• READER STORY: 70 years a fan at Newlands

    Published on | Leave a response

    Norma Edwards is celebrating her 85th birthday at Newlands Cricket Ground on Friday 1 February 2019, with her son Peter, his wife and their three kids accompanying her to the T20I match between the Proteas and Pakistan. Happy birthday, Norma!

    Norma is a big fan of Indian cricket legend MS Dhoni as well as Lance Klusener, and she is still fit enough to fetch her grandkids from school and help out with babysitting duties.

    Born on 1 February 1934, Norma has been coming to Newlands since 1949, which is a total of 70 years, so she has seen massive changes in the ground, the way cricket is played as well as changes to South African society.

    Share your cricket story & win Genesis kit worth R8 999

    Below is a picture of Norma sitting on the grass at Newlands Cricket Ground during the 1949 MCC tour to South Africa when the MCC played against Western Province at Newlands. She was 15 years old when this picture was taken.

    Norma is pictured in the front right of this clipping that was published in the Cape Argus in 1949.

    BA Edwards’ seven-for ball
    Newspaper article celebrating BA Edwards’ seven-for

    The Edwards family have always been a passionate school and club cricketers, and her late husband (he passed away in 2011) enjoyed a moment of cricket fame as a schoolboy in England. While opening the bowling for Colton Boys first team in Bristol in 1948, ‘BA’ Edwards took a unique seven-for, with five of his dismissals being bowled and two caught-and-bowled.

    Those were the days when bowlers really followed the maxim of ‘put it on the stumps and if he misses, I hit!’

    While taking seven wickets in an innings is beyond the achievements of most cricketers, what was truly amazing was that ‘BA’ took his seven wickets off seven consecutive balls. That’s a feat that only a handful of cricketers around the world have achieved at any level.

    Congratulations, Norma, on a great cricketing legacy and for being a proudly South African cricket supporter.

    – Norma Edwards (85, story submitted to the editor via her son, Peter Edwards)

    Share your memory of being a cricket supporter & win Genesis kit worth R8 999

    Photos: Edwards Family Archives

    Post by

    Simon Lewis