Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

batsmen in the ‘Team of the Century’ (Charles Titchmarsh, Arthur Sutton, Mike Nurton, Stephen Plumb or Nick Folland) have been bowlers who spearheaded the attack. Arthur Sutton’s 435 wickets were taken at 20.23 each whilst Stephen Plumb’s 328 wickets cost an expensive 32.32 runs apiece. Michael Falcon stands out in Minor Counties history as one of the greatest all-rounders and certainly the longest lasting. 67 It is Falcon’s status as an amateur that marks him out as a special case amongst the bowlers. When he started his Minor Counties career, he wasn’t required to bowl as Norfolk, like almost all other counties, had professionals to do the bulk of the bowling. Norfolk had relied on Billy Smith and Ted Gibson to take the wickets for several years: indeed the county had to drop out of the Minor Counties Championship in 1902 and 1903, while Smith and Gibson were qualifying to play for Norfolk by residence. When Michael Falcon took over, leading the attack until his powers began to wane in the late 1920s, he was, as an amateur, very much an oddity. This is not to say that other amateurs did not bowl well for Norfolk; slow left armer Walter Beadsmoore and paceman Rodney Rought-Rought both performed nobly between the Wars but Falcon was the spearhead of the attack. All the other bowlers in the ‘Team of the Century’ were professionals (Fred Burton, Frank Edwards, Cyril Perkins and Sydney Barnes) and only Barnes was a force with the bat. In this respect it is worth noting that Falcon himself, writing in The Cricketer in 1939 in reply to a discussion by George H.Wood on the all-rounder in cricket, insisted that ‘the definition of an all-rounder is too narrow if it does not include ability to field with consistency, safety, and even distinction in almost any position in the field.’ By Michael Falcon’s Legacy 125 67 Of other highly-regarded all-rounders George Thompson posts a highly impressive ratio of 2.67 in his Minor County Championship career, but unlike those of Michael Falcon, his figures do not ‘suffer’ from his playing to an advanced age; he was only 28 when he last played in the Championship. If Michael Falcon had retired at the age of 40 – not a bad age for a pace bowler – he would have finished with a ratio of 2.53, which, to invite hyperbole, would have been an incredibly high value and indicative of his dominance of the Minor Counties cricket scene. Bill Edrich’s ratio is marginally less impressive at 1.83 but, of course, he played Minor County cricket only in his youth and in his cricketing old age – if he had remained devoted to Norfolk like Falcon, and played for his native county during his pomp, his ratio would probably surpass that of his first captain. The attainment of a career ratio of 2.00 or above is similarly rare in the first-class game. Unsurprisingly, W.G.Grace qualifies comfortably, but a number of supremely talented all-rounders such as Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst fall short of the stringent target, whilst Frank Woolley only just achieves the benchmark. It would appear to be easier for prominent all-rounders to dominate in Australia: Warwick Armstrong, Charlie Macartney and Keith Miller all comfortably exceed the ratio of 2.00.