Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

loyalty and splendid service to Norfolk cricket, recalling him making that overnight journey from Ireland in order to represent Norfolk in the Minor County Championship in 1910. Modest to the last, Falcon spoke little if at all about the missed opportunity to represent MCC. In being a ‘part-time’ player, unable to tour owing to business commitments, he found himself in the same position as contemporary amateurs Clem Gibson and Walter Franklin, both of whom had to turn down invitations to join Ashes touring parties. (Gibson had business interests in Argentina, where he was born, and Franklin had an active legal practice.) It has been suggested that the Great War hampered Michael Falcon’s chances of selection for a home Test. Superficially the argument has merit: in 1915 Falcon was 27, in his prime for a bowler who was faster than just fast-medium. Gilbert Jessop, in A Cricketer’s Log , commented: ‘The success of “Mike” Falcon caused me no surprise, for I had seen him in the previous season skittle Yorkshire out at Scarborough [in 1912], his handiwork being 5 wickets for 16. He was genuinely fast without being quite so “pacey” as Neville Knox or Hitch, and with the new ball his swerving proclivities made him a particularly undesirable customer to face.’ E.H.D.Sewell described Falcon as being ‘above fast-medium pace’ and went on to describe his bowling favourably: Falcon had an ideal high action, did not reduce his value by checking at delivery, and had good command at pitching the away-swerve where the batsman does not like it to pitch, i.e. if missed by the bat the ball hit the wicket, and not too often the wicket-keeper. Owing to his pace and action he was also able to produce that highest proof of good fast bowling, the good length ball that gets up sharply. As if in agreement, Herbie Collins ‘was heard to remark in 1919 that his [Falcon’s] bowling was yards faster than any they had met during the whole of their tour’ but by then he was 31 and theoretically a little old for a paceman, although his bowling for Norfolk in 1920 was as hostile, parsimonious and well-rewarded as that of Sydney Barnes. The Times stated that he bowled faster against the Australian Forces in 1919 than he had ever bowled prior to the Great War. However, deeper analysis refutes this viewpoint. If there had been no war, the triumvirate of fast-medium bowlers who had destroyed Australia in 1911/12 would still have been available for selection. Johnny Douglas, Frank Foster and Sydney Barnes were a formidable combination A Test Cricketer? 119