Mike Edwards (cricketer)

Michael John 'Mike' Edwards is a former English cricketer who played for Cambridge University from 1960 to 1962 and for Surrey from 1961 to 1974. He was a batsman who had only limited success until he became an opener in 1966. He was also a fine short-leg fielder.

After attending Alleyn's School, he went to Cambridge University. He played only eight times for the university team in three years (once in 1960, four times in 1961 and thrice in 1962), having little success and failing to get his Blue.

He played twice for Surrey in 1961 while still at Cambridge, his first match being against Warwickshire at the end of July. He did not appear for Surrey in 1962, and then played on three more occasions in 1963. It was not until 1964 that he began to appear regularly. In that year he played in 18 games, scoring 669 runs at an average of 22.30. The following season, 15 games brought him 401 runs at 19.09.

Until now he had been batting in the middle of the order, but at the end of June 1966 he was given the chance to open the batting, with Mickey Stewart dropping down the order. This transformed his fortunes, and he struck up a productive opening partnership with John Edrich. The pair would go on to have 17 century partnerships for the first wicket. Edwards made his first century that season, and reached 1,000 runs, the first of five occasions on which he did so. In 21 matches he made 1,064 runs at 30.40. He also held 41 catches, almost two catches per match. During the season he was awarded his county cap.

The following year he scored 1,413 runs in 31 matches, with two more hundreds. He also held 53 catches. Excluding wicket-keepers, this is the ninth highest number of catches ever held in a season for Surrey.

In 1967-8 he toured Pakistan with a Commonwealth XI. He managed five fifties in 13 innings, though without scoring a century.