Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

1919 173.3 27 587 25 6-41 23.48 2 - 1920 131.3 16 594 25 6-62 23.76 3 - 1921 75.3 8 359 12 6-67 29.92 1 - 1922 26 4 107 4 4-107 26.75 - - 1923 106 17 365 13 6-76 28.07 1 - 1924 109 15 404 17 7-78 23.76 2 - 1925 19.2 3 78 5 5-65 15.60 1 - 1926 100 17 323 4 3-124 80.75 - - 1927 62 3 239 6 4-60 39.83 - - 1928 24 4 66 4 4-45 16.50 - - 1929 39 7 101 2 2-42 50.50 - - 1930 24 4 77 1 1-52 77.00 - - 1931 44.2 12 137 5 4-54 27.40 - - 1932 28 12 40 0 - - - - 1933 6 2 25 0 - - - - 1934 8 0 58 1 1-43 58.00 - - 1935 6 1 28 1 1-7 28.00 - - 1936 3 0 16 0 - - - - Career 1590 260 5727 231 7-70 24.79 20 1 Notes: Throughout Falcon’s first-class career, overs were of six balls. He conceded, on average, 3.60 runs per over – an expensive rate for a front-line bowler – and took wickets at a rate of one per 41.30 balls. He took 127 wickets caught (55.0%), of which five (2.2%) were caught and bowled; 93 wickets bowled (40.3%); ten wickets lbw (4.3%), and one wicket stumped (0.4%). Of his ten lbw victims, five were taken after 1926 when he had ceased to be a strike bowler. Before 1927 Falcon took 211 wickets including only five lbws at a percentage of only 2.4 – this is a very low figure for a ‘serious’ bowler, even allowing for the fact that lbws were rarer at the time. The batsmen whom he dismissed most frequently were Jack Hobbs (six times), and David Denton, Wilfred Rhodes and George Wood, all five times. First-Class Cricket: Innings of Fifty or More (13) Score For Opponent Venue Season 60 Cambridge Univ¹ Sussex Fenner’s 1908 122 Cambridge Univ² MCC Lord’s 1908 130 Cambridge Univ² Sussex Hove 1909 63 Cambridge Univ¹ Yorkshire Fenner’s 1910 96 Cambridge Univ² Gentlemen of England Eastbourne 1910 134 Cambridge Univ² Sussex Fenner’s 1911 115 MCC¹ Leicestershire Lord’s 1911 70* Cambridge Univ² Surrey The Oval 1911 65 Cambridge Univ¹ MCC Lord’s 1911 75 Gentlemen¹ Players Scarborough 1911 77* Free Foresters² Oxford University The Parks 1921 77 Free Foresters² Cambridge University Fenner’s 1925 86* Free Foresters² Cambridge University Fenner’s 1926 Note: The index figures ¹ and ² in this and the tables below indicate the innings in which the feat was achieved. 138 Some Statistics