Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

Victorian times), almost no members of the House of Commons have practised politics and played high-quality cricket at the same time. In the twentieth century there were only four cricketers who played in first-class matches while in membership of the House of Commons. 28 There have been none this century. Marriage On 22 June 1920, the engagement was announced of Captain Michael Falcon, MP, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Michael Falcon of Horstead House, Norwich and Kathleen, only daughter of Captain and Mrs Clifton Gascoigne, of Southbroom House, Devizes. Falcon and his father-in-law to-be had known each other for years; Captain Gascoigne, who was from a military family, was quite active on the Norfolk social cricket circle in Edwardian times and was a player of some talent: he appeared twice for Norfolk in 1908, keeping wicket, against Bedfordshire and the Free Foresters, playing alongside his future son-in-law in the latter match. 29 He had been for many years secretary of the Norfolk Territorial Forces Association. The marriage subsequently took place on 21 September of the same year – after the cricket season had ended, naturally. The ceremony took place on a Tuesday afternoon at the Church of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge. In the Norfolk News, there was a brief summary of Falcon’s political and cricketing careers which need no repeating here, with the exception of the titbit that, whilst playing ‘last season’ for the Free Foresters, he had bowled the captain of the Cambridge University eleven with a delivery which sent one of the bails as far as 51 yards, 2 feet from the wicket: not near the record but still impressive for a 31-year-old fast bowler. Turning to the bride, the Norfolk News stated that, although she was currently resident in Wiltshire, she had lived most of her life in Norfolk. 54 At Westminster 28 Falcon played 17 matches while representing East Norfolk. The other three were Lord Dalmeny, who played 58 matches, mostly as Surrey’s captain, between 1906 and 1908, while representing Edinburgh as a Liberal; Peter Eckersley, a former Lancashire captain, who played a couple of matches, for MCC in 1936 and for an England XI in 1938, while Conservative member for Manchester Exchange; and Aidan Crawley, who played four matches for Kent, MCC and Free Foresters between 1947 and 1949, when he was Labour MP for Buckingham. 29 In 1912, he played for MCC against Norfolk, when he was bowled by Falcon.