Lives in Cricket No 40 - Edwin Smith

134 Team mates and friends smoked that much could be a professional sportsman, but it turned out that it was the Friar’s Balsam that he used on his fingers! He was a small man but had long fingers, which enabled him to really grip the ball and get good turn. As his career went on I think his fingers gave him problems and he bowled an increasing number of arm balls. I used to tell him to spin more and keep the arm ball as a surprise weapon, but that aside, he consistently took wickets to the end of his career. Edwin gave no clue in his action that he was going to bowl the arm ball. I kept to John Emburey many times and told him that I noticed that he turned his head away when he bowled his version of it. He had no idea he did that and from the number of wickets he took with it, very few batsmen spotted it either! Where Geoff and Venkat scored over Edwin was in their height. They were both tall men, as were his rivals over the years like David Allen, John Mortimore and Jim Laker. That gave them an extra weapon of bounce, which could be a potent one in the right conditions. Edwin was smaller, but without a doubt he was a very fine bowler over many years. He’s also worn very well and still has that quiff that makes him look younger than a lot of us! The author and Edwin, October 2014.