Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

48 and five for 103 as he captained the Minor Counties side to victory against a near Test-strength South African XI. Finally, in 1926, on an unhelpfully slow pitch, he took seven for 42 for the Minor Counties to dismiss the Australians for 179, albeit in a non first-class fixture. The Australians certainly had a healthy dislike of facing Michael Falcon’s bowling. After his AIF side were routed, Herbie Collins told ‘Plum’ Warner that he had never played more difficult fast bowling than Falcon’s on that day. Going on to be similarly demolished in 1921, the Australians were, according to Warner writing in the Morning Post , ‘unanimously of the opinion that Falcon was much the best fast bowler they had encountered that season’. The record is clear: put Michael Falcon in his prime up against a touring eleven and you would probably be rewarded with a game-swinging performance. (In his later years Falcon was sometimes a bit of passenger against touring teams but he retained the proud record of never losing to a touring side whilst playing in a first-class fixture.) To quote The Cricketer again, ‘He may certainly consider himself unfortunate in not having represented England in this country so far’ and ‘We believe Michael Falcon to be the most difficult bowler in England. He has pace, he can make the ball swing away from the bat, and he can also send down a nasty off-break.’ This last quote dates from 1924 when Falcon was 36 and, one would have thought, past his prime as a new-ball bowler, but he was supremely fit and still causing havoc against Minor County batsmen. And then, out of the blue, the call came. Michael Falcon was asked to make himself available for the 1924/25 MCC tour of Australia. According to C.B.L.Prior, speaking of Falcon at the annual dinner of the Norwich Wanderers Cricket Club, ‘ ... he had the opportunity of going to Australia last year, and if he had not been such a busy man, Norfolk would have had a representative in the MCC team.’ E.H.D.Sewell – admittedly a man of strong and sometimes heterodox views – opined that Falcon would have done well down under, saying that ‘Falcon could have been backed both ways to bring home the bacon from Australia, where his cheerful, strong, and virile personality was ideal for such a long tour.’ (In passing, it is of interest that, whilst Maurice Tate bowled wonderfully well throughout the trip, he received negligible support from the other pace bowlers on tour. Falcon would have almost certainly been ideal back-up to Tate.) Prior also praised Michael Falcon for his 118 A Test Cricketer?