Jock: stocky and both barrels
In 1977, chunky Nelson cricketer Jock Edwards belted 99 runs for Central Districts against Australia at Trafalgar Park. He looks back with Gavin Bertram on the famous innings that got him selected for New Zealand.
Jock Edwards didn’t reckon he was out on 99 – but he thought Dennis Lillee’s earlier lbw shout was good. The three-day match between Central Districts and Australia at Trafalgar Park in February 1977 wasn’t the first time the two had met.
Two years earlier they’d had a heated exchange when New Zealand beat Western Australia the final of the Gillette Cup – then Australia’s domestic one-day competition.
The young Edwards didn’t know much about Lillee before that trip across the Tasman.
‘‘I read an article on the plane on the way over,’’ he remembers. ‘‘(New Zealand bowler) Richard Collinge, who I was sitting next to, handed me an article in the Australian Post on Dennis Lillee. They always said he was quick but I didn’t realise how quick he was.’’
Edwards soon found out. But in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, he took on the notoriously ferocious pace man with both the bat and his mouth.
Although he scored only 12 runs, he wasn’t cowed by Lillee’s reputation, bashing a couple of fours and matching the Perth bowler’s verbal volleys. Almost four decades on, Edwards describes the encounter as ‘‘interesting’’.
‘‘And it was interesting after the game too,’’ he recalls.
‘‘He came and sat next to me in the sheds and he took the top off a tear-top bottle which I’d never seen before and introduced himself. And he apologised: ‘I didn’t realise you were only 18’.
‘‘He sat for a good hour yakking away – it was really good.’’
Perhaps, because of that meeting, when Australia visited Nelson to play Central Districts in 1977, Edwards wasn’t daunted by the prospect of facing Lillee’s bowling again.
He says several local speedsters helped him prepare, and domestic cricket in New Zealand, facing the likes of Richard and Dayle Hadlee, and Otago’s Murray Webb meant he was reasonably battle hardened.
Lillee was injured early in Australia’s tour, with the match against Central Districts his comeback after not appearing against Northern Districts or Wellington.
Australia also featured quick bowlers Max Walker and Gary Gilmour, spin merchant Ray Bright, and batsmen of Greg Chappell and Kim Hughes’ calibre.
They opened the batting but, after a healthy start, the Central Districts bowlers Dennis Kay (4-34), Rod Thomas (2-36) and Richard Ellis (3-44) dismissed them for a meagre 126 runs.
‘‘Trafalgar Park was always pretty friendly batting wise,’’ Edwards says. ‘‘But that particular wicket I remember the Aussies complained about because it kept very low. It was the first time I’ve seen a keeper, Rod Marsh, wear a mouth guard, because it was doing quite a lot off the pitch. It was a wee bit up and down.’’
With Lillee and Walker sailing in, Central Districts wouldn’t have an easy time either. It was Bright who really did the damage though, taking an astounding five wickets for five runs, as Central succumbed for 156.
Edwards top scored in that innings, contributing an admirable 49 runs, though he says that knock has been erased from his memory by what came later.
The Australians were far more convincing on the second day, collating 312 runs at a rapid clip. And so, early on day three, Central Districts were left to chase an unlikely total.
Edwards says it was always going to be a difficult task on that Trafalgar Park wicket but they figured they had nothing to lose and would give it a go.
Unfortunately for him, his stint as opening batsman looked to have been prematurely ended when he was struck on the elbow by a vicious Walker delivery. Edwards retired hurt on 5.
‘‘I went to hook him and got hit,’’ he recalls.
‘‘It must have been on a nerve because I couldn’t hold the bat and my arm just kept shaking. I ended up going off and went and saw a doctor.
‘‘When I got back it was still bloody sore but we went back to the ground.’’
Against the advice of various people, including his mother who was doing the catering at Trafalgar Park, Edwards strode back out with Central Districts reeling at 74-4.
What came next is a thing of legend, as he took to the Australian attack in an incendiary manner.
That was, of course, his natural instinct as a batsman. Although Edwards says a lot of people had tried to temper his aggression during his formative cricketing years, ‘‘I always seemed to revert back to being a big hitter’’.
It was an instinct that served him well as he smashed numerous fours and a couple of sixes against Walker, Bright, Gilmour, and Kerry O’Keefe. As usual, Lillee was the exception, with figures of 4-9 from seven overs.
Among his victims – eventually – was Edwards, out leg before wicket for 99 runs.
‘‘It was very satisfying getting 99 against an Aussie side,’’ he reflects. ‘‘The local umpire (Mansfield Rangi) gave me out lbw. I wasn’t too happy. I actually didn’t think I was out on 99 but I thought I was out on 87 – Lillee had a fairly good lbw shout for me then. It was very memorable – someone said the 99 would be more remembered than if I’d got 100.’’
He remembers there being a large crowd at Trafalgar Park that day, and says he knows someone who lost their job because they couldn’t resist coming down when they heard Jock Edwards was belting the Aussies around.
In a humorous twist, he was presented with $99 for being awarded the Man of the Match, rather than the customary $100.
Central Districts lost the game but as a consequence of his combined 148 runs, Edwards was selected for the New Zealand side for two tests against Australia when Jeremy Coney became ill.
Mark Burgess, who became New Zealand cricket captain in 1978, batted with Edwards during the first test in Christchurch.
The Nelsonian scored 34 in his first ever test innings, chipping in 15 more in the second as the test was drawn.
In Auckland, he hit 11 fours on the way to 51 in a losing cause.
‘‘He was full of bloody life,’’ Burgess says. ‘‘He was a talented batsman. ‘‘In the first test he was playing shots that I wouldn’t have dreamt of attempting in my first test match – or even at that stage of my career.
‘‘If the ball was half there, he played the shot, which is more or less what happens today.’’
Edwards brushes off any suggestion that he was a pioneer of modern batting practices, saying the cricket today is an entirely different proposition to what it was in the 1970s.
But he does lament the fact international sides are no longer able to embark on lengthy domestic tours, as Australia did in New Zealand in early 1977.
‘‘It is a bit disappointing that they don’t play as much as they used to, like the old full tours,’’ Edwards says.
‘‘When we went to England in 1978 we played all the county sides.
‘‘You don’t get that opportunity now.’’