The Breadalbane Cricket Club was formed in 1869. The Earl Of Breadalbane, who was its patron, supplied all the requisites for the game and granted a piece of ground on the East Park.
For the first few years the team's matches were principally against local clubs, such as Garth, Kenmore and Castle Menzies, but after these formative years fixtures were arranged against all the leading Perthshire Clubs, with whom Breadalbane could more than hold there own.
The Harrower Five
In 1879 the Club played about dozen matches, and were defeated only once. The team was made up of no less than 5 members of the Harrower family and JC Fyfe, JK Duff, WR Stewart, William McDonald, JC Campbell, John Menzies, John McNaughton and Charles Cameron.
Around 1879 the Hon. Ivan Campbell, brother of Lord Breadalbane, presented a bat for the best average of the season, and continued to do this for a number of years. This presentation bat was of the best quality available and was adorned with a silver plate on the reverse, engraved with the name of the donor and recipients details. Among the early winners were JC Fyfe, John Harrower, Peter McPherson and JC Campbell.
One of the club's best performances, during these early years, was against Pitlochry, to help commemorate the opening of their Recreation Ground, in about 1882. An extremely strong Pitlochry side contained five of that season's Harrow First XI, a prominent Grange CC player, from Edinburgh and the Marquis Of Tullybardine ( the present Duke Of Atholl ) Donald Mitchell. In the face of a strong bowling attack, Breadalbane posted only 31. Despite this, Breadalbane managed to bowl out Pitlochry for 25 (with FG Stewart and JC Campbell snapping up five wickets apiece ) and scramble home by 6 runs
Howzat ?
Around 1882, one of Breadalbane's players ( FG Stewart from Ballechin ) played a prominent part in a famous College Cricket match. He represented Downside College at their ground in a match against another college team ( unrecorded ). In what must be almost totally unique in the game of cricket, at any level, Stewart opened the batting for Downside and made 52. However not a single other batsmen on his side managed to score a run - and with no extras either - the team were all out for 52 !