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

80 of the Union are also worthy of censure for not finding some way out of the predicament by picking a date and saying “You WILL play on this date”. The decision to withhold the trophy looked like “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face” because the final was always a good earner, attracting a large crowd and creating a great deal of interest. In addition it deprived cricket fans of a good game, and it was a blow to the game locally at a time when cricket was beginning to require every bit of positive publicity that it could get. The Two Counties Cup final had no such problems and was won by NCR, while the 1st XI Championship was won by Perthshire XI, and the 2nd XI Championship by Strathmore XI. The Batting Averages were topped by Tom Lodge of Perthshire XI who was now an amateur after years of being professional with the Perthshire County side, and the best Bowling Average was recorded by Eric Brodie of Blairgowrie, a man who would play professional football for Forfar Athletic and Dundee United. The Strathmore Union’s great moment in 1960 came in a representative game when they beat Grange in Edinburgh on 19th June for the first time ever. Previously, the Union’s attitude to such games had been lacklustre and half-hearted, with frequent moans recorded in the Minute Book about how expensive it all was, and players making all sorts of weak excuses in order to become “unavailable for selection”. Not this time, though! Under the captaincy of Strathmore’s Ian Ogilvie, they travelled to Edinburgh and put up a very creditable but by no means unbeatable 174 all out. Then George Myles of Strathmore took over and bowled out six men including a hat trick, as the crack Edinburgh side subsided to 156 all out. Myles earned the applause of the large Edinburgh crowd, and it began to be confidently believed in Forfar that a cap for Scotland would soon be awarded. But, for reasons not easily explained, it never happened for George. It was often believed that he tried too hard in Representative games and bowled too fast. Clearly not this time. 1961 was a vintage year for cricket, made famous by the visit of Richie Benaud’s Australians. Richie Benaud would in time become TV’s best commentator by some distance, but in 1961 he became well loved throughout Great Britain for his team’s sporting but competitive attitude to cricket, notably in that epic Test at Old Trafford when Benaud himself after a summer of disappointment and a recurring shoulder injury, suddenly turned good and spun Australia to an unlikely victory. He bowled