Peter Walker Dies

Former Glamorgan and England cricketer and broadcaster Peter Walker has died aged 84 after a stroke.

Walker played three Tests for England against South Africa in 1960, finishing on the winning side every time.

He spent his entire first-class career with Glamorgan, and after retirement presented sports news on BBC Wales television.

He was appointed an MBE in the 2011 New Year's Honours List and served as president of Glamorgan Cricket Club.

Bristol-born Walker was a true all-rounder - he batted, he bowled and is regarded as the best close catcher to take the field for Glamorgan.

In the 1961 season he completed the double of scoring 1,000 runs and claiming 100 first-class wickets and also took 73 catches - many taken at his specialist fielding position of short-leg.

Walker's main strength was his consistency, and he scored 1,000 runs in a season 11 times during a career which started in 1955.

On two of those occasions - in 1965 and 1966 - he achieved the landmark without scoring a century.

He was a key member of the side - led by Tony Lewis - which won the County Championship in 1969.

Walker retired at the end of the 1972 season to further his already-established career as a broadcaster with BBC Wales.

The director of BBC Cymru Wales, Rhodri Talfan Davies, praised his role as one of Wales best known broadcasters.

"Peter made the switch from cricket to broadcasting in the blink of an an eye - becoming a familiar voice to millions over almost two decades with the BBC," Davies said.

"In a distinguished career, he introduced network television coverage of the Sunday League cricket as well as presenting BBC Wales Today and numerous sports programmes on both radio and television.

"Peter was always the consummate professional - admired for his warmth, intelligence and forensic all-round sporting knowledge.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends."

In later life Walker was appointed chief executive of the Cricket Board of Wales and helped introduce a nationwide coaching framework and plan the National Cricket Centre in Cardiff.

And in 2009 he was elected president of Glamorgan County Cricket Club, but resigned the following year in protest at the way the club was being run by its then-chairman Paul Russell.

Current Chairman Gareth Williams said, "Everyone at Glamorgan is saddened to hear this news. Peter was a club legend, a man who gave everything he could to the club he loved while playing, and later in an off-field capacity.

"He gave so much back to the game, in particular through his work with Cricket Wales and the National Cricket Centre, and through his outstanding service as President of Glamorgan."

The county's Chief Executive Hugh Morris also paid tribute to Walker.

"A combination of world-class catching ability, aggressive batting and accurate spin made him a triple threat and a brilliant all-rounder," said Morris, also a former England test player.

"He helped Glamorgan to win a County Championship title and represented England, making him a true legend of the club.

"We may never see another player quite like him, and he will be missed by everyone at the club."

Big-hitting New Zealand, Central Districts, and Nelson cricketer Jock Edwards dies

05/04/2020 Stuff.co.nz

Jock Edwards, a New Zealand cricket international renowned for his big-hitting batting, has died aged 64.

Central Districts Cricket Association posted a message of heartfelt condolences on Facebook on Monday for the Nelson cricket stalwart.

Edwards was a wicketkeeper-batsman who played six tests and eight one-day internationals for New Zealand in the 1970s and 80s as well as 67 first-class matches and 31 one-layers for Central Districts.

He was also a member of the Nelson side that held on to the Hawke Cup for 14 matches between February 1979 and February 1983.

In another social media post, the association said: "Jock was a terrific teammate and an entertainer in the game whom we know will be hugely missed".

Among his accomplishments is the time he hit a delivery from Ewen Chatfield into the lake at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.

Edwards garnered a reputation as a big hitter and in 2011 he told the Nelson Mail that while some coaches had tried to rein him in, he "didn't listen to them".

"I remember when I opened against India in a one-day international, I was out to Bishan [Singh] Bedi for 41 and Glenn Turner [the other opening batsman] was still on three or four at the other end," Edwards said.

"I also remember opening with Graeme Lowans against Marlborough and I reached 100 and Graeme was 13."

He also shared that the biggest six he'd ever hit was one he hit "out of Trafalgar Park" in Nelson that "ended up in Blenheim".

"The ball landed on a TNL truck in Trafalgar St and the driver found it when he got to Spring Creek."

His approach to the game was summed up by his thoughts on Twenty20 cricket, shared in the same interview.

"Yes, very much so," was his reply when asked if he would have liked to have played the game's shortest format, which rose to prominence in the early 2000s.

"It's more like a backyard game, I'd have loved it."

Edwards' international career consisted of matches against Australia, England, and India.

His standout performance came against England at Eden Park in March 1978, when he made his highest score of 55 in the first innings and 54 in the second as the match ended in a draw.

He scored five centuries for Central Districts in first-class cricket as well as a memorable 99 for the association in 1977 against a touring Australian side whose attack was led by Dennis Lillee.

In 2013, Edwards said the innings, ended by Lillee, who got him LBW, was "very satisfying".

Tony Lewis, the mathematician and statistician who co-devised what became known as the Duckworth-Lewis method for settling weather-affected limited-overs matches, has died at the age of 78.

Lewis and fellow academic Frank Duckworth came together to produce a fairer method of settling such games than the controversial system which had been used at the 1992 World Cup.

Their new system was first used in 1997 for a Zimbabwe v England game, and officially adopted by the International Cricket Council in 1999.

Duckworth-Lewis calculates targets based on the batting team's remaining resources - wickets in hand, and overs in hand - via mathematical formulae.

In 2014, Australian professor Steven Stern became the custodian of the system, on the retirements of Duckworth and Lewis, and it is now known as the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method.

The England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement: "Cricket is deeply indebted to both Tony and Frank's contributions to the sport. We send our sincere condolences to Tony's family."

Born in Bolton, Lewis was a lecturer at the University of the West of England when he and Duckworth came together after South Africa's target in the 1992 World Cup semi-final against England was comically reduced from 22 runs off 13 balls to 22 runs off one ball.

Duckworth explained in 2007: "I recall hearing Christopher Martin-Jenkins on radio saying 'surely someone, somewhere, could come up with something better' and I realised that it was a mathematical problem that required a mathematical solution." BBC Sport