Cricket 1913

C R I C K E T : a w e e k l y r e c o r d o f t h e g a m e .— J u l y s t h , 1 9 1 3 . Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. No 45>.VM ' ^ W Se""s' SATURDAY, JULY 5 , 1913. [ “ 1 ^ ‘ £ p 0 ] p « . « 2 d . Tom Hayward. H a y w a r d ’ s great achievement in scoring his hundredth century is the outcome o f self-denial and hard work, and is a fitting reward for all the time and trouble he has taken over the game. I doubt if any professional has been more careful in his living or more painstaking in his methods to attain success for the captains for whom and the sides for which he has played. A more popular player alike with spectators and with those who have bad the pleasure o f playing with him there has never been. E x ­ periences in the past have told one that he is the type o f player who reduces the worries and anxieties o f a captain to a minimum. No batsman has ever quite filled me with such supreme confidence, and not a few o f my own suc­ cesses with the bat have been due in no small measure to the fact that T have had such a gloriously sound partner at the other end. Only those who have taken part in big games know what a difference there is between partnering Tom H ayw ard and partnering a nervy batsman who sand­ wiches wind-and-water strokes between fine cricketing shots. I wonder how many bowlers Tom has worn down for his comrades to lay out absolutely flat? F o r absolute soundness Tom H ayw ard has always occu­ pied, in my mind, a very easy first place. H e possesses, too, the ideal temperament for a cricketer, and I never recollect seeing him put out over any circumstance con­ nected with the game. One o f my most valued pictures is one o f Tom and m yself going in together at Sydney in a Test match— it brings back, as W ilkie Bard would say, “ happy days, happy d a y s.” So easily, one might say lazily, has Tom batted on big occasions at times that I have caught m yself wondering if he realised he was batting for England v. Australia ! One such occasion was during my last Test at Adelaide, when we had t o o up and no one out. I had cut Trumble hard and clean to Trumper at third man, but in reply to a very strong “ N o ,” Tom came thundering down the wicket. So off T went, knowing he could not get back, and that T might scrape home if the ball was fumbled. But our opponents did not miss many opportunities in those days, and I saw mv wicket sent riving with another good six yards to go. I have always felt Tom Was bordering cm the comatose stage on that occa­ sion ! .. Tom has his other side, as Prince R anji (as he then So now instead of one we gather two, That from the smiling face of willow wood Have drawn a hundred hundreds— sportsmen true In every sense, in every varying mood, The G.O.M. and Tom !— D. L. A. J e p h s o n . TOM HAYWARD .