perthshire), on the same lines as the Three Counties Cup, specifically for 2nd XI teams. A glance at the Averages for 1955 will not only give us a clue as to why Strathmorewon, butwill alsohint at the reason for sustained future success. Top of the Batting was the new professional Nigel Hazel of Bermuda who had just joined the club from Aberdeenshire where he had been a great favourite. “Chopper”, as he was called, had an astonishing Average of 82.78 and hit 1159 runs in 20 appearances at the wicket. Nigel very soon became a local hero in Forfar, and his continuing success was a perfect counterblast to the rather too many ignorant racists who permeated the town in those days. It was on his return to Mannofield on 23rd July that he hit his highest score of the season, 157. No less significant however in the rise of Strathmore were the 46 wickets taken by George Myles at the average of 7.45. Other bowlers took more wickets, but George conceded only 343 Runs from his 184 Overs, an indication of his superb and reliable accuracy. Strathmore won 17 games out of 21 and lost only 1, and that was on the late date of 3rd September