Hiley Edwards

Thanks merse.......Dad has had to do two in two weeks, another good cricket mate Dave Cater of his passed away recently.....sad times indeed. To see Hiley's health deteriorate over the last few summers has been really sad to see but the determination he showed to be there every week last season to watch his lad play for Paignton summed up the courage of the man.
I've actually had the pleasure of playing with or against all of the clan.....all fine sportsmen as you say, and all completely different characters. Hiley was the least talented of the 3 brothers.....Paul and Chris were so naturally gifted, Hiley, however achieved far more.....isn't that so often the case.
I first played against Hiley in the early 90's, he was captain of Paignton then and i was keeping for Torquay......as was the case in those days, the bay derbies were fiercely contested and intense cricket with more than a bit of banter flying around.
They had bowled us out cheaply and we were starting to make inroads into their batting when Hiley came in....at a precarious 20-3 or so. We had a particulary slippery quickie called Craig Ross from NZ....who was particulary fired up that day, i had a word in his ear about "targetting" the captain, and he tore in to try and soften Hiley up with lots of short stuff........Hiley, was not really a good enough batsman....to either get out of the way or play some shots against top quality quick short bowling......so he did neither and instead took blow after blow on all parts of the body......and never flinched once, he scored just 4 runs in an hour and half but had done the job of blunting our attack.......and they won. It would be unfair to say that that innings summed him up perfectly because he could also play a fair bit too, you dont Captain Devon unless you can.
Over the last decade or so since i joined Paignton, i have had the pleasure of playing with his two lads.....Mark, who was so like Hiley and made every bit of his talent count.......sadly gave up cricket to become a brain surgeon (ironic eh!) and Simon who is a great mate of mine and still plays, a naturally gifted lookalike of Paul who is a real character (but not the brightest!) - in a few months he won 400k on line with a horse betting system......and bought a lotus, house in Spain, the lot......only to lose the lot again in a few months with just a shrug and a smile.
Next season won't seem the same without him....

He certainly did Darren.......that was his second spell at Manns he was a salesman, driver and a banana ripener......he was Harry Smith's assistant before taking over from him when Harry retired.
Dave was a smashing bloke.......who in many ways, led a tragic life but was always laughing and joking, he was a good friend to me over a number of years, he was the keeper at Galmpton where i played as a yougster and a damn good one.......superb hands and reflexes for a guy in his late 40's, one week he got injured during a game and i volunteered to take over the gloves to cut a long story short, he decided to not play again and he retired from cricket just like that and said he wanted to be my w/k coach! He was as good as his word and taught me all he knew......especially about the menthal side of the game, he had strange methods but they worked......he always insisted on complete bravery.......i still remember throwing hundreds of cricket balls at my head from a few paces away......it was catch them or wear them!

He was a terrific all round sportsman when he was younger.......as a teenager he looked set for a good career, as in the winter he was goalkeeper for barrow and in the summer he kept wicket for Lancs II's......a combination of being hopeless with women and a gambling addiction that was to trouble him all of his life, meant he had to flee the area sharpish and ended up down here in his early 20's.
He turned up one week at Chelston's nets where my Dad also in his early 20's was playing.........over the next few years they became great friends and Dave came to work at Mann's as my Dad had just taken over the business from his father was keen to give his mate a job. To cut another long story short......it was a nightmare....Dave was a driver salesman (in those days it was all sold to the shops etc straight from the lorry)....he was good at the job and always had the gift of the gab.......the problem was, because of his gambling addiction he kept putting the days takings on a horse at the end of his round! Every day he would come back and see the old man with a hard luck story and swear to get the money for him the following morning...........this went on for weeks even months, he was as good as his word and always got the money back by the following morning.....then eventually one day he didnt show up, he just vanished.
A year later my Dad got a letter from him.......he was in wormwood scrubs, starting a long stretch. He was obviously very apologetic about what had happened..........he had been getting the money from 3 or 4 different young local girls from rich Torquay families who were easily fed a sob story by a smooth talking handsome guy......Merse will probably know one or two of them ......the fathers found out, a lot of money was involved.

They kept in touch for a while.....then one day nearly 20 years later he turned up on the old man's doorstep again, he again played for Dad's cricket team and worked at Mann's again, all went well this time thanfully..... this would be the time when you knew him from Darren.
He had previously to that been a window cleaner.......but fell of his ladder doing on old Victorian house and landed arse 1st....straight on the iron fence spikes....... ........i know, awful!

Dave found happiness in his life at last a year before he died when his daughter, who he had not seen since she was little found him.....

For someone, whose family had virtually disowned him.........there was a huge turn out of friends to say farewell to him at his funeral service.

.................which reminds me of a "horsey woman" I once found myself chatting to in a country pub by the Kennet and Avon Canal near Marlborough in the company of Capitalgull and K1pper m.B.E.

As one would expect on these occasions I was asked by a rather inebriated ladyship if I followed the hounds to which I replied in the affirmative:
"Oh, who do you hunt with?"
'The Newham & Essex Beagles madam"
"I haven't heard of them, where do they hunt?"
'Hackney madam, mainly around this very environment in fact'
"and what is your quarry?"
'Supermarket trolleys madam, mainly out of the canal'

Didn't "get a pull" that night!