From the archives: Fabulous Freuchie win at Lord's
Freuchie Cricket Club is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its famous National Village Championship victory at Lord's. To mark the occasion, we have been into our printed archives and here bring you the full report from The Courier of September 2, 1985.
How The Courier reported the victory the following day.
They have done it! In the tightest finish in the history of the British Village Championships, Freuchie claimed the title at Lord's yesterday (writes Our Cricket Reporter).
The match was tied, but throughout the last over Freuchie knew they needed only to avoid being bowled out -- and that is exactly what they did.
There were tears from several of the players, not least 'man of the match' Stewart Irvine, as the team tried to come to terms with the win which will put them into the cricket history books as the first Scottish team to lift the title.
The victory -- which was welcomed by Scottish MPs of all political parties -- has turned a team of plasterers and plumbers into virtual national heroes. Make no mistake that was the greatest win Scottish cricket has ever had -- and appropriately enough it came in (their) bicentenary year.
The kilted horde descended on Lord's for one of the most remarkable occasions cricket's most famous ground has ever seen.
Shortly after 11am, Freuchie marched the 100 yards from their headquarters at the Westmoreland Hotel to Lord's.
They were piped through the Grace Gates appropriately to the tune of "Amazing Grace," Pipe-Major Alastair Pirnie leading the side in. A special tune, "Freuchie's March to Lord's," was written for the occasion by John Crawford.
Rowledge had made it quite clear they expected to win and by a large margin, taking a large amount of the pressure off the Scottish side.
The Surrey side even indulged in a bout of pre-match psychological warfare -- untypical of this competition -- by winning the toss shortly after 12 noon, but refusing to tell Freuchie what they were doing until 15 minutes before the match started at 1.30pm.
As ever on Scottish occasions in London the "home" support was comfortably drowned out by the visitors, who cheered their own side out, good humouredly booed the opposition and, a few overs into the game, wished Rowledge opener Bob Simpson well on is return to the pavilion to the strains of "cheerio, cheerio, cheerio."
Indeed it was an impressive turnout with around 3000 spectators in the ground, described by one regular observer as "more than Middlesex get for a lot of home matches."
Included in that number was one former Freuchie man, who was born two years before the club was formed.
Andrew Lawrie (77), now of Auchtermuchty, made his debut for the side in 1926 and has followed them throughout this competition.
He was the oldest Freuchie supporter at the match, just outstripping the dad of "Dad," the father of Freuchie skipper Dave Christie, also Dave, who was a year behind Andrew at Freuchie Primary 70 years ago.
"I've followed the team ever since I first played for them and this is the greatest day in my memory," said the man whose memories of the club extend long before there was such a thing as village championships.
Andrew was one of 500 Freuchie supporters who left the village, which has a population of under 1500, in mass exodus on Saturday night.
Also in that vast party was the youngest Freuchie fan to come to Lord's -- a baby who will never remember the greatest day in the village's history. At nine months old Callum Glasgow, of Glenrothes, was taken to Lord's despite his father's protest.
"I banned them from taking the wee lad to the game but my wife pointed out that she'd brought him along to every match so far and there was no way he was missing the final," said Tom Glasgow, brother-in-law of Freuchie wicketkeeper Alan Duncan.
"It's a great day though and even though he'll not be able to remember it he'll be able to say he was there the day Freuchie went to Lord's."
All-rounder Terry Trewartha (35) was back for his second village final in under a dozen years. In 1974 he was the "throwing the cricket ball" champion at the Lord's final.
"This is just completely different, then I was an individual. This is so much more important," he said at the halfway stage, after Freuchie had bowled out their opponents for 134 -- Terry playing the major role with four wickets.
After the game Terry, who doubles as team coach, was jubilant. There aren't many players who can claim to be a winner twice at Lord's.
Dave Christie, the winning skipper, only just missed out on being at the crease at the end.
"I'm finding it difficult to describe how I feel," said "Dad" immediately after the game. "I was a wee bit disappointed not to be able to be there at the finish, but I knew George and Brian could see us through the last over."
Stewart Irvine (21) won the "man of the match award" for a brilliant fielding performance and his side's second top score, a hard-hit 24.
He wasn't far from tears when presented with his bat for winning that nomination.
Rowledge could do little to hide their disappointment at the end, but they had alays looked a side who felt they needed only to turn up at Lord's to win the title.
This was Freuchie's finest hour -- and the celebrations started in earnest in the dressing-room and continued on to the hotel last night.
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