Brian Charles Adams QSM Obituary

16 October 1940 – 22 July 2025

The club was incredibly saddened to learn of the death of club life member #19 Brian Adams who played such an important role in our club as well as Canterbury Cricket.

With extensive roles and achievements in cricket we will try and provide a summary specifically in relation to BWCUCC. His club and association involvement includes London New Zealand CC (London and South Island Branch), Valley of the Peace, The Willow’s CC,

Brian’s passion for sport in particular rugby and cricket started off at a young age and was further fostered while attending Heaton Intermediate and then onto St Andrew’s College in Christchurch captaining the school in 1st XV rugby and 1st XI cricket as well representing the school with basketball during the mid-1950s before attending both Canterbury and Otago Universities where he played as a wicket-keeper batsman and was selected in a NZ Universities touring team in 1965.

He was selected for the NZ Ambassadors Team for 1970 which toured South America, West Indies, USA and UK from February to June. Link to Scorecards here: https://archive.nzc.nz/Players/425/425737/Miscellaneous_Matches.html

His playing involvement in our club, West Christchurch-University CC as it was then, started in 1959 and continued through to 1988 playing in Presidents Grade. In the 1969/70 side our senior team was stacked with international and first-class players who all played club cricket.

Brian served on a number of committees as a treasurer, club captain and senior selector and as President of the club from 1979-81, becoming a life member in 1980. He produced the 75th history of the club in 1980 as well as the 100th Year History of the Club in 2005. Brian’s commitment to the history of the club as well as a role as statistician saw him undertake, with Tony Feely, a project to produce statistics for all senior side players from 1905 to the current day. A tremendous amount of work that took years to complete.

As Club Captain of the West Christchurch – University Cricket Club in 1970/71 he was part of the four person group which initiated discussions on the move from Hagley Oval and a merger with Burnside Suburban Cricket Club and move to Burnside Park, a very turbulent time in the clubs history.

His service to the administration of cricket for Canterbury Cricket started as a volunteer from 1975 and went on to include Chairman, President, Board Member and Life Member as well as spending 9 years on Lancaster Park Board of Control. He served on the New Zealand Cricket Council from 1988-96. Christchurch Metro Cricket have the administrator of the year award named after Brian Adams. https://www.canterburycricket.org.nz/news/remembering-brian-adams-1940-2025/

Brian was asked to research potential sites for the first class home of cricket in Christchurch twice, firstly with the establishment of the Village Green at QEII Park and again after the 2011 Earthquakes and he was closely involved in the decision to develop Hagley Oval.

In the 2013 New Year’s honours list Brian received the Queen’s Service Medal for services to cricket.

In 2021 the club was extremely grateful to members Martin Conway and Mike Fisher who were able to sit down with Brian to capture his memories as part of a series called “Legends of Burnside” which is available on Youtube here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN6mhmY_2zdfgMHP_2H1rPLVucvKVU4KE&si=lR-P3i5oA0Rl9FNj

Brian was always willing to provide his knowledge and guidance – a true gentleman who offered fantastic service to both BWCUCC and Canterbury. Our deepest condolences to all the Adams family. Rest in Peace Brian.

We have uploaded the video of Brian’s funeral service to YouTube here: