Geoff Edrich

Lancashire cricketer demonstrating all the family virtues

Geoffrey Arthur Edrich, cricketer: born Lingwood, Norfolk 13 July 1918; married (three sons, two daughters); died Cheltenham, Gloucestershire 2 January 2004.

Geoff Edrich was one of the famous Norfolk clan of cricketers that included the brothers Bill (Middlesex and England), Eric (Lancashire) and Brian (Kent) and was a cousin of John (Surrey and England). Like his elder brother Eric he first appeared for his Minor County pre-war before joining Lancashire, whom he served as a highly reliable middle-order batsman, demonstrating all the family virtues. Defiance might have been the Edrichs' middle name.

He spent 12 years with Lancashire, playing 322 first-class matches, and eight times passed 1,000 runs, his best summer coming in 1952 when he passed 2,000 at an average of 41. He could also bowl right-arm medium-pace seamers but will be remembered by those Lancastrians who attended Old Trafford 50 years ago as one of Roy Tattersall's deadly leg trap. Edrich, along with Jack Ikin and Ken Grieves, formed a trio of white sharks waiting on and around the corner when the lanky Tattersall's off-spin made the ball spit, lift and turn on drying surfaces. All three were brilliant catchers and it was their success, along with Surrey's similar support for Jim Laker and Yorkshire's for Bob Appleyard, that brought a change in the laws and a restriction on leg-side fielders behind the wicket.

What was little known of Geoff Edrich was that he had spent four years of his life as a prisoner of war of Japan during the Second World War, moving from Changi Jail in Singapore to the infamous Burma railroad. While in Changi he later confessed that he had sold his wedding ring to a Japanese guard for quinine to treat himself and other prisoners for malaria. His wife Olga, to whom he was married for 64 years, had no word of him for 24 months and thought him dead.

He toured India with the Commonwealth XI in 1953-54 and at the end of his Lancashire career spent a further two seasons with Cumberland. He then settled in Gloucestershire, where he played club cricket for Cheltenham. Geoff Jones, a friend and team-mate of those days, recalled him as

a proud man, proud of Norfolk and Lancashire, pretty quiet but who loved to talk cricket. What he would never mention was his wartime experiences.

Edrich was a regular visitor to the Cheltenham Cricket Festival and his arrival in the press box, on a warm summer's afternoon, prompted many a happy reminiscence.

Derek Hodgson