Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

the autumn of 1912 of leading his county to the title in his inaugural season as captain, was keen to capture the Championship and how his team were right behind him: ‘In the team we had made up our minds that our popular captain should have his triumph if human flesh and blood could achieve it.’ How administrative error prevented Norfolk from claiming the title has been described above. Bill remembered how, meanwhile, Falcon guided him in the ways of cricket, described in Compton and Edrich’s Cricket and All That : ‘What field?’ he would ask as I paced out my run-up in early matches for Norfolk. ‘Three slips, gully, cover, forward short leg, deep fine leg ... ’ ‘ He would halt me abruptly. ‘Are you bowling on the leg stump?’ ‘No, off stump, sir.’ I would stammer. ‘Then you won’t be needing a deep fine leg, William’, he would say kindly. I soon learned to pitch a good line. Bill continued to flourish under Falcon’s wise leadership, but, even before taking a fine century off the 1935 South Africans, he was making plans to become a first-class county cricketer. Like his county captain twenty years before him, Bill was born in Norfolk and so would have to qualify for a first-class county by residing within its boundaries for two years before he could turn out in the County Championship. The sources on how Bill ended up qualifying for Middlesex are not consistent but a certain pattern emerges. According to Sir Home Gordon, the initiative lay with Michael Falcon, who told young Edrich that he was too good for the Minor County Championship and contacted Kent on Bill’s behalf. Kent turned Falcon down, saying that they had nowhere to place Bill in the winters whilst he was qualifying. Not disheartened, Falcon tried Middlesex who were more receptive and agreed to take Bill onto the groundstaff. According to Ralph Barker, author of The Cricketing Family Edrich , Alan Hill, author of Bill Edrich: A Biography and, perhaps most persuasively, Bill’s autobiography, Cricket Heritage , the initial move was made by Bill himself. He wrote to Northamptonshire, the nearest and the poorest of the first-class counties, asking for a trial. Either Bill, on receiving a response that could be called non-committal, turned to Michael Falcon for advice or the county captain heard of Bill’s letter and went to the Edrich family house in Lingwood to offer his opinion. Falcon was at first reluctant to push Bill forward, knowing that the professional game was a gamble, but was soon persuaded by Bill’s evident keenness to help the youngster. According to Bill’s Elder Statesman: 1930-1939 99