Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

figure in the side but merely just another man in an admittedly very good eleven. It was whilst living in Essex that Falcon was first appointed a magistrate, thereby following in the family tradition. No doubt his legal experience qualified him admirably for the task. His status lapsed when he returned to Norfolk but he was reappointed in June 1934, and sat mainly in the area of east Norfolk in which he lived. 1919 After the Great War, the Minor Counties made no effort to organize a Championship before 1920. Norfolk attempted to run a festival in 1919, the secretary, Mr C.B.L.Prior, trying in vain to arrange matches with any of the neighbouring counties. In the end the festival consisted of a game versus a scratch Cambridge XI, a Club and Ground fixture against Fakenham and District and, thanks to the efforts of Michael Falcon at Lord’s, a match was also arranged against MCC. Norfolk lost this by eight wickets, despite Falcon’s fast bowling. As he had no Minor Counties Championship to distract him, Falcon was able to play more first-class cricket than usual in 1919. He turned out in as many as seven games, including two against the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) and three for the Gentlemen against the Players. His batting had fallen away by this point in his career (although there were later, sporadic glimpses of what he could do) and his bowling, although starting promisingly this year, came up against some solid batting from the Players. After taking 15 wickets in the first three innings in which he bowled, his final bag was a mere 25 wickets: a season’s average of 23.48 was, however, satisfactory. He started with nine cheap wickets, including the promising Donald Knight twice, for P.F.Warner’s XI against Oxford University but finished on the losing side; despite that, his bowling received rave reviews, being described as ‘really brilliant’ in The Times , whilst the Manchester Guardian stated that he bowled better than figures of five for 67 would suggest. Then came the highlight of his season; selected for the Gentlemen of England against the AIF, he destroyed the Australians’ batting with a fine display of fast swerve bowling. He took six for 41 and, with skipper Johnny Douglas contributing four for 34, bundled out the AIF for 85 and 58 At His Peak: 1919-1929