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

75 but what it lost in excitement, it made up for in controversy, leading to an official complaint at the AGM from the defeated finalists Strathmore against Forthill XI for “negative bowling”. The final was played at Guthrie Park on 26th June. Forthill batted first and hit an impressive 130 for 5 in their allotted 25 Overs with Arnold scoring 59 not out. Strathmore’s innings never really got going with Henderson and Hazel going cheaply and they were well short at 95 for 7 when the innings closed. Whether it was a case of sour grapes or not, Strathmore then brought a complaint about “negative bowling”. This seems to have been aimed at West Indies professional Clairmonte Depeiaza, a well known character who had played for the West Indies Test team (mainly as wicket keeper) and indeed took part in a Test Match record stand for the 7th wicket against Australia. This happened in May 1955 at Bridgetown, Barbados, when he and Atkinson put on 348 before Depeiaza was bowled by Richie Benaud. He had been the wicket keeper for the West Indies in that game, but he played for Forfarshire and Forthill XI as a bowler, on one occasion notoriously running out a non-striking batsman for “backing up”. He was a tall man and commonly referred to as “the leaning tower of Depeiaza”. He was a real character about whom stories tended to accumulate. On this occasion, the complaint against him seemed to be that he was bowling wide balls to prevent Strathmore’s batsmen getting runs. 1957 was, of course, long before the day of “tight wides” or “profile wides”, the only criterion for calling a Wide being whether the ball was “outwith the batsman’s reach”. The ball would go down the offside, and the offside of the field would be packed with fielders (in 1957, there was no restriction on field positioning). There did not seem to be any complaint about the performance of the neutral Umpires and the complaint seemed to be on the grounds of unfair play. There was little that the AGM could do about it, for it stressed that everything was done under the MCC Laws of Cricket. The Cup stayed at Forthill but Depeiaza never became the darling of Forfar. Possibly the darling of Forfar at this time was George Myles, one time Sergeant in the Black Watch when he was doing his National Service. It was Myles who won the League for Strathmore with his 60 wickets at 6.90 (he won the Bowling Averages yet again) and he had a creditable Batting Average of 28.72. He had some very fine performances, not least 6 for