Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

sub-committee, which delivered its report on 29 October 1934, were Lord Hawke, Sir Stanley Jackson and ‘Plum’ Warner. The sub-committee is noteworthy for the limited experience of its members in the art of bowling. Only Sir Stanley Jackson and Michael Falcon had any notable records as bowlers, and ‘Jacker’ was only fast-medium in pace; Falcon alone on the sub-committee knew what it was like to render an opposing batsman unconscious. The minutes of MCC committee meetings are notoriously uninformative, so one can but speculate as to what influence Falcon would have exerted as the ‘in-house’ expert when set alongside the powerful influences of the senior figures on the sub-committee. In aiding their deliberations one assumes that the sub-committee would have had the reports on the tour of the skipper Douglas Jardine and the two managers, ‘Plum’ Warner and Richard Palairet; in addition these three, plus Harold Larwood, Bill Voce and Les Ames were called to Lord’s for interview. 20 David Frith, the author of Bodyline Autopsy , the most thorough investigation into the whole affair, noted that none of the relevant paperwork survives. That the sub-committee eventually ruled ‘bodyline’ to be undesirable is well-known and further comment is unnecessary here. Falcon returned to the stewardship of the Tennis and Rackets sub-Committee in 1935, which occupied him until his involvement with the MCC Committee ceased in 1938. Until the last couple of years his record of attendance at Committee meetings had been good: the decline in the frequency of his attendance may have been due to the difficulty in reaching London whilst raising a young family in the rural backwater of North Burlingham. Whatever may be the case, Falcon’s efforts behind the scenes at Lord’s echo his work on committees in Norfolk and attest to his love for cricket and his desire to work on its behalf. 21 40 Taking Over the Reins at Norfolk: 1911-1914 20 Warner would have probably wanted the support of ‘Gubby’ Allen, who had refused to bowl bodyline, but he seems to have been on very bad terms with the MCC secretary, Billy Findlay, at the relevant time. Allen was able to exert his influence later whilst attending meetings of the Advisory County Cricket Committee, a forum for the skippers of first-class counties, in which he spoke openly against ‘bodyline’. 21 As a player he had appeared in eight first-class fixtures for the premier club between 1911 and 1929, and, closer to the grass roots, in one or two lesser ‘out-matches’ a year in most seasons until 1931.