 He had toured Australia in 1936–37, but then as in 1946–47 he injured his hands, was unable to play for weeks at a time and his form suffered as a result.According to one selector he was only chosen because the public expected him to go.S/L Bill Edrich had been a bomber pilot during the war and won the DFC in the "RAF's most audacious and dangerous low-level bombing raid" of 1941.