Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

until he died. In contrast, Bill Edrich was a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force, flying daredevil raids over Germany and facing death on a regular basis. Like many airmen, he responded by learning to live for the moment, enjoying the consumption of alcohol and the company of women (no fewer than five of whom he married). Although war heroes were granted a certain leeway, Bill’s party habits reputedly cost him a place on the 1950/51 Ashes tour. Ralph Barker, in The Cricketing Family Edrich , refutes the popularly held view that it was the captain-to-be Freddie Brown who vetoed Edrich’s selection and it remains unclear to this day who was responsible for his omission. 69 It must be stressed however that, although he may have been a hard drinker, Edrich was no buffoon like Tennyson and, once on the field of play, his captaincy, as described above, was sharp and incisive. 70 Minor Counties cricket is, however, an arcane subject, cared for or known about few outside the relevant county boundaries. It is woefully neglected by the media, with BBC Radio Norfolk being one of the few honourable exceptions. Norfolk, geographically isolated from first-class county cricket, still attracts crowds of several hundred to its annual cricket festival (which dates back to 1881) and used to draw thousands, especially against touring teams whose regular visits to Lakenham have been described. 71 Unfortunately support in other counties is less strong and attendances for other Minor Counties games are smaller than those seen in Norfolk. As a result of this general ignorance of Minor County cricket, Michael Falcon is likely to fade from view, despite his great deeds and the affection with which he is generally held. However, he will 128 Michael Falcon’s Legacy 69 Whoever did vote against Bill might have regretted their decision in retrospect, for the first two Tests were close-run affairs and Bill’s courageous batting might have made all the difference to the destination of the Ashes. 70 Another airman who responded to the experience of facing death on a daily basis by adopting a high-spirited lifestyle was Edrich’s drinking chum and Ashes foe Keith Miller. With Bradman as the de facto selector-in-chief, Miller’s place in the Australian Test team was generally safe because of his ability to bowl bouncers at English Test batsmen, but many think that Miller’s lifestyle may have cost him the captaincy when Lindsay Hassett retired. 71 Spectators at Lakenham have been rewarded for their presence by seeing some of the finest cricketers in history make the journey to Norfolk. For instance, Ranjitsinhji, W.G.Grace, Jack Hobbs, C.K.Nayudu and George Headley have all appeared against the county side, whilst great players such as Herbie Taylor, Garry Sobers and Sunil Gavaskar visited Lakenham when it played host to fixtures arranged under the auspices of the Minor Counties. In more recent times, an exhibition match saw a Norfolk team strengthened by a couple of ‘given men’ defeat a ‘Rest of the World’ side including stars such as Richie Richardson, Alvin Kallicharan and Javed Miandad, but, while games such as may be enjoyable, they are not economically viable in the modern climate.