Norfolk born in 1916, Bill Edrich was a fearless all-rounder who won the DFC as a daylight RAF bomber pilot during the Second World War and was one of four brothers from a cricketing family who went on to play first-class cricket. He represented Middlesex from 1937 to 1958, (1953 to 1957 as captain) and played 571 first-class matches, scoring 36,965 runs with 86 centuries with a top score of 267 n.o. versus Northamptonshire at Northampton in 1947. He also achieved 479 wickets with a best performance of 7 for 48 and he also took 529 catches. Playing 39 Tests for England between 1938 and 1954/55 he scored 2,440 runs with a best of 219 versus South Africa at Durban in 1938/39 and he toured abroad five times. He scored eight double hundreds for Middlesex. He exceeded 2,000 runs in a season 9 times and hit 3,589 runs including 12 centuries in 1947 an aggregate only exceeded by Denis Compton. He represented Norfolk at minor county level and also played soccer for Norwich City and Tottenham Hotspur before the war. He died at Chesham, Buckinghamshire in 1986.
