In Great Characters from Cricket's Golden Age, Jeremy Malies described his bowling like this: "For such a natural athlete his run-up was surprisingly craggy and ungainly. It included several stutters and he would arrive at the wicket with elbows pumping madly, in the manner of Bob Willis." He sounds more like a drunk uncle than a polished Test match bowler, but at the crease, all the coaching and tinkering unfurled into a very respectable legspin action. Repeatable, barely beatable.
Faulkner would land it on a length, turn the ball both ways without any hint as to which way it would go, had endless endurance for Herculean spells and also had a fast yorker that destroyed batsmen. As a batsman Faulkner was two-eyed. While most batsmen of the era were side-on, Faulkner stood very open. His bottom hand was in charge, and as the bowler came in, he flexed it aggressively over the grip. His back was always arched over, as if his bat was a bit too small and so, like with many broad-shouldered batsmen, the piece of wood often looked like a toy when he swung it. Faulkner would defend with good, if slightly eccentric, footwork, and when he hit the ball, he did so with the same sort of power his father had once borne the brunt of.
Dazzling light, murky shadow | The Cricket Monthly | ESPN Cricinfo
