Vol 13 No 17 Aubrey Faulkner

Non-Hampton & Richmond Borough related posts.
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Les1949
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Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:59 pm

HAMPTON, AROUND AND ABOUT

Things you may not know, or didn’t know you knew!

No 17 AUBREY FAULKNER
The Faulkner Cricket Academy in Richmond

I recently bought a book on cricket by Henry Blofeld, ‘Ten to Win…and the last Man In’ – about 30 close finishes in cricket matches and was surprised to come across a South African Test Cricketer who is buried in North Sheen Cemetery. Not only that, but he was also a member of the first team to beat the 1921 Australian Team (known as ‘The Invincibles’). Faulkner was born in South Africa in 1881 and played 25 Test Matches for South Africa, scoring 1,754 runs and taking 82 wickets (he is the only player to have scored 500 runs and taken 25 wickets in a single series, 1909/10). Faulkner, a leg spinner, was one of the first exponents of the ‘googly’.



Faulkner fought in the Boer War (the Imperial Light Horse) and the First World War (the Royal Artillery). During the war Faulkner was promoted to Major, however bouts of Malaria would affect his post-war cricketing career. Faulkner had left South Africa in 1912 to play cricket in England. An Amateur, he played Club Cricket in Nottingham, whilst still making himself available to play for South Africa. After the end of WW1, Faulkner stayed in England and in 1925 opened the Faulkner School of Cricket in a garage in Richmond. He also wrote a book, ‘Cricket; Can It Be Taught?’, published in 1926.

Regarding the Australian Touring Team of 1921, led by Warwick Armstrong, they won the Ashes 3-0 (with two drawn). In all they had played 36 matches, winning 22 and drawing 14, when they went to Eastbourne on 27th August, to take on an ‘England XI’. Unbeaten to date, the players were on a considerable bonus to remain unbeaten for the whole tour. The opposition were led by an ex-England captain, Archie MacLaren (aged 49), Faulkner (39), fast bowler, Walter Brearley (45), Geoffrey Foster (36) and a number of youngsters including a future England captain, Percy Chapman (2).

The match looked like it was only going one way when the hosts subsided to 43 all
out in 20 overs – top scorer Chapman with 16 (Armstrong 5-15), Australia made
174 in their first innings (Bardsley, 70); Faulkner 4-50. However, the second
England innings turned the game on its head when they scored 326,
Faulkner making 153 (McDonald 6-98). The Aussies were left to score 196 to
maintain their unbeaten record and with plenty of time available. At 143-5 they
only needed 53 but the next 5 wickets fell for just 24 runs and the Aussies had lost
their first game, and their bonus, by 28 runs to a disparate group of old-timers and
young hopefuls.

Sadly. for Faulkner, his life was to end at the age of 48 when he committed suicide
in his cricket school, in September 1930. His suicide note read……
"Dear Mackenzie, I am off to another sphere via the small bat-drying room.
Better call in a policeman to do investigating.".


It would seem that Faulkner suffered from depression and like many a
sportsman struggled after the cheers of the crowd ended.

The Old Historian
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