Famous Cricketers No 86 - John Edrich

was that the characteristics of his batting demanded almost a retreat into himself so that he remained undistracted by all else around him, which is why he was able to accumulate so many runs, but this necessary remoteness was not conductive to good leadership. Boycott was another to find this, but it should be emphasised that in no way was Edrich egocentric. At the beginning, things did not go well. The County Championship started disastrously. Three of the first nine games were lost, the others drawn. On 10 July, Surrey beat Warwickshire at The Oval to record their first win, and this moved them to ninth in the table. Surrey then beat Yorkshire by an innings and a third win came at Chesterfield. Two draws were followed by six wins and Surrey’s dramatic finish took them into second place, 31 points behind the champions, Hampshire. Edrich could have every cause for satisfaction in his first season as captain, but, as Pocock revealed some years later, many of the players were not totally satisfied and asked that Edrich should be relieved of the captaincy, not out of any dislike for him, but because they felt that he was not the right man for the job. The committee chose to ignore their application. This decision caused no rift as the players had indicated at the outset that they would support whoever the County chose as captain, although they felt that their communication with Edrich was not what it should be. Pocock felt, for reasons outlined earlier, that Edrich was unable to give the job the total concentration needed. Edrich believed that he could do the job and responded in the way that he did when just beaten by a ball that shaved the off stump. He set about the next task. In 1974 at the final of the Benson and Hedges, Edrich was awarded the Gold Award by Freddie Brown in recognition of both his solid innings and his tight field settings. 1977 was his last year as Captain In the midst of dissension and controversy that was being levelled at the standard of cricket that Surrey were providing, and the paucity of entertainment, John Edrich hit his 100th hundred. It came against Derbyshire at The Oval on 12 July 1977, when, although the game was destined to be drawn, Eddie Barlow agreed to play on. At 5.32pm, Edrich tucked Alan Hill away for four to become the seventeenth player to achieve this feat. Few people were watching, but nothing could detract from the feat, which had come after years of resolution, utmost concentration and exemplary courage. He was awarded the MBE in the 1977 Queen’s Birthday honours. Edrich was to play one more season after he had resigned the captaincy, and then leave the game quietly and with dignity while still a very good player. Including one day matches, his career figures were:- M I NO R HS Ave 100 50 Ct First-class 564 979 104 39790 310* 45.47 103 188 311 One Day - International 7 6 0 223 90 37.16 - 2 - One Day - MCC 4 4 0 82 41 20.50 - - 1 One Day - Surrey 149 144 18 4487 108* 35.61 1 37 43 TOTAL 724 1133 122 44582 310* 35.14 104 227 355 Notes: * next to the match number indicates John Edrich was involved in a century partnership in the match - one * for each century partnership. John Edrich usually opened the batting. On the occasions that he batted lower in the order his position is indicated in brackets. 7