Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

Chapter Nine A Test Cricketer? When one reads reports of the first-class career of Michael Falcon it soon becomes commonplace to read that, given regular county cricket with a first-class background, he could have had a Test career. For instance, Peter Wynne-Thomas in Who’s Who of Cricketers wrote of him: ‘One of the greatest of regular Minor Counties cricketers, he might have played for England if he had appeared more often in first-class cricket.’ Again, David Armstrong, in Barclays World of Cricket , suggested: ‘Many thought him good enough to have played Test cricket if he had qualified for a first-class county.’ In Who’s Won The Tos s ? , E.H.D.Sewell stated: ‘Had he been playing regularly then for a first-class county instead of for Norfolk, we should find “Mike” Falcon’s name frequently on both sides of the Test match ledger and that not the debit side. For he was also a very useful stroke-playing batsman with a sound style, and had the physique for the job.’ David Lemmon and Douglas Smith, in Votes for Cricket , thought that ‘Falcon has a record in first-class cricket which suggests that if he had given himself fully to the game, he would have been an outstanding player. As it was, he chose to play his cricket for his beloved Norfolk, a decision which almost certainly cost him international recognition.’ In Bill Edrich: A Biography , Alan Hill stated: ‘He was regarded by many good judges as possessing England credentials had he appeared more often in first-class cricket.’ 65 The call to play first-class county cricket did come. In conversations with his son and with Peter Harrison, Falcon himself implicated both Frank Mann and ‘Plum’ Warner in offering him the possibility of a Test cap and maybe even the captaincy, as a 115 65 An outcome of his determination to play for Norfolk is that he holds a curious record. No English-born and resident cricketer appeared in more first-class games in the British Isles in the twentieth century without playing in the County Championship. As can be seen in the Appendix, he played 89 first-class matches, all in England. Three other players exceeded fifty: Walter Franklin with 60; Joseph Comber with 56; and Neville Tufnell, who played some of his county cricket for Norfolk, 55. Tufnell, a wicket-keeper, also played 15 matches overseas, including one Test in South Africa in 1910.