Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

Chapter Ten Homecoming Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter rages; Thou thy worldly task hast done; Home art gone and ta’en thy wages. Shakespeare, Cymbeline 1930 Returning to Surrey after a decade away, Hayes found there had been a marked deterioration. In 1929, Surrey had finished the season at tenth in the Championship, their first time in the lower half of the table since 1904, when they had been without a regular captain. In 1930, they just about crept into the top half by finishing eighth, but secured only three wins under Percy Fender’s leadership: their position was due, as much as anything, to Fender’s talent for finessing first-innings points out of drawn games. I found Surrey very poorly off for bowlers and altho’ travelling round the county all the season & having numbers of Young Players through my hands nobody promising turned up. We enjoyed a left-handed batsman named Fishlock who might turn out a forcing player and another youngster named Whitfield promises well. There is a dearth of bowlers among all clubs, in fact young cricketers are scarce and I think tennis and motor-cycling have a lot to do with it. Though it is scarcely reflected in his scrapbooks, once he was back at Kennington, no doubt Hayes rediscovered that expectations were far greater than at Leicester. Surrey were one of the ‘Big Six’ counties, with a catchment population of well over two million people. A far bigger club membership expected their teams to win matches and Championships; to produce Test players whose 108