Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

Chapter Two Varsity Days In the 1908 edition of Wisden , Michael Falcon was listed as one of thirty cricketers going up to Cambridge University. Falcon did indeed study at Cambridge, going to Pembroke College in the autumn of 1907, thereby following a long line of Old Harrovians. Matriculating on 21 October, he went up intending to read for honours in law, with the object of making his living as a barrister. For the first two years of his undergraduate course he resided at 25 Fitzwilliam Street, near to his college. Little is known of his deeds in Cambridge off the cricket pitch, but it was cricket that was his true raison d’etre for being at Cambridge. 1908 No scorebooks survive which relate to Pembroke College cricket at this period, but some information of college matches filtered back to Norfolk to appear in the local press. Falcon would clearly have had his eye on higher honours than college cricket from the start. His record as a batsman for Harrow was solid, if unspectacular, but his successes for Norfolk in 1907 suggested that he had the talent to make his mark at the University level. Success was not guaranteed however and he had first to impress in the Freshmen’s Match in order to gain a place in the Eleven, and then impress still further in order to obtain his Blue. Prior to this important match he did manage to fit in a couple of games for Pembroke, in order to get his eye in, but in neither did his score go beyond the twenties so he couldn’t really be said to have been in form. However, Michael Falcon did indeed make runs in the Freshmen’s Match, scoring 86 and 10 for R.A.Young’s side against C.C.G.Wright’s side, and as a result he made his first-class debut for Cambridge University against Lancashire at Fenner’s on 25 May 1908. He did little of note, scoring 11 and 18 in a heavy defeat. Further unsuccessful appearances followed and, according to the Manchester Guardian , he would have lost his place in the side to play Sussex if John Ireland had been able to play. Falcon made the 17