Back into bat - with safety precautions
New rules as training starts again at Victory Park
Meigle Cricket Club’s players made their way back into bat last week as practice sessions got back under way.
Training sessions using the nets have restarted at Victory Park, albeit with coronavirusrelated safety measures in place.
The Black and Golds have praised the “excellent guidance” provided by governing body Cricket Scotland in recent weeks.
Rules stipulate players must wash their hands at home before driving to the ground and use hand sanitiser on arrival and departure.
Balls must be kicked back to the bowler or knocked back in the style of a field hockey player to ensure only the bowler handles the ball.
Only Meigle’s first, second and third XI players have resumed at this stage, and it is hoped further guidance on when junior training can resume will be made available this week.
The Strathmore and Perthshire Cricket Union has been slower than colleagues in Edinburgh to lead on the arrangement of fixtures but it is hoped a quasi-competitive calendar can run later in the year.
Clubs who do not have to share their premises with other sports clubs are being highlighted as venues for late autumn t20 and six-a-side competitions.
A Meigle CC spokesperson said: “Players will always enjoy the odd friendly but the competitive action will always get the pulses going that bit more and it must be hoped, as matters improve in these trying times, that some silverware can be contested – even if leagues are held over to 2021, as was stated with clarity by the governing body in the spring.”
Meanwhile, Meigle’s Peter J Drummond recently featured on the ‘Halfway up Middle’ cricket podcast.
It is hosted by former Scotland player Matty Parker, who forged a strong club career at Forfarshire as a middle order batsman after leaving his home club Arbroath prior to making his return.
Co-host is Liam Sweeney, a left-arm spin bowler who now plies his trade for a rejuvenated Strathmore after several fruitful years with Forfarshire in Broughty Ferry.
The episode takes in Drummond’s thoughts on
Scottish cricket, his time at Forfarshire and notable moments during his time with Meigle.
These include captaining the Black and Golds to the title in 2001 and being at the crease when the league was also won at Countesswells in 2014.
It also focuses on last September’s historic EPL playoff victory at Scroggie Park and features the Strathmore and Perthshire Union League ‘team of the decade’, from 2010-19.
The podcast is out every Monday and can be found online by searching for ‘Halfway up Middle’.