Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

University in 1920, 1921 and 1931 and in a few other non first-class fixtures. When Falcon started playing for the Free Foresters, he was at the height of his powers; as late as 1926 he opened both the batting and the bowling. However by 1936 he was well past his best. Although he was still able to hold his own playing for Norfolk in the Minor Counties Championship, first-class cricket was a different matter. In his last first-class match, aged 47, he batted at eleven and bowled only three overs. 19 Even so, he sold his wicket dearly, and remained not out in five of his last six first-class innings. His last day of note with the ball was in 1931 when he took four for 54 against Oxford University. The inevitable falling-off in his performances with age affected Michael Falcon’s returns for the Free Foresters, but his career figures in 20 first-class matches for the wandering club were highly creditable: 692 runs at 27.68 and 71 wickets at 26.46. Perhaps more than any other first-class cricketer, games for the Free Foresters played a significant part in Falcon’s first-class career. With the ball, no fewer than seven of his 20 first-class five-wicket hauls were taken for the wandering club: the highlight being his rout, referred to earlier, of the Cambridge University batsmen in 1914 when he took six for 41 and seven for 70. This was the only time he took ten wickets in a first-class match, and his second innings return was also a career best. With the bat, Falcon made three fifties, with 77 not out against Oxford University (in 1921) and 77 and an unbeaten 86 against Cambridge University (in 1925 and 1926 respectively), the highlights of his returns. MCC Committee man, 1914-1938 On 13 May 1914, the brilliant amateur batsman Reginald Foster died of diabetes at the early age of 36. This left a place vacant on the MCC Committee and Michael Falcon was co-opted to fill the gap. He was only 25 at the time and it was both a great honour and a mark of the esteem in which he was held at Lord’s that he should be asked to serve at such a young age, working alongside many of the great names in cricket history. To emphasize his relative youth 38 Taking Over the Reins at Norfolk: 1911-1914 19 A generation later another ex-Cambridge all-rounder made it a habit to turn out for the Free Foresters against the University. ‘Gubby’ Allen played until he was over fifty but, unlike Falcon, he retained the ability to perform at the first-class level as a relatively old man; in the seven years he played he scored no fewer than four centuries and averaged 84.50 with the bat.