Tony Edwards was brought up in Surrey, where his love for the game of cricket blossomed. Photo/John Stone
He's been a willing slave to the game he has loved since childhood and because of his dedication many a junior cricket player had also learned to love the game. An icon of the game in Whangarei, Tank Edwards talks to Northern Advocate sports editor Andrew Johnsen
'It's the best seat in the house really."
Whether it's putting in stumps, serving coffee or umpiring senior games, you can bet you'll see Tony "Tank" Edwards out on Kensington Park every Saturday morning in the summer.
A typical Saturday sees him spend all day there, taking care of junior cricketers before preparing for a full afternoon of officiating seniors.
"Usually by 7.30 I'm at Kensington Park and I put the wickets and flags out for all the C grade matches. I put out the notice board so parents can find the games," he said.
"I turn on the coffee machine for the parents when they turn up around 8 to 8.30am and serve coffees until about 10.30am.
"The scores and wickets then start coming in and I get ready to umpire that afternoon. I'm out in the middle usually until around 6pm."
Brought up in London, Edwards was "sold into slavery", working at the Oval in Surrey, one of the world's most iconic cricket grounds.
"When I was about six or seven Dad took me to see a few games at the Oval and I was hooked.
"Our first sports master at school made an arrangement with Surrey where we all had jobs doing score sheets and things like that. My job was to work the scoreboard.
"Surrey would give us coaching and let us play a few games on the Oval near the start and end of the seasons."
It was in Surrey that Edwards first earned the nickname "Tank", one that has stuck with him in his travels across the world.
"When I was about seven or eight playing football, there were three of us all called Tony. The coach said we had to have nicknames because people would get confused.
"One of the opposition coaches saw me running the ball and he said 'he looks like a Sherman tank running there', and it's stuck."
His travels led him to Greece where he met his wife Kathy. That planted the seed of venturing to Whangarei where Kathy was brought before she headed to Greece during her OE.
Once they arrived on New Zealand shores, Edwards immediately got stuck back into playing the game he loves. But he took an extra step at Kamo Cricket Club.
"I was playing for Kamo and we had an arrangement with Kamo High School to borrow some players to play for us when we were short if we helped them out by umpiring and coaching.
"After a while they had no one organising junior cricket in Kamo so I took that over for 14 years.
"It was tough making sure they all had gear and coaches.
"There were no cellphones back in those days so I spent a lot of time talking on the phone."
Taking on duties with junior cricketers became the norm for Edwards, who had roles across all age groups and had the pleasure of watching kids grow into good cricketers.
He said it wasn't always the natural talents that gave him pleasure.
"Some of the players came in and you could tell they were going to be good cricketers right away. Ben Hyde was one of those who had it straight away. You don't have any worries about kids like that.
"But there are other ones who come in and say 'oh I can't bowl' and then one day the light switches on and they realise they can do it. Those are the really rewarding moments."
Once his sons Ben, Michael and James were out of high school, Edwards thought he was going to "drop high school cricket, focus on junior cricket and then retire gracefully a few years later".
That didn't work out - to the benefit of Northland cricket - and he was rewarded for his ongoing efforts with the Sir Jack Newman Award at the New Zealand Cricket Awards, which recognises an outstanding junior cricket administrator for his or her past and present services to the development of junior cricket in New Zealand.
Not usually one for accolades, Edwards was honoured.
"It was great to be recognised. I don't do it for glory or honour. I do it because I love the game and watching kids coming through.
"I love seeing the faces on the kids when they score their first run or their first boundary in hard ball cricket. The best thing is watching kids trying to run in pads for the first time which is worth the price of admission alone.
"After I received the award, a lot of people came up to shake hands and thank us for our efforts. Mike Hesson came from the other side of the room to say thanks for all the hard work and guys like Lee Germon and Craig McMillian did the same.
"Then to get together with Tim Southee and a few other Northlanders really made the night special."
Edwards isn't planning to hang up the umpire's uniform quite yet, even with the increased numbers of officials in the game.
He gets far too much out of the game to do that.
"You can't get a better view. I went down to a game the other day and [fellow umpire] Jeff Ogle said it was really weird seeing the game from so far away.
"The best part is when the game goes well and nobody questions the decisions, which isn't very often, and you know in your mind that you made the right calls.
"There are moments with LBWs and caught behinds, two of the toughest calls, where you sometimes question whether you got it right which is definitely the tough bit.
"It's the best seat in the house though. You get to watch centuries and fifties.
"There was one player who had never scored a fifty. It was his last match and he got there.
"The look on his face made it all worth it."