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 st ...

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 Cup ...

s for

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Life and career

Edwards was born in Nelson, and attended Nelson College. He was a short, stocky wicketkeeper who was a good enough batsman to make his Test debut against Australia 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 ...

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 numb ...

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

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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 m ...

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 ...

for Nelson 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 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