Sports Roundup and Jock Edwards were made for each other

If you believe some of the published versions of the demise of Radio Sport, you would think 'sports radio' only had its origins in the 1980s.

The fact is a form of sports radio had been around since the late-1950s.

It ran on what was called the YC network out of the respective stations in the four main centres. At a few key times during the day, the National Programme would cross for half an hour of action, which was about the only time country listeners received a non-static version of the programme.

It ran during the summer months, and usually in conjunction with the Plunket Shield. No play on days between games then no Sports Roundup, as it was called.

The coverage wasn't confined to cricket. Tennis and softball enjoyed unprecedented access to their major tournaments and a level of interest that has never been regained.

Few were the people who didn't know who Onny Parun or Brian Fairlie was in tennis, or Kevin Herlihy, Dennis Cheyne, Peter Priddey, Paul Rogers, John Joyce or Basil McLean were in the softball ranks.

But it was centred around the cricket and the ability to flick from venue to venue when any action was occurring.

It is with that in mind that memories of Jock Edwards, who died this week, were evoked.

If there was one player with the ability to warrant a quick change of venue when he walked out to bat it was Edwards. He was one of a few players capable of giving the ball a nudge. Peter Coman had done it for Canterbury and Edwards maintained the momentum.

Famously, when selected for the New Zealand one-day side for the first time when it played in the Australian domestic competition during the 1960s-70s, Edwards, 20 years of age at the time, hooked a ball from fast man Dennis Lillee.

Lillee chirped him: "Where did you learn to hook, sonny?" to which Edwards replied, "From mugs like you!"

He didn't like to hang around when batting. In a time of defensive correctness above all else, he worked on the notion if the ball was there to be hit then it should be. He often joked in later years that his longest hit was a six hit out of his home ground at Trafalgar Park in Nelson, onto the back of a passing Nelson Transport truck which the driver discovered 110km later at Spring Creek, north of Blenheim.

His reputation made him a crowd favourite and he revelled in a side that had other big hitters like Lance Cairns and Wayne Hodgson.

Nelson and Pukekura Park in New Plymouth seemed to draw the best out of him.

Greg Chappell's 1977 Australian team learned that in Nelson when Edwards lined up against Lillee again, accompanied this time by Max Walker and Gary Gilmour. Having opened the first innings and scored 49 of CD's 156 in reply to Australia's 126, CD was left a target of 283 to win.

When he'd scored five Edwards retired hurt after a blow to his arm. But at 74-4, he had recovered sufficiently to join Peter Holland in a master class of attacking batting against left-arm spinner Ray Bright and leg-spinner Kerry O'Keefe.

They added 50 in 27 minutes, 100 in 52 minutes and 117 in 64 minutes before they were parted. Edwards took 13 runs off a Bright over to move to 97, adding two and then, when attempting to score the single that would have given him his maiden first-class century, he was given out lbw to Lillee. His 99 was scored in 86 minutes from 97 balls with one six and 18 fours.

Lillee proved the difference coming back to take 4-9 from his seven overs as CD fell 66 runs short.

That was sufficient to see Edwards selected for his Test debut which he marked by scoring 34 and 15 in the first Test and 51 and a duck in the second.

That elusive maiden century followed in the following season when he hit 115 against Otago.

In the 1980-81 season he enjoyed his most productive season with the bat hitting 679 runs at 56.59, a CD record that stood until Martin Crowe went berserk six years later while scoring 680 for CD during a total season's haul of 1348 runs at 103.72.

He played 92 first-class games, 67 of them for CD, scoring 4589 runs at 29.41. He hit five centuries and 25 half-centuries and had a top score of 177 not out.

Being a Nelsonian he was also part of their Hawke Cup history, hitting 1038 runs in 24 games at 37.07.

Not only was Edwards a drawcard for home fans, but he also upped the listening stats on Sports Roundup.