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.
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