James Lillywhte's Cricketers' Annual 1884

C R I C K E TI N S C O T L A N D . 3 3 Havingmentioned the chief clubs of the Edinburgh district , we shall now say a few words about those of Glasgow and its neighbourhood . W eregret to say that there are only two cricket clubs in Glasgow of any pretentions . It is not hard to find the reasons for this scarcity of clubs among so large a population . It is no doubt in a great measure due to the difficulty and expense of securing good grounds in a convenient situation . But there are other reasons as well . The great majority of the inhabitants of the city are actively engaged in commerce, and they have not time enough at their disposal to makeit worth their while to play cricket . Another reason is to be foundin the fact, that in the s u m m e rmonths, Glasgowcitizens take houses at the coast , and in the country , and the very class one would expect to play cricket are , therefore , absent from Glasgow in the cricket season . The West of Scotland C.C. is the chief cricket club in Glasgow. It has a very good ground in a rising suburb of the city-a ground which would long ago have been used for building purposes , had it belonged to any ordinary landlord . Luckily , though , for the cricket of Glasgow, it is the property of Colonel Carrick Buchanan, C.B., whohas done more for Scottish cricket than any other m a n. The only other club in Glasgow, which plays matches regularly , is the Clydesdale C.C. , whose ground is situated on the South side of the Clyde , a long w a yfrom the centre of the city . Notfar from Glasgow is the town of Coatbridge , and in its immediate neighbourhood is the ground of the Drumpellier C.C. This club , which owes its existence to the energy and munificence of Colonel Carrick Buchanan, plays the keenest cricket in Scotland . One advantage it has over all the other Scotch clubs is, that it nearly always puts the same eleven into the field , and thus the menplay well together . Out of a considerable card the Drumpellier C.C. only lost one match, namely, that against Lasswade, and in this match they were only beaten by a single run. Drumpellier is an artisan team, and if w ehad a few more clubs like it in Scotland , we might think of playing England on even terms . Their fielding is nearly faultless , and their bowling not only of great variety , but of a high class . Their great weakness is in their batting . With one or two exceptions they have not a really good bat in their team, their matches being nearly always wonby the low scoring of their opponents , consequent on the good bowling and fielding of Drumpellier . But this weakness in batting is not so conspicuous as it was some years ago, and w ehope that in a season or two some of their team will improve muchin this respect. It is a great pity that the members of this club cannot find time to play more two-day matches. The system of one-day matches , which are decided on the first innings , is a very unsatisfactory one, and prevents manygood matchesbeing finished at all ; but w e regret to say that north of the T w e e d there are very few two-day matches, and three -day matches are absolutely unknown, except when an English or Australian team happens to play in Scotland . There are not manycricket clubs in the North of Scotland , and none of themare as strong as the best clubs of Edinburgh or Glasgow. The most noteworthy of the Northern clubs are the Aberdeenshire , Northern Counties , Forfarshire , Perthshire , and Stirling County Cricket Clubs . In the Southof Scotlandthe clubs are morenumerous, and the cricket is somewhat better than that of the North ; Dumfries, Roxburgh County, Kelso , Selkirk and Berwick Cricket Clubs are the best in this part of Scotland . O f the Universities of Scotland , Edinburgh University alone has a cricket club worthy of mention. The great majority of their members are English- m e n, who come to the University to study medicine . The Edinburgh University C.C. has a very nice ground at Corstorphine , about ten minutes b y train from Edinburgh, and here they play a fair numberof matches . In these they are fairly successful , but their cricket is poor indeed , compared to that of Oxfordor Cambridge. InScottish School cricket , Loretto easily carries off the palm. This school C