FALKLAND, stumped in their Village Cricket Competition ambitions --

they were branded too good and given out by the organisers -- have

protested to the Scottish Cricket Union.

The Fife club's members, at their annual meeting last Sunday,

unanimously found their exclusion, enforced by The Cricketer magazine,

''to be totally unacceptable,'' and a strong letter has been sent to the

magazine's chairman, Ben Brocklehurst. But the SCU, while sympathetic,

admitted yesterday that they have no locus to intervene.

Alex Ritchie, general manager of the SCU, said: ''It seems Falkland

are truly within the spirit, but not the letter of the rules. It bothers

me that an enterprising and ambitious club, who enlist the services of

someone to improve coaching -- not a match-winner or hired assassin --

should be penalised in this way.''

Though they have still to arrange a work permit, Falkland plan to have

Pakistani Manoj Parmar next year, and although he would not have played

in the competition, the retention of his services is enough to condemn

the second-division East League side -- even though Freuchie play in

division one.

The rules state that no club who paid anyone to play cricket last

season can play in next year's event. Freuchie, winners of the village

competition in 1985, actually fielded Parmar themselves last season,

though the club insisted to the Herald that they did not field anyone

paid to play.

''Several other Scottish clubs play in the competition,'' said

Falkland president Bob Neillis. ''Some, including Freuchie, have been

known to field the groundsman who looks after their wicket. That's fine

by us, but it's a moot point whether people are employed as groundsmen

because of their ability to play cricket.

''We are disappointed at being singled out, and will be pointing out

to The Cricketer that we are being penalised for being honest. We are

not getting at Freuchie -- they are only three miles down the road from

us, and I am an honourary member. Their president, Dave Christie, has

been offered honourary membership by us. It is all a bit embarrassing.''

Ritchie, a member of Meigle who also play in the village competition,

said: ''I would not like to comment on this, lest I prejudice the case

of other clubs. But it is absurd to oust Falkland when you look at some

of the other teams in the competition.''

* THE International Olympic Committee and British Olympic Association

could be sucked into a compensation battle in the wake of the reprieve

for the two UK weightlifters sent home from Barcelona.

The IOC is now reappraising its anti-doping procedures while the BOA

insist they will ''vigourously defend'' any legal action against them by

the pair.

BOA media director Caroline Searle, speaking from Mexico, confirmed

that should Andrew Saxton and Andrew Davies proceed with claims for

compensation, they would make ''a strong response, and documentary

evidence would be led in support.''

The two lifters admit to having used clenbuterol before being sent

home, but in contravention of the doping rules, they did not admit to

doing so before they were tested. They also stated before returning home

that they would not be appealing, and waived analysis of the B sample.

Yet now the lifters, who claim to have used the drug to combat asthma

and a ''tight chest,'' have absolved the British Amateur Weightlifting

Association from any blame or possibility of legal action for

compensation.

Leading anti-doping expert, professor Arnold Beckett, testified that

clenbuterol is not an anabolic agent as stated on the list of banned

substances.

The IOC, whose list of banned substances has been discredited by the

escape from suspension of the two lifters, is now looking to tighten

anti-doping procedures. They will have legal advice in doing so, for

they, too, face expensive litigation.

The world governing body of athletics, the IAAF, is already being sued

in the US courts for #40m by world 400 metres record holder Butch

Reynolds, and if Katrin Krabbe (another clenbuterol user) escapes her

ban, the IAAF would face a further, and potentially bigger lawsuit from

the German.

* THEY were a hardy breed, the old Springburn Harriers. Just how hardy

has emerged as the club, the first in Scotland to boast their own

clubrooms, has unearthed historic details in preparation for celebration

of their centenary next year.

One photograph, dated 1919, shows the clubrooms -- Springburn had the

first in Scotland -- off Auchinairn Road, beside The Curlers' Pond. The

curlers stored their stones in the harriers' club rooms, and in return,

the curlers' wives would make soup for the harriers after races. Water

for washing was drawn from the pond, and in winter, the ice was broken

and buckets ferried back to the clubrooms.

Anyone who has any photos, press cuttings, trophies, or other

memorabilia connected with Springburn Harriers, should contact the club

historian, Sam McComas, 1 Gainburn Court, Condorrat, Cumbernauld, G67

4QG.