Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

order that the tourists might continue to visit Norfolk. 38 Norfolk were actually beaten a second time in 1922, and it was a comprehensive thrashing by 138 runs, in early August, at the hands of the Eton Ramblers, a side with six players who had played first-class cricket. Michael Falcon did very well with the ball, taking five for 58 and seven for 37, but his failure to score more than one run in two innings was probably the difference between the two teams. Falcon was also involved in Parliamentary cricket this year, captaining the ‘North’ against the ‘South’ in a House of Commons ‘trial match’ which purported to aid the selectors of the newly resuscitated Parliamentary Cricket Association. He bowled only two overs and batted last so was hardly inconvenienced, but later turned out for the Lords and Commons team defeated by Westminster School. Uncharacteristically for this season, his 18 overs went unrewarded but he saved face by top-scoring with an innings of 44. At the end of the cricket season Falcon showed a side of him seldom seen elsewhere. Attending the annual dinner of the Horning and District Cricket Club, of which he was president, he was called on for a song and gave ‘Hearts of Oak’, leading the company in a rousing chorus. As an encore he sang ‘Soldiers of the King’ which was another triumph. Although he was, by upbringing, a Tory grandee he was no snob and was happy to mix with anyone who shared his passion for cricket in general and for Norfolk cricket in particular. 1923 If the local press thought Norfolk worthy of first-class status based on their results of 1922, then the results of the 1923 season would have been enough to disillusion them swiftly. Defeated three times, Norfolk slipped to sixteenth in a table of twenty. It wasn’t the fault of their skipper as he led the way with 678 runs, including six scores of over fifty, and 54 wickets. He started well with the bat, making 98 against Hertfordshire and continued in At His Peak: 1919-1929 67 38 After the Second World War Norfolk were no longer considered worthy of fixtures with touring teams in their own right, but for a couple of years they were awarded ‘second prize’ in that Lakenham played host to the matches between the Minor Counties representative XI and the 1951 South Africans and the 1952 Indians. Unlike the game against South Africa in 1924 however, Norfolk players found it hard to gain selection for these fixtures.