Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

and a non-pareil as a father and a family man. Yet in the short space available to us here we must devote ourselves to his achievements as a cricketer: these were many, varied and far-flung but confined initially by the First World War and then by his many public duties. Mike was a well-built, handsome man – a falcon indeed as he ran smoothly to the crease to bowl his distinctly quick stuff. A splendid field and a very adequate bat, he played a great part in that famous match when a team captained by Archie MacLaren beat for the first time that great Australian side of 1921 captained by Warwick Armstrong at Eastbourne in August. It must be remembered that our other fast bowler, Walter Brearley, who had been training for the match for weeks, strained a muscle while batting in the first innings and took no further part in the match. Thus a special burden fell upon Mike, who bore it with his usual debonair but quiet and determined spirit as these figures will for ever testify: 18.4-2-67-6 and 18-2-82-2. His ‘victims’ included Collins, Macartney, Pellew, Ryder and Armstrong himself. As on this Ash Wednesday we enter another period of Lent at a time when some of us – both old and young – may be rather bewildered by this complicated world, perhaps all of us may for a moment be united and feel comforted by the thought that we thank God for every remembrance of Mike Falcon.’ 130 Michael Falcon’s Legacy This bench, at the Norfolk ground at Horsford, recognises Michael Falcon’s sixty years of service to Norfolk cricket.