Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

1933 This was a great year for Norfolk who won four games outright and led on the first innings in five of the other six fixtures. They finished top of the Championship table and were duly challenged by Yorkshire II. Playing at Lakenham, Norfolk performed poorly, being dismissed for 147 and 122 and losing by nine wickets. Their nemesis was the spin-bowling of James Heaton who took 11 wickets, with no fewer than six falling to stumpings by Syd Buller. Michael Falcon led the resistance in the first innings, playing an innings which ‘was a typical effort of a courageous captain ... fine and forcing.’ As is well known, when the final table was being checked in November 1933 for insertion in Wisden , it was found that its columns did not agree. The percentages were recalculated and it was found that Wiltshire, with 70.00 and previously thought to be third and not Yorkshire II, with 68.33, had in fact finished in second place. (Norfolk’s percentage was 72.00, incidentally.) The play-off was entirely spurious, as ‘Yorkshire had no standing in the matter’. It was too late to organize a second play-off and the title was officially left ‘not decided’, rather as it had been in 1912, Falcon’s first year as skipper. 50 Falcon played a typical bits-and-pieces role in Norfolk’s success: although his highest score (70) was almost inevitably in his first match, the falling-off in his batting was not as marked as in the previous couple of years. He also collected 12 wickets spread throughout the season. An example of his team-spirit was to be found in the game against Kent II in which, due to a breakdown in 86 Elder Statesman: 1930-1939 50 Writing in The Cricketer Annual of 1933/34, the MCCA secretary, R.C. Campbell, said that the problem was caused by ‘insufficient information on the official score sheet from Yorkshire as to the actual result’ of the match between Yorkshire II and Staffordshire at Sheffield on 12 and 13 July. Since Norfolk had no involvement in any of this, the frustration to the county’s players must have been very great. Understandably, the Yorkshire hierarchy was distinctly unhappy. For example, Sir Stanley Jackson stated that: ‘The matter will have to be referred to the MCC for their decision as to whether the Yorkshire team are the Minor Counties Champions or not.’ (Perhaps he thought that the presence of himself and Lord Hawke on the MCC Committee was likely to lead to a favourable outcome for his county.) Surprisingly, the Norfolk administration did not seem to be at all perturbed by the whole débâcle . Desmond Buxton, the Norfolk secretary, declared, ‘I am more amused than cross at the affair’, and, when asked if Norfolk would play a challenge match against Wiltshire in early 1934, he made the valid point that many of the amateurs might not be available but concluded that ‘if it were done it would be rather fun’. Nor did Norfolk’s supporters overwhelm the local press with indignant complaints; no letters of outrage found their way to the correspondence columns of the Eastern Daily Press. Elsewhere in this book, Bill Edrich will be quoted on how hard the Norfolk team had tried to win the Championship; given their efforts, quite what they made of the lack of support from their administrators can only be imagined.