Howzat! A history lesson

rates are lower in Sweden (3,315 per million) in comparison with the UK (3,825) and the death rate in Sweden (396 per million) is considerably lower than that of the UK (542 per million).

Sweden did not have a complete lockdown and treated its citizens as adults, trusting in their common sense to follow the guidelines issued by the government. This seems to have paid off and their economy has not collapsed, unlike the situation that currently prevails within the UK.

This begs the question – did we in the UK follow the wrong advice? Time will tell, but a whole generation may have been thrown on the scrapheap on the basis of a flawed premise.

Pauline Campbell

Paisley

I GREATLY enjoyed Sandra Dick’s article “Howzat?” in The Herald on Sunday (May 24). While the author asserts that the last occasion when the Allahakbarries cricket team competed was in a celebratory match against West of Scotland in early June 1930, I respectfully beg to differ as I had the good fortune to play in a more recent Allahakbarries match.

As shown in the attached match programme (price 3d), the “Festival Cricket Match” on Sunday, May 1, 1960, was played between Allahakbarries and Forfarshire CC. While my brother Alistair (ARD) played for the former, I played for Forfarshire under the captaincy of Scottish internationalist JD Henderson.

I do not recollect any details of the contest but I clearly recall that, in keeping with JM Barrie’s cricketing eccentricity described in Sandra Dick’s article, the captains tossed in the middle not with the conventional coin but with a postage stamp. As it was quite a windy day this caused some difficulty and not a little hilarity.

It is a pity that the match planned for the 90th anniversary of the cricket pavilion and the 160th anniversary of Barrie’s birth has had to be postponed until next year when I hope I may be able to attend. I hope too that, in the interests of authenticity, “the toss” will feature a postage stamp.

Neil Bowman

Forfar