Bill Edrich

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Bill Edrich England (ENG)
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	Right-arm fast, offbreak
	Tests	First-class
Matches	39	571
Runs scored	2440	36965
Batting average	40.00	42.39
100s/50s	6/13	86/197
Top score	219	267*
Balls bowled	3234	32942
Wickets	41	479
Bowling average	41.29	33.31
5 wickets in innings	-	11
10 wickets in match	-	3
Best bowling	4/68	7/48
Catches/stumpings	39/-	527/1
Test debut: 10 June 1938 Last Test: 28 January 1955 Source: [1]

William John "Bill" Edrich DFC (born 26 March 1916 in Lingwood, Norfolk, died April 24, 1986 in Chesham, Buckinghamshire) was a distinguished cricketer who played for Middlesex, MCC, Norfolk and England.

Edrich's three brothers Brian, Eric and Geoff and his cousin John all played first-class cricket, and locally in Norfolk the Edriches were able to raise a full team of 11.

Bill Edrich was an attacking right-handed batsman and right-arm fast bowler. Playing first for Norfolk in the Minor Counties at the age of 16, he qualified for Middlesex in 1937 and was an instant success, scoring more than 2,000 runs in his first full season. The following year, 1938, he scored 1,000 runs before the end of May and made the first of 39 Test match appearances, though with little success. In fact, Edrich achieved almost nothing in Tests until the final "timeless" Test of the 1938-39 tour to South Africa at Durban, where his 219 not out enabled England to reach 654 for five wickets, at which point the Test was left drawn to enable the tourists to catch their ship home.

Having finally achieved Test match success, Edrich was promptly dropped for the 1939 series against the West Indians, but when cricket resumed after the Second World War, he quickly became a regular in the team, batting at No 3 and sometimes opening the bowling. He scored centuries against Australia in 1946-47, two against the South Africans in 1947, another against Australia in 1948 and a final one against New Zealand in 1949.

The postwar years were Edrich's heyday and in 1947, he broke Tom Hayward's record, scoring 3,539 runs in the season and not being much overshadowed by Denis Compton, who scored 3,816. Compton's and Edrich's aggregates remain the highest ever in an English cricket season and with the reduction in the number of first-class matches seem likely never to be overtaken. In addition to his runs, Edrich also took 67 wickets in the same season.

Edrich's Test career continued until 1954, but he played less regularly after 1950, when he appeared to have little answer to the West Indian spinners Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine.

All told, Edrich played in 571 first-class matches between 1934 and 1958, scoring 36,985 runs, with a highest score of 267 not out. His run total puts him 29th on the all-time lists. He scored 2,440 runs for England in his 39 Test matches, with the 219 not out at Durban his best. A professional before the Second World War, he turned amateur afterwards and captained Middlesex jointly with Compton in 1951 and 1952, then remaining in sole charge from 1953 to 1957. After retiring from Middlesex, he returned to Norfolk and played Minor County cricket until he was 56, captaining the county until 1971. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1940.

Edrich played association football as an amateur for Norwich City and Tottenham Hotspur during the 1930s.

In a distinguished Second World War career flying bombers with the Royal Air Force, he rose to become a squadron leader and a holder of the DFC.

A famously convivial man, Edrich was married five times and had two sons, Jasper and Justin. He died following a fall at his Chesham home on 24 April 1986, aged 70. The MCC named the twin stands at the Nursery End at Lord's Cricket Ground, in his and Denis Compton's honour.