This weekend stages the final league games for the merry month of May. As it stands the following teams remain unbeaten on a Saturday:

Tunnock’s Uddingston, Prestwick, PSL Team Sports Clydesdale , McCrea FS West of Scotland, Ayr, Irvine, Croma Vigilant Dumfries, East Renfrewshire, GHK, Motherwell, Cavaliers, GHK Strathclyde, Kirkstyle and Titwood. Who will remain unbeaten for the month?

Also in April and May there has only been one player disciplinary report from Saturday league games – keep it up as that is the way it should be!!

It should also be remembered that as of this weekend penalty points will be deducted for those clubs and teams that do not complete the following accurately and in time.

• The short and long scorecards
• The captain’s report (make sure all non-umpired games are marked too.  You are required to assess your opponent’s collective team umpiring!!)
• The fair play score.

Next week’s club update will focus on the fair play scores. We will find out how your team’s behaviour and playing in the spirit of the game has been marked by your opponents in this season so far….I wonder who will be at the top and bottom of the pile!

Iain Kennedy, Administrator

On a weekend that produced several bad news stories in terms of player behaviour and teams not playing in the spirit of the game I received a ‘nice’ email form Bernie Mitchell from Hillhead. I thought I would share it with you…

WDCU DIVISION 2 – 11th MAY 2019
GAVIN GEMMELL
We are all getting on.. perhaps an obvious thought but in the context of umpiring it is one which now amazes !! Yesterday I watched Gavin umpire on his own for total of just under 70 overs at Gatehouse . Naturally he was rather “slow” between ends, BUT otherwise he gave a first class performance.

He commanded the respect of ALL the players and did not appear to put a “foot“ wrong. Amazing; and also he drove to the game from Ayr and back again on his own. All of this at the tender age of EIGHTY!!!

Gavin is deserving of an end of season award if he continues like this.

Yours sincerely,

Bernie Mitchell 

Secretary/Scorer Hillhead Cricket Club

It would be nice to post something similar next week.

Iain Kennedy, Administrator

Good weather this weekend and pretty much every game on. Everyone is now getting the short scores and extended scorecards in right on time so please keep it up. Captains are also reminded to complete their umpire reports and fair play scores.

Please note that this will be the last bedding in weekend for the new process and failure to properly complete these forms on time will attract 5 penalty points.

Please remember that in games where there are no umpires the captain should assess the umpiring of the opposing team in its entirety. captains are reminded to do this as failure to do so will attract a 5 point penalty.

Finally the fair play scores took a big dip this weekend and there were several reports made to WDCU.

I would urge all clubs to constantly remind captains and players of their responsibility to behave well and play within the Spirit of the Game.

Iain Kennedy, Administrator

A better weekend weather-wise for cricket so lots of games played. The fair play system is now working well and scores are coming in. The bad news is that one team scored a 1 so that is disappointing!! A full update will be provided at the end of the month so please constantly feed in the message that player behaviour and playing in the Spirit of the Game are important.

Captains are reminded to complete the fair play form and their captain’s reports every week. One thing to make sure happens is that the correct umpire name is included in the form. I had a couple of errors this week!!

Captains are also reminded that if you have no umpires that they should mark in a score for the overall umpiring performance of the opposition team in the captain’s report. It’s important to find out if there are any teams not umpiring fairly!!

After a few teething problems with passwords for the cricket stats website are all working and we are now pretty much at full capacity for short and long score entry. The issue with the bonus points is now sorted!

Can I remind all clubs of their responsibility to pay umpire match fees. This should be done by each team (one each) and immediately after the game at the latest. Umpires should not have to come and ask!

Iain Kennedy, Administrator

With only a few games played on Saturday (and the week before) the requirement for all clubs to submit a captain’s report and the fair play assessment of their opponents has not been fully tested. Please remember that this is now ‘compulsory for all Saturday league games with or without umpires’!!

In the fair play scores received well done to EBC Drumpellier, Glasgow Accies , Cambusdoon and Torrance House who were all rated as a top mark 5 by their opponents.

Thankfully there were no 1s or 2s and any in those categories in future weeks will be named and a monthly league table published.  There were however  a couple of 3s so plenty of room for improvement.

All clubs should ensure they complete these forms and if you have missed last weeks go back and fill it in!

Please remember that failure to complete these forms ever  week will result in a 5 point penalty.

More updates next week!

It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the passing of Con de Lange after a very brave battle against brain cancer. Con was an inspiration, mentor and friend to cricketers in the west and throughout Scotland but in particular to all at Clydesdale and Ferguslie where he was an extremely popular professional and coach. Condolences are sent to Claire, Daisy, Rory and all his family and friends.

Iain Kennedy Administrator.

Please see below a link to the new Vision aims and values being promoted by the WDCU. This will be shared with all WDCU Clubs at tonight’s EGM.  This leadership document outlines a clear vision of what WDCU working with others is trying to achieve and how we would like to go about it.  Information posters have been designed and will be distributed to all clubs for display in club rooms. More information to follow in the coming days:

WDCU Vision Statement 2019 – Final with Logo

The WDCU is keen to increase the number of quality umpires standing in games in the west of Scotland. We are also keen to improve the standard of player umpires in games where no umpires are available. One way you can do either of these is to enrol and complete the MCC on-line Laws of Cricket course. The link for the course is below.  You can work your way through the training opportunity and complete an assessment at the end.  Once you have completed the assessment please send a copy of your certificate to the WDCU at: admin@wdcu.co.uk.

https://laws.lords.org/login/index.php

EastEnders – cricket in Dennistoun

by David Gordon

There has been much discussion in recent years regarding the demise of grassroots cricket clubs in the west of Scotland, with more than 25 disappearing over the past 30 years.

The precursor of this sad decline, however, was the loss of the Golfhill Cricket Club, based in the Dennistoun area of Glasgow’s East End. This was no ‘small club’, however. This was an organisation that had employed a professional and groundsman into the 1950s, had a ground in Meadowpark that possessed a wicket widely regarded as one of the best batting tracks in Scotland, and in the 1930s and 1940s could attract crowds in excess of 5,000 to matches. At one time it was the strongest side in the west of Scotland outwith the ten Western Union clubs.

Yet it quietly ceased to exist and its passing went relatively unnoticed as the swinging sixties ended. Golfhill’s demise, although, in hindsight, a lesson from history, had been long forgotten when a similar fate befell established clubs like Kirkcaldy and Dunbartonshire more than a quarter-century later, followed by the downfall and disappearance of Perthshire, the one-time colossus of the Scottish game.

My own interest in Golfhill was sparked by my researches into Scottish cricket internationalists who had also been professional footballers, with one such player – Horace Wass – having been Golfhill’s professional in the 1930s and the only player from the Golfhill club capped for Scotland. This led me to the late Tom Frood, a team-mate of Wass’s in the pre-war Golfhill side.

Frood had followed the usual path of the time into the Golfhill 1st XI, learning the rudiments of the game at the nearby Whitehill Secondary School before moving seamlessly to the Golfhill 2nd XI.

Sadly, Tom Frood did not possess a photograph of cricket being played on Meadowpark, and searches at various Glasgow libraries and on the internet had proven fruitless…until now. Bizarrely, a deltiologist in Sweden, dealing in old postcards, in January 2019 placed for sale on the Swedish website tradera, a postcard from 1912 depicting a cricket match in progress at Meadowpark, overlooked by the red sandstone tenements of Onslow Drive.

Interestingly, the picture confirms that the wicket at Meadowpark was pitched on an east-west axis, between Cumbernauld Road and Meadowpark Street. The ground sloped down from north (Onslow Drive) to south (the Dennistoun Juveniles football ground), meaning the wicket was on a gradient comparable with the Lord’s slope. The wooden pavilion was at the north-west of the ground, on the corner of Meadowpark Street and Onslow Drive.

Formed in 1896, Golfhill took its name from the house owned by the Dennistoun family, who had given their name to the district which they had developed earlier in the 19th century. The Dennistouns provided the land (a disused coup), which was turned into Golfhill’s fine cricket ground – Meadowpark.

The new Golfhill club quickly usurped the existing Dennistoun Cricket Club; Golfhill had been ambitious right from the outset, as noted in the following two pieces in The Scottish Referee; firstly from Friday 3 April 1896:

“A new club – Golfhill CC – has been started in Dennistoun, and is meeting with every support…  They have a fine large open field, and have laid a wicket, some 40 yards long, with turf. A fine pavilion with all accommodation and all conveniences is in the course of erection and altogether it looks as if this club has come to stay. Already they have a large membership…”

A year later, on Friday 2 April 1897:

“Last year was their first season, and they finished it with a balance in hand, and when it is considered that they built a pavilion at a cost of about £160, laid down a turfed pitch of about 800 square yards, besides providing all the best playing material, they think it a very good record for a new club.”

The strength of the Golfhill is exemplified in the Glasgow Herald of 2 May 1928:

“One of the most enterprising clubs in the Glasgow district is Golfhill, and nowhere is there a more enthusiastic and larger band of supporters than at Dennistoun. Further evidence of progress at Meadowpark is to be found in the fact that the pavilion has been reconstructed and improved in every way. The outfield has received special attention, and the wicket is in very fine condition.”

Founder members of the Glasgow and District League – and champions in 1956 – Golfhill, sadly, went into rapid decline in the late 1960s, dropping to Division Two of the Glasgow and District League. Repeated acts of mindless vandalism to their ground and its gas-lit, wooden pavilion caused the club to fold at the end of the 1969 season. The last competitive match at the Meadowpark ground was on Saturday 6 September 1969, Golfhill defeating Renfrew by five wickets. The Meadowpark ground and its once highly-regarded wicket, formerly graced by cricketing legends like Jack Hobbs and Learie Constantine, was only leased to the Golfhill club by Glasgow’s Education Department. With cricket’s demise in Dennistoun, Glasgow Corporation announced in January 1972 that the former cricket ground would be the site of the new Whitehill Secondary School and swimming pool, with construction commencing on the once-hallowed Meadowpark turf in 1973.

Ironically, given the production line of cricketing talent that fed into Golfhill CC from Whitehill Secondary, the replacement Whitehill school now sits on what was once the cricket square. While you would never know that cricket had once been played there, the football ground at the southern end of Meadowpark still remains, nicely levelled and with a new astroturf surface.

Cricket Scotland has announced a new campaign, #Beanies4BrainTumours, with the aim of raising £3,500 across the club network for the Brain Tumour Charity through purchasing charity beanies and wearing them on the first game of the season.

What is #Beanies4BrainTumours?

On the first game of the cricket season, we invite clubs to purchase customised beanies to wear in the field during their first competitive game. The beanies, designed in partnership with Brain Tumour Charity, help show your support and raise money for the Brain Tumour Charity – which is a charity very close to the heart of Cricket Scotland. Our goal is to raise £3,500 which could fund two weeks of research for one of the Brain Tumour Charity’s leading brain tumour researchers to improve understanding and provide more targeted treatments.

Why is Cricket Scotland doing this?

In 2018, news of Scotland all-rounder Con de Lange’s brain tumour was made public. Since then, the community has rallied in support to raise vital funds for the Brain Tumour Charity. The Brain Tumour Charity is at the forefront of the fight to defeat brain tumours, making a difference every day to the lives of people with a brain tumour and their families. It funds pioneering research to increase survival, raises awareness of the symptoms and effects of brain tumours and provides support for everyone affected.

How can my club get involved?

To show your support for Con de Lange and the Brain Tumour Charity, you just need to take a look at the attached information pack, let us know how many beanies you would like to order and our team will do the rest. In addition to the beanies, we encourage clubs to hold a small fundraiser to raise additional funds. The Brain Tumour Charity will provide you with a free pack to do so which includes information on the charity, branding materials to decorate your clubhouse and fundraising ideas. If interested in holding your own fundraising event alongside #Beanies4BrainTumours, all you need to do is visit the Brain Tumour Charity’s website by clicking this link: Hold Your Own Fundraising Event

We hope your club will join us in raising £3,500 to help fund two weeks of vital research.

https://www.cricketscotland.com/beanies-4-brain-tumours/

NOTES

Websites:

Cricket Scotland: www.cricketscotland.com
The Brain Tumour Charity: www.thebraintumourcharity.org
Cricket Scotland’s JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cricket-scotland-brain-tumour-charity

The Brain Tumour Charity is at the forefront of the fight to defeat brain tumours, making a difference every day to the lives of people with a brain tumour and their families. It funds pioneering research to increase survival, raises awareness of the symptoms and effects of brain tumours and provides support for everyone affected.

Keep up-to-date with the #Beanies4BrainTumours campaign:

Website: www.cricketscotland.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/cricketscotland
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