Tributes flow for Sharp
Peter Sharp – ‘‘The Voice of Canterbury Cricket’’ and ‘‘The Sound of Summer’’ – was yesterday farewelled by former players, administrators, colleagues, friends and family.
Sharp lost his battle with an aggressive form of melanoma on Saturday, and several hundred people attended his funeral in the Christchurch suburb of Burnside.
Unsurprisingly, his three sons, Hayden, Tim and Austin, all spoke well.
They reminded everyone that although Sharp was a public figure, the unofficial mayor of St Andrew’s Square in Elmwood, a cricketing and commentating identity and a hard-working administrator, he ‘‘was just dad’’ to them.
Publicly, however, most knew Sharp as a cricket commentator – a job he did for 44 years after a two-year firstclass playing career.
Although he was known for his meticulous preparation, son Tim revealed how his boys were also a resource.
In 1983, when the touring Sri Lankans played at Lancaster Park, Sharp insisted his sons, who worked on the scoreboard, arrived early to familiarise themselves with the players.
The Sri Lankan opening batsmen were near identical brothers, Sidath and Mithra Wettimuny.
It wasn’t until later, when Bruce Edgar was caught in the gully by Mithra, that Tim realised all the homework they’d put in was so their father – unsure which Wettimuny was which – could call the game off the scoreboard that they were operating.
Austin told how Sharp laboured to ensure his grandson, Sachin – named after Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar – could practice the game.
Austin and his partner Shalini live in San Francisco and on a hill, but Sharp ordered three tonnes of soil and shingle gravel to flatten out the back lawn.
The delivery trucks had no access to the back of the house, so they dumped all the material on the front lawn.
Sharp, aged 70 at the time, moved the lot into place and he and Austin built the ground up to level.
‘‘It was perfectly flat,’’ Austin said. ‘‘Well, except for a wee patch about a foot outside offstump where there was a wee mound’’ – the perfect target for his father’s flat, probing offspinners.
The Press will run a full obituary tomorrow.