PROUD PARENTS: Alison and Tom Edge in 1998 with a picture of their children (from bottom left) Thomas, Sandra, Carolyn and Margaret. File picture by Paul Rickard
Tom Edge was a rugby man through and through, but he could hardly have been more supportive as his son Thomas progressed through the grades as a footballer.
Thomas, like his sisters Sandra and Margaret in netball and hockey respectively, played for New Zealand. Another sister, Carolyn, was a sprinter of national class until she fell playing netball and seriously injured a knee.
Tom was proud of them all, and it wouldn't have mattered to him if they had never come to national prominence . . . as long as they did their best.
Tom Edge, who died last Friday at the age of 87, did his best as a matter of course. His straightforward manner and common sense made him a valued member of committees, especially when financial discipline was required.
For a spell in the 1990s, he was chairman of Gisborne City football club — never an armchair ride. Tom brought in an accountant as treasurer and they kept an iron grip on expenses while paying the bills.
A decade into the 2000s, he accepted an invitation to join the committee of the fledgling Bohemians football club, who sought the benefit of his experience and judgement. He was a valued member of the committee until health issues curtailed his involvement.
At Tom's side for nearly 60 years was his wife Alison (nee Pockett). She had gone to the East Coast as a school dental nurse, and they married in 1961. She had shown aptitude for netball and tennis in her youth, and was Marlborough College senior girls' athletic champion three years in a row. A cousin played hockey for New Zealand. Sport was in the blood.
Tom grew up in Tokomaru Bay, and played tennis and rugby. His father, also called Thomas, had left Gisborne between the world wars to relieve at a store in Hicks Bay. He then moved to Tokomaru Bay to head Gisborne Sheepfarmers' grocery department “for a few weeks” and died in the township about 50 years later.
In 1949 he bought Oates Brothers' general store. Tom joined the business in 1950 and ran it from 1964 to 1974.
After a short spell farming near Tokomaru Bay, Tom and Alison left the Coast in 1976 for an orchard at Waihirere and wider educational opportunities for their children.
East Coast rugby was a school of hard knocks when Tom played in the 1950s. In one game, he took a high ball and broke two ribs in the near-simultaneous collision with opposing players.
Afterwards, George Nepia, fullback in the 1924-25 Invincibles, talked to him. Tom recalled the conversation in an interview in 1998.
“I saw you take that high ball today, Tom,” Nepia said.
“Boy, you've got some courage, but you're stupid.
“When you're going to take a high ball, the other team's forwards are looking at you, not the ball. You have to stand to one side. As the ball comes down, move across, take it and keep moving. Don't stand there.”
Tom, in turn, told youngsters how to survive the rigorous Coast treatment.
“Buff Milner was one,” Tom said.
“I advised him many times: do your job and your job only. Don't stand around. Keep moving.”
Milner moved on, played for Wanganui and toured South Africa with the 1970 All Blacks.
Tom Edge learned it was best to get away to top competition while you were “really sound”.
“I was too battered when I went to Wellington,” he said. “I was 27 and almost a physical wreck.”
Doug Wilson, a 1953-54 All Black, had invited him to play in the capital after seeing him in Don Clarke's Invitation 15 in Napier.
Even in Wellington, Tom finished up in hospital having a knee cartilage out.
Training facilities on the Coast were basic. Headlights from parked cars lit the ground. Afterwards you washed under a tank or in the sea.
A second five-eighth or centre, Tom played for the United club of Tokomaru Bay through the 1950s. His appearances for East Coast were restricted by the presence of New Zealand Maori representative Bill Lanigan, but he had a hand in some of the Coast's finest moments.
In the slush at Ruatoria, against mighty Canterbury with their four All Blacks, the Coast came within two minutes of victory.
“We were one point ahead and on top. But just through one mistake, they scored a try and won 14-12.”
Tom gained extra fitness from hill-running and pig-hunting but the injuries kept coming.
When he suffered his second collar-bone fracture, the doctor had to be called in from Te Puia Springs Golf Club.
“I got the telling-off of my life. He said he wouldn't come and fix me up if I continued playing rugby.”
So Tom stopped.
Coast rugby was “tremendous” in the 1950s, but people were leaving the area and the standard fell as the number of players dropped.
After coaching Tokomaru Bay to Barry Cup success in the 1960s, Tom served as a referee for about 20 years, to 1989, and was an assessor.
He learned to take a lot of “flak” but had little time for sideline critics who shied away from taking up the whistle.
Tom was a Scout leader in Tokomaru Bay for two decades, served on community groups and school committees, and for over 50 years was a Masonic Lodge member.
Much of the latter part of his working life was spent at Tairawhiti Polytechnic, where he worked in the Rural Studies Unit, tutoring agricultural and horticultural students.
He is survived by his wife Alison, children Sandra, Margaret, Carolyn and Thomas, and seven grandchildren.
— by John Gillies