Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

Chapter Six Elder Statesman: 1930-1939 In the period between 1912 and 1929 Michael Falcon had been as dominant in his team as any performer in the Minor Counties Championship, equalling such outstanding players as Sydney Barnes of Staffordshire and Charles Titchmarsh of Hertfordshire. He led from the front with both bat and ball and often shone in the field as well. However, by 1931 he was 43 years old and his period of pre-eminence was coming to an end. There were to be no more centuries, although he would register a further 22 half-centuries in the Championship. Though he would still pick up wickets at vital times whilst bowling at a reduced pace, he could no longer seize a game and turn it around on his own. At the same time his team-mates from the 1920s were retiring. Harold Watson played his last game in 1927; Geoffrey Stevens and Geoffrey Colman both retired in 1930; whilst Walter Beadsmoore and Jack Nichols soldiered on until 1931. In such circumstances, most skippers would have been content to slip quietly away, but Michael Falcon was not an ordinary leader. He was still exceptionally fit, and thus able to contribute to Norfolk’s team as what we would now call a ‘bits-and-pieces’ player, playing a supporting role with both bat and ball where needed. 48 The 1930s turned out to be another ‘Golden Age’ of Norfolk cricket, echoing back to the first just before the Great War. The influx of talent from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and from the Edrich family led to the formation of a team which, although it never won the title, regularly finished high in the table and, from August 1932 to July 1937, went 41 Championship matches undefeated. Michael Falcon presided over this ‘Golden Age’ with benevolence. Unlike his contemporary and sparring partner at 82 48 The decline in Falcon’s ability with the bat was reflected in a change in his place in Norfolk’s batting order. In the first part of his career he generally appeared at between three and five in the order, other than in 1911, 1920 and 1923 when he usually opened the batting. From 1926, a preference for four became increasingly apparent until the middle of the 1934 season when he dropped down to six, a position he held for virtually every match until his retirement.