Famous Cricketers No 86 - John Edrich

The match was interrupted by rain, the second day being washed out entirely; and on the third day, with John, as next man in, waiting with his pads on, Alec Bedser declared 120 behind. Worcestershire responded by declaring at 54 for five, leaving Surrey to get 175 in 130 minutes, but a sporting wicket made the task difficult. “Apart from Edrich”, said Wisden, “no one batted confidently”, and Surrey were shot out for 57. John, with 24 not out, was easily top scorer, and only one other player reached double figures. It was a chastening moment for the capped players. John’s first innings for Surrey thus came on 5th September 1958. Bill Edrich had played his last innings for Middlesex just over a fortnight earlier, curiously enough against Surrey. Geoffrey Edrich had played his last first-class match two months earlier, so the Edrich continuity was only just maintained. National Service had done a lot to mature the raw Norfolk youth that had first reported to The Oval three years earlier. He was less sensitive about his Norfolk accent, and he understood a little better the continual ribbing and mickey-taking which was the staple dressing-room badinage. He lacked the sharp Cockney wit that would have enabled him to give as good as he got, but he learned how to take it. He knew they criticised his methods, and he knew that he was a clumsy fielder and an excruciatingly bad bowler; but for Club and Ground and Second XI he kept on getting runs, and that was the most silencing riposte of all. After leaving him out of the first four matches in 1959, Surrey introduced him into the side at Trent Bridge in the middle of May - but only because of injuries to other players. As he went in to bat on that Saturday with Micky Stewart he was so palpably nervous that Stewart offered him a few words of advice. “You’ve got a good wicket to bat on here”, he said, “all you’ve got to do is play as you’ve always played and you’ll get runs”. Cotton and Davison opened the bowling, with Jepson first change, and the runs had to be fought for. After an hour’s batting the score was 39. Stewart was caught at 46 and Barrington 20 runs later, but then came a long stand with the percipient Constable. After three hours fifty minutes, with Mike Willett as his partner, John reached his maiden first-class century in his second Championship match, and then followed this with another century in the second innings. During his career he scored more than 1,000 runs in a season 21 times, 19 in England and 2 in Australia, and in six seasons exceeded 2,000 runs. In recent times only M.C.Cowdrey [27 times], G.Boycott [26], D.Amiss [24], A.Jones [23] and T.W.Graveney [22] have bettered these figures. He scored 103 centuries in his career and had the distinction of scoring a century against every other county in the Championship. Edrich became the fourth Surrey batsmen to score over 100 centuries to add his name to that of Hobbs, Sandham and Hayward. Throughout his first-class career, Edrich was involved in 176 century partnerships, 29 of these with M.J.Stewart, 20 with K.F.Barrington and 17 with M.J.Edwards. Other Surrey partnerships included 9 with Younis Ahmed, 7 with A.B.D.Parsons and 6 with both A.R.Butcher and G.P.Howard. In Test Matches and other first-class matches, he had 13 century partnerships with G.Boycott and 4 with M.C.Cowdrey. Altogether, Edrich broke the first finger of his left hand four times and he claims to be the only batsman who can be lbw when struck on his hand. That is because a friend of many sportsmen, Mr. W.E.Tucker, solved the problem by grafting a piece of leg bone into his hand! 5