Devon Cricket Board - Friends and rivals bid farewell to Hiley Edwards

Lengthening shadows at the Recreation Ground in 1980 where Hiley Edwards is batting for Torquay

January 20, 2009

SOUTH Devon’s sporting community – and old friends from further afield – got out in force to bid a fond farewell to former county cricket captain Hiley Edwards, writes Conrad Sutcliffe.

   Edwards, who played cricket for Torquay Corinthians, Torquay and Paignton as well as skippering the county side between 1985-91, died of cancer last week. He was 58.

   The funeral service was held at Upton Vale Baptist Church in Torquay and conducted by the Reverend David Hibbin. It was followed by a private committal at Torquay Crematorium.

   A talented all-round sportsman – he played rugby, soccer and table tennis to a good amateur standard – Edwards had been in poor health for some years.

   His friends came to remember the vibrant sportsman with a flashing blade on the cricket square, a devastating turn of pace up the wing on the rugby field and a testing free-kick on the football pitch. Some, like former Torquay rugby pal Bob Coombe, had come all the way down from Cambridgeshire to pay their respects.

   Sprinkled among the congregation were ex-team-mates and opponents from many of the leading cricket clubs in Devon. The chairman of the Devon Cricket Board – Jim Wood – and county club secretary Geoff Evans were there as well.

   Edwards spent his entire working life in the travel industry, rising to South West regional manager for Lunn Poly. Former workmates were among the congregation, including fellow manager Keith Jacobs, who spoke of Edwards’ career.

   The main eulogy was delivered by friend and old adversary Roger Mann, who first encountered the teenage Edwards going out to bat against him in the mid-1960s in a traditionally feisty derby game between Torquay Corrinthians and Chelston at Cockington Court.

   “I had just bounced out Mike Janes, caught off his gloves, and as Mike left I looked up the hill to see a little wispy guy whose bat looked bigger than him coming in,” said Mann.

   “Alan Bearne – a big man who used to open the bowling with me – said : ‘Who is the stick insect with all the hair?’

   “I said something like: ‘I will leave him to you mate’ confident we would soon get him out.

   “An hour later he was still there and I had learned my first lesson about Hiley Edwards: you would not get him out early or easily.”

   Mann recalled Edwards’ cricket career in the main with the odd references to his prowess on the rugby and football fields.

   “Hiley’s lightning pace on the wing for Newton Abbot All Whites earned him the nickname of the Road Runner,” said Mann.

   “He played football in the South Devon League, where he was a wing-half and free-kick expert.

   “But Hiley will be best remembered as one of the finest cricketers of our generation.”

   Mann spoke of the thousands of runs Edwards scored for Torquay between 1972-88 – more than 16,000 - and his pride at being the first captain to take Devon to a Lord’s final, which he did in 1991 when Staffordshire won a thrilling game with two balls of the last over to go.

   “The 1991 final at Lord’s was the apex of his career and something he was rightly proud of,” said Mann. “Any visitor to his house would have realised that when they saw the framed scorecard of the match on one of his walls.”

   Edwards was struck down by a brain tumour in 1997 and fought health problems for the rest of his life.

  Mann said he tackled adversity in just the same way as he had dealt with devilish fast bowling or devious spinners.

   “He could easily have hidden away, but he didn’t” said Mann.

   “It was now much harder for him to cut a hedge than to hit a six over one – but he did it and cut the neighbours’ hedges as well.

   “It was much harder for him to pack his medical bag before we went to watch a match together than it had been to pack his cricket kit bag, but he did it.

   “It was much harder for him to be a role model for his sons from an armchair than the back page of the Herald Express. He did that too, and I never heard him complain. He was a brave and courageous man.”

   Mann said there were no finer words to pay tribute to Edwards than those written by former Devon CCC chairman Derek Cole, another ex-Torquay cricketer, in the 1992 edition of the county year book.

   “Hiley was described as ‘that pleasant gentleman of cricket who has powerfully supported the introduction of young players. Dignified and undemonstrative, he was a calming influence on others.’ What an epitaph.

   “He was a serious man with a wicked sense of humour. A smile would spread from the corner of his mouth, and one was never far away. He was highly principled, honest, tolerant, patient and often stubborn. But always a brave and faithful friend.”

   Son Simon Edwards read psalm 121 - I will lift up my eyes to the hills – before the service concluded.

   Hiley Edwards is survived by his wife Sue, sons Mark and Simon, mother Marion and brothers Chris and Paul.

   For more on Hiley Edwards go the the DCCC home page