Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

Tollingtonian the benefit of his experience with Some Hints on Cricket dealing with the three major aspects of the game. The three attributes of batsmanship are, he says, sight, suppleness of wrists and footwork. He adds: ‘ . . . every ball bowled must be played on its merits and not by anticipation. Before endeavouring to become a rapid scorer it behoves the batsman to feel that he is capable of keeping his wicket up with both forward and backward defence.’ His critics might say that we have here a case of ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ and that his failure at times to follow his own advice might have cost him an international career. He goes on to warn against stonewalling: ‘which causes so many games to be drawn and creates the feeling that it would perhaps be more entertaining if they exchanged the cricket field for the cemetery.’ Of bowling, he says: ‘Having acquired the ‘habit’ of a good length, try to invent your own way of making the ball ‘do things’. Do not be satisfied with the first success; try other means and when you have exhausted every possible means you can think of, sum up the result and then stick tight to the method that seems most likely to bring the greatest success.’ And emphasising the importance of fielding, he comments: ‘Bad fielding has lost more matches than good batting has ever won.’ The county’s playing response to the efforts of their new coach was two extra Championship wins – seven instead of five and a rise of three places in the final table, from fourteenth to eleventh. Leslie Berry and Alec Skelding were brought in as regulars to the side. In the Minor Counties competition the side finished in mid-table. 1925 He had never lost his enthusiasm for playing the game and the following year, 1925, he joined Leicester Town Cricket Club, who played their home games on the County Ground at Aylestone Road. He averaged 33.25 for the Saturday team and 53.37 for the Thursday team and took part in the Skegness festival, as he had in 1924. His charges in the Leicestershire first eleven won seven Championship matches – the same as in 1924 – and finished twelfth in the competition. Haydon Smith was brought into the side as a regular player. Perhaps the coach drew encouragement from the performance of the younger professionals in the Minor Leicestershire 100