Graham Neil Edwards (27 May 1955 – 6 April 2020) was a New Zealand

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He played eight Test matches and six

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

s for

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Life and career

Edwards was born in

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

, and attended

Nelson College Nelson College is the oldest state secondary school in New Zealand. It is an all-boys school in the City of Nelson that teaches from years 9 to 13. In addition, it runs a private preparatory school for year 7 and 8 boys. The school also has ...

. He was a short, stocky wicketkeeper who was a good enough batsman to make his Test debut against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1976–77 as a specialist. He was brought back in 1977–78 as a wicketkeeper-batsman and made 55 and 54 on his comeback against England at Auckland. That won him selection for the England tour in 1978 where his performances were disappointing – one member of the BBC commentary team said that Edwards was "the worst wicketkeeper I've ever seen ... he's made mistakes you'd have the 3rd XI 'keeper at school running round the pitch for". But the genial Edwards kept his spirits up and was a popular tourist. He returned for three home Tests against India in 1980–81 where he chipped in with useful runs, but the emergence of

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

signalled the end of his international career. Edwards played first-class and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

for

Central Districts The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

from 1973–74 to 1984–85. His highest first-class score was 177

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

against

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in 1980–81, which was also his most successful season, with 812 runs at an average of 47.76. He was also a prominent player in the

Hawke Cup The Hawke Cup is a non-first-class cricket competition for New Zealand's district associations. Apart from 1910–11, 1912–13 and 2000–01 the competition has always been on a challenge basis. To win the Hawke Cup, the challengers must beat t ...

for

for many years, scoring 236 against North Canterbury in his last match, including six sixes and 29 fours. After retiring from cricket he ran a pub in Murchison, then worked as a gate-keeper at Port Nelson. He had several minor heart attacks before undergoing surgery for a

triple bypass Coronary artery bypass surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, pronounced "cabbage") is a surgical procedure to treat coronary artery disease (CAD), the buildup of plaques in the arteries of the heart. It can relieve chest pai ...

in 2007. He died on 6 April 2020.

References

External links

Jock Edwards
at CricketArchive
"Jock Edwards a leading big hitter"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Jock 1955 births 2020 deaths New Zealand cricketers New Zealand Test cricketers New Zealand One Day International cricketers Central Districts cricketers People educated at Nelson College Cricketers from Nelson, New Zealand Wicket-keepers South Island cricketers