John Armstrong Fallows (25 July 1907 – 20 January 1974) was a cricketer who played one season of

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

when he captained

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

in 1946.

Life and career

Jack Fallows was born in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

and educated at Worksop College. A club cricketer and

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

player for

before

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

during the war,Obituary
by

John Arlott Leslie Thomas John Arlott, (25 February 1914 – 14 December 1991) was an English journalist, author and cricket commentator for the BBC's '' Test Match Special''. He was also a poet and wine connoisseur. With his poetic phraseology, he becam ...

, ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county, club and schools cricket. Overview The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cric ...

'', May 1974. he was asked to captain Lancashire in the first season after the war when the appointed captain, Jack Iddon, was killed in a motor accident just before the start of the season. Despite his inexperience and his negligible batting ability he was a popular captain who led the side to third position in the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

with 15 victories in 26 matches. ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

's'' report of the Lancashire season noted that "under J.A. Fallows the old stigmas of dullness and lack of imagination were overcome. Whatever his limitations as a batsman, the new captain proved shrewd in the field and inspiring everywhere. Willingness to go out for victory and keen finishes ensured maximum interest and enjoyment."''Wisden'' 1947, pp. 318–19. In 2012, assessing the role of the

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

captain in county cricket, Colin Shindler praised Fallows as the archetypal amateur captain:

When only four fresh eggs were available one morning at a London hotel, he awarded them to the bowlers because Lancashire were likely to be fielding all day. His team respected and liked him, and he did exactly what an amateur should: he declared boldly to give the opposition a chance and his bowlers time to take their wickets. The crowds returned to
Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...
, and the team were slightly unlucky to finish only third.Colin Shindler, "The slow death of cricket's class divide"
''Wisden'' 2012, pp. 42-47.

Despite his success, Fallows was replaced as county captain for 1947 by Ken Cranston. He served on the

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

committee before returning to Lancashire, where he was elected to the committee in 1964. As chairman of the Cricket Subcommittee he helped the county overcome a period of failure to achieve success under the captaincy of Jack Bond in the late 1960s and 1970s.

References

External links

Jack Fallows at CricketArchive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fallows, Jack 1907 births 1974 deaths Cricketers from Stockport People educated at Worksop College English cricketers Lancashire cricketers Lancashire cricket captains Cheshire cricketers British Army personnel of World War II English cricket administrators 20th-century English sportsmen