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

79 1960 also brought another element into cricket. For many decades, Great Britain, and the MCC in particular, had put its head in the sand so as not to see what was going on in South Africa. But other people didn’t. Just as the 1960 season was about to begin and with Jackie McGlew’s team of Springboks preparing to fly rather than sail (another sign of the times) to England for their tour, there occurred at a place called Sharpeville, a massacre of about 89 black South Africans who were protesting peacefully about some new laws which were designed to strengthen the system known as apartheid. This shocking event brought matters home to people in Great Britain who had previously pretended not to notice. The South African tour was a very unhappy experience for everyone with some of the South African players visibly shocked and upset when they were barracked for their Government’s apartheid policy. Clichés like “don’t bring politics into sport” were heard frequently, but this was an issue that would not go away. The form of the South Africans was poor, and they were also badly affected by the storm of controversy surrounding their fast bowler Geoff Griffin who, in the opinion of several English Umpires and most journalists, was a “chucker” – an issue that was already a very live one in world cricket with England still sore about the 1958/59 tour when Ian Meckiff had been similarly accused of throwing. For the Strathmore Union, 1960 was dominated by the inability to play the final of the Three Counties Cup and the eventual decision of the Union to withhold the Cup. Strathmore and Aberdeen University reached the final, but unfortunately the game was rained off in early July. There then arose a problem of arranging a date. Strathmore suggested any night in the last week of July, but the University were involved in games against other University sides that week. This took us into August. It was generally agreed that a midweek evening fixture in August is problematic because of the lack of light, so Aberdeen University offered Sunday 7th August with an afternoon kick-off. The snag there was that it was the Forfar Trades Holiday and, in addition, Strathmore’s professional Nigel Hazel had already been given permission to play on a tour of Great Britain for his native Bermuda at that time, and Strathmore refused to play, offering instead the first week in September – something that was felt to be too late by the Union Committee. Neither club emerged from thus undignified wrangling with any great credit, for no-onewas prepared to budge, and theManagement Committee