Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

both touring teams were scheduled to visit Norfolk late in the year, and Falcon had to attend to the Minor Counties Championship first. With a fixture list of eight games, Norfolk, now led by Falcon, had an excellent season, winning seven matches and losing only one. Before Norfolk’s final match (against Cambridgeshire) the secretary, C.B.L.Prior, wrote to his counterpart in Staffordshire asking him whether, if the two counties were to finish first and second in the table, Staffordshire (who were likely to finish second) would issue a challenge. The Staffordshire secretary, W.C.Hancock, replied that his county had not done well financially that year and to spend three days in Norfolk would be out of the question. However, the scenario envisaged by Prior duly materialised and Staffordshire changed their minds, issuing a challenge on 31 August. By this time Norfolk was suffering from the worst floods in living memory 12 and Prior replied that ‘owing to the flood disaster and the general distress in Norfolk’ it would be impossible to meet the challenge. At first it seemed that Norfolk might have to forfeit the title, but when Dr J.Earl Norman, the secretary of the Minor Counties Association, and Hancock conferred and suggested to Prior that the Challenge Match should take place in Stoke, he reacted rapidly and convened a meeting of the Norfolk Committee. They proposed a match starting on 19 September, but the Staffordshire secretary replied that his county would be unable to play owing to the ‘undue delay’. In the end the Championship was left ‘in abeyance’, a curiosity which still appears in record books. Including friendlies, Michael Falcon played in nine out of the ten games, the secretary C.B.L.Prior being unable to tempt him away from the Harrow Wanderers’ tour in order to play against Suffolk. He had a fine all-round season, topping the batting with over 500 runs and taking 38 wickets. This was the season when Norfolk’s bowling was dominated by the debutant professional, Roderick Falconer, who had been performing well for Northamptonshire Club and Ground but who was qualified to play for Norfolk by birth. He had an amazing year, securing 65 wickets at 7.94 apiece, Taking Over the Reins at Norfolk: 1911-1914 29 12 A total of 11.27 inches of rain fell on Norwich in August, the city’s wettest month ever, easily surpassing a previous record in the ‘Great Norwich Flood’ of November 1878. Rain fell on 27 days in August with 6.59 inches on 26 August and, unsurprisingly, there was chaos. All communications were suspended, rail services were cancelled and no fewer than 80 bridges failed across the county. The Falcon family contributed significantly to the Horstead Relief Fund.