Sound of leather on willow

Cricket made a return to Stirling in the summer of 1918.

Although the war meant it was four years since Stirling County Cricket Club last pitched stumps at Williamfield, the game surfaced at an unlikely venue.

A team from the Army Ordnance Corp, Forthside, arranged a number of fixtures and played their games at Forthbank in the field where King’s Park Football Club traditionally turned out. These days the area is the site of the B&M store at the corner of Kerse Road and Springbank Road.

The Observer said: “The ground has been rolled and levelled and a good wicket prepared, and we never saw the field looking as well as it is doing just now.”

Because of the war, Army Ordnance Corp had no cricket clubs to compete against but were able to arrange games against teams from the Navy and the other armed services.

The game reported in the Observer saw the AOC line up against a team from the naval base at Granton with the ‘Blue Jackets’ from the Senior Service defeating the home side by 137 runs to 120.

It was a game in which the standard of batting and bowling was better than the fielding. There were a number of overthrows and the innings of both teams were marred by dropped catches.

What won the match for the visitors was “harder hitting and a greater keenness to get runs”.