Bill Edrich

2024-07-18 Biography & Autobiography

Author : Leo McKinstry
Release : 2024-07-18
Genre : Biography & Autobiography
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 821/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Bill Edrich by : Leo McKinstry

Download or read book Bill Edrich written by Leo McKinstry. This book was released on 2024-07-18. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CRICKET LEGEND. WARTIME HERO. FOOTBALL STAR. WILD MAN. 'A triumph. Leo McKinstry superbly draws together the many strands of a fascinating but flawed figure' –LAWRENCE BOOTH, WISDEN 'Bill Edrich shines through these pages. A wonderful book that needed to be written' – HENRY BLOFELD, OBE 'McKinstry's biography will fascinate cricket lovers' – THE TIMES Bill Edrich's story is one of cricket victories, explosive controversies, wartime glory and a life lived to the fullest. 571 first-class matches from 1934 to 1958. 36,965 runs. 29th on all-time lists. 86 centuries. 479 wickets. Bill Edrich was one of the biggest cricket stars of his time along with Denis Compton and Len Hutton. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1940 and played football for Norwich City and Tottenham Hotspur during the 1930s. In the first biography for 30 years, award-winning writer Leo McKinstry recounts Edrich's audacity both as a cricketer and an RAF pilot. Edrich's flying prowess brought him a promotion to Squadron Leader and won him the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) after his part in a courageous daylight raid over Cologne in August 1941. The same action-filled intensity applied to his turbulent private life. A man of keen amorous enthusiasms, he was married five times but rarely allowed his ardour to be inhibited by any wedding vows. Equally unrestrained was his fondness for alcohol and partying, though this trait brought him into conflict with both the cricket and the judicial authorities. After one particularly exuberant display of intoxication during a home Test match, he even lost his place in the England team, only to return for the famous Ashes triumph of 1953. A history of cricket victories, explosive controversies, wartime glory and a life lived to the fullest, this compelling biography reveals the story of one of cricketing's greatest characters.

Michael Falcon: Norfolk’s Gentleman Cricketer

2010 Sports & Recreation

Author : Stephen Musk
Release : 2010
Genre : Sports & Recreation
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 881/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Michael Falcon: Norfolk’s Gentleman Cricketer by : Stephen Musk

Download or read book Michael Falcon: Norfolk’s Gentleman Cricketer written by Stephen Musk. This book was released on 2010. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Falcon (1888-1976) was educated at Harrow and Cambridge and proved himself to be a good enough fast bowler to be selected fourteen times for the Gentlemen. He declined to qualify by residence to play for Middlesex, preferring instead to play for his beloved Norfolk in the Minor Counties Championship. In this competition his exploits as a hard-hitting, fast-bowling all-rounder made him a dominant figure in Norfolk elevens. Appointed captain in 1912, he was still in office in 1946; he was the only man to skipper his county before the First World War and after the Second. An astute and popular leader, he was worth his place in the team to the end, finishing top of the batting averages in his final season, when aged 58. Thought of highly enough by the authorities to be co-opted on to the MCC Committee at the early age of 26, he was the only bowler of genuine pace to sit on the sub-committee which ruled on bodyline. He is most famous for the part he played in helping Archie MacLaren’s eleven to defeat Warwick Armstrong’s previously invincible 1921 tourists. Informed opinion suggests that his refusal to play for Middlesex cost him the chance to play Test cricket, but his loyalty to Norfolk was paramount and he never expressed any regrets. As a Tory M.P. and a landowning grandee, one might expect him to have been a somewhat remote and forbidding character, but he was a quiet and modest man with a love of the game which gave him a bond with the common cricketer. On one occasion he was more than ready to lead a singalong with the players of a village cricket club. Stephen Musk tells a story of privilege, public service and the pastime of cricket.

Daylight Bombing Operations 1939-1942

2015-05-30 History

Author : Martin Bowman
Release : 2015-05-30
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 774/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Daylight Bombing Operations 1939-1942 by : Martin Bowman

Download or read book Daylight Bombing Operations 1939-1942 written by Martin Bowman. This book was released on 2015-05-30. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are no records of war more valuable than the first-hand accounts of the individuals who were actually there. The vivid honesty of the stories on display here brings into sharp focus the personal fears as well as the sheer exhilaration of flying sorties by day, often through heavy flak, sometimes at hedge-hopping or wave- skimming heights, as the squadrons of Blenheims, Mosquitoes, Mitchells and Venturas swept across the Continent towards their targets.??From the outbreak of the Second World War to the eve of VE Day, the medium bomber crews of 2 Group RAF and 2nd Tactical Air Force flew vital operations over Europe. Here their story is told, month by perilous month, often in the words of the airmen themselves, their accounts supported by meticulous research. Their exploits include the first sorties of the war, the famous Operation Oyster to bomb the Philips works at Eindhoven and other low-level pinpoint attacks against key targets in occupied Europe and Scandinavia. ??While sharing in the triumph of their bombing successes, we are not spared details of the appalling sacrifices and the failed and aborted raids. These details are relayed in a series of poignant personal snapshots, highlighting the extraordinary valour of these ordinary men. Remarkable photographs include aerial views of targets under attack, as well as dramatic portraits of the aircraft involved. This book serves as a moving tribute to the efforts of the pilots involved in some of the most perilous daylight bombing operations of the Second World War.

Wisden Cricketers of the Year

2013-09-17 Sports & Recreation

Author : Simon Wilde
Release : 2013-09-17
Genre : Sports & Recreation
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 845/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Wisden Cricketers of the Year by : Simon Wilde

Download or read book Wisden Cricketers of the Year written by Simon Wilde. This book was released on 2013-09-17. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully-produced and fully-illustrated, large format celebration of the greatest players in the history of cricket.

Men of the Bombers

2005-11-19 History

Author : Ralph Barker
Release : 2005-11-19
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 436/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Men of the Bombers by : Ralph Barker

Download or read book Men of the Bombers written by Ralph Barker. This book was released on 2005-11-19. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a selection of ten remarkable true accounts of unusual incidents and happenings to Bomber Command aircrew during World War Two. It covers operations of varying natures, such as one of the first leaflet dropping raids during the 'Phoney War' when the elderly Whitley bomber proved to be a nightmare on long flights and when the crews suffered more from lack of oxygen and heating than from enemy action. The fascinating story of a famous MP who used his influence to become a tail gunner at the age of 55 and who lost his life trying to stop German Panzers before Dunkirk proves remarkable reading and a famous name in cricket, Bill Edrich, recounts his days flying low-level daylight raids in Bristol Blenheims during 1941. Then there is a young New Zealander, Jimmy Ward, who climbed out onto a Wellington bomber's wing at considerable altitude to extinguish an engine fire and how despite his own modesty he was awarded a VC. Other stories tell of amazing escapes from burning aircraft, the heroism of aircrew who sacrificed their own lives so that others may survive and how a mid-upper gunner took the controls of a Mitchell B-25 to pilot her safely home.

Popular eBooks

Bill Edrich

Michael Falcon: Norfolk’s Gentleman Cricketer

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