Photo credit: Ian Potts
Last Saturday, April 25, reigning CSL Eastern Premiership champions ion8 Forfarshire were due to begin their title defence with a tasty looking clash away at Carlton.
Due to the current COVID-19 situation that trip from Broughty Ferry to Grange Loan in Edinburgh, like everything else in life, rightly took a back seat.
The match was set to be played seven days before all of the other teams in the league were due to get their season underway so as to free up time for Forfs to head to La Manga in Spain in late May and early June to represent Scotland in the exciting European Cricket League.
Unsurprisingly, that event too has been put on the back burner which has left the Forfarshire players twiddling their thumbs rather than beginning what was shaping up to be a very exciting summer.
However, the squad is trying to keep spirits high with regular chats via various social media and video messaging apps and Scott Cameron, the 2020 first XI skipper, has had time to look back on an amazing 12 months for him personally.
The right-arm seamer, who played two ODIs for Scotland in 2018, led the attack superbly for the Forthill outfit last summer as they won the top-flight title, the Grand Final against Uddingston and then crowned an amazing summer by winning the national Murgitroyd T20 title in Dumfries.
And, just before lockdown began in the UK in March, Scott returned from a number of months playing abroad in Australia with Subiaco Floreat Cricket Club in Perth.
“Obviously we would rather be playing cricket right now, when you look out of the window and see how sunny it has been of late it is frustrating, but there are much more important things than sport and this period has allowed me time to take a step back and look at the last year or so,” the 23-year-old Caledonian Highlanders man stated.
“At the start of last summer at Forfarshire we knew that we had a squad that could compete for trophies.
“We had a squad with a good balance in it including a number of guys with a lot of cricket behind them and a good crop of young talent. There was a good feeling in the group right from the opening weeks and we just built from there.
“To consistently perform in different events and win three trophies in the end was a big thrill for all of us.
“I have been at the club since I was young and have been in and around the first team for a few years so it was a special time.”
More special times were to come for Scott soon after because he headed off Down Under to play.
At the Subiaco Floreat club he found a great environment while, when he was in the southern hemisphere, he was named Forfs captain to succeed Umair Mohammed and the first XI were named Team of the Year at the Dundee Sports Awards.
“At the age and stage I am at in my career I felt like a season abroad playing some really tough cricket was just what I needed and thankfully that proved to be right,” the man who has most recently been working with Perth and Kinross Cricket said.
“I was playing first grade cricket and it was a really good standard especially when the state players were back in the mix.
“My all round game came on during my time over there, I had to learn to adapt more to bowling in different types of conditions and in different types of matches and I really was looking forward to coming back and getting things going in the Eastern Premiership.
“That is not to be for now, but to have been named captain at 23 is a big honour for me and I am excited about leading the boys out whenever in the future that may be.
“We are all obviously staying in our respective homes at the minute and getting our daily exercise in when we can while the boys are all keeping in touch and are itching to play cricket again whenever we are told that it is safe to do so.”
You can find out more about Scott Cameron’s winter in Australia here.
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