Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

autobiography, the approach to Kent happened then and was followed by the successful application to Middlesex. Barker and Hill, on the other hand, have Falcon, with obvious ambition that Bill should play for England, going straight for Middlesex, declaring that ‘cricketers were apt to go unnoticed in the provinces. They should play at Headquarters, where the scribes were, and where they were continually under the eye of the people who mattered.’ The next time Michael Falcon went to Lord’s for an MCC committee meeting he had a word with the Club’s secretary, Billy Findlay, saying that Middlesex would soon be needing young batsmen to take over from the likes of the ageing Patsy Hendren and ‘Young’ Jack Hearne and that Bill Edrich was just the sort of cricketer for them. Hence Bill was sent for a trial in April 1934 – despite severely mangling his right hand in a farm accident shortly before his big day – he did well enough to be accepted onto the MCC ‘second-class’ groundstaff with permission to continue to play for Norfolk during his qualification period. Bill Edrich’s exploits in first-class and Test cricket are well-known and need no re-telling here. What is less well-known to those outside Norfolk is that he returned to captain his native county once his first-class career was over, proving to be a daring, innovative captain who drew the crowds back to Lakenham after a fallow period in the 1950s. David Armstrong is the best source on the strengths of Edrich as a skipper, but Ralph Barker also had a point to make, suggesting that Bill’s leadership was so radical (for example, sacrificing first-innings points in the search for outright wins) that some old timers such as Michael Falcon took a while to adjust and that they were eventually won over only by the succession of exciting finishes brought about by Bill’s challenging declarations. In truth Bill was merely ahead of his time, as the two-day Minor Counties match eventually went the same way as the three-day first-class county match. On ever-improving wickets both were found to be unfinishable without declarations and artificial run-chases on the final afternoon, and both have been consigned to history to the benefit of players and spectators alike. 59 Whatever, Bill Edrich repaid his ‘debt’ to Michael Falcon by coming back to Norfolk. Elder Statesman: 1930-1939 100 59 As an interesting aside, the first suggestion that I can trace that two days was insufficient for a Minor Counties match was made by an ex-skipper of Norfolk, Brereton Knyvet Wilson, as early as 1937.