Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

looks as though the county side may not have been a particularly strong one as they were dismissed for 35. 1932 Surrey introduced three new regular players into their Championship side: Freddie Brown, now ‘down’ from Cambridge University, and Jack Parker and Edward Whitfield from the professional staff. Winning nine matches under Douglas Jardine’s captaincy, the side finished fifth in the Championship, though not within striking distance of the four sides above them. Hayes himself was able to report that the Surrey batting was much improved, Parker’s success as a bowler continued and he had some difficulty identifying a captain for the Young Players team. 1933 Surrey finished ninth in the Championship, exactly in mid-table: they won six matches, but Wisden characterised the side as ‘unreliable’. The scrapbook does not mention it, nor does any Surrey history, but in his last two seasons, Hayes must have worked with Douglas Jardine who captained the county in the seasons either side of the ‘Bodyline’ series. Although an amateur, Jardine’s approach to the game, at least at international level, was nothing if not professional – too much so, some might say – and one wonders at the symbiosis between the professional and personable Hayes and the autocratic amateur whose captaincy in Australia had won the warm approval of the Surrey committee in the form of a congratulatory minute, if not of cricket’s establishment as a whole. Possibly Jardine’s view of coaching coincided with that of Brian Clough – it was for kids, not required at the top level of sport and consisted in telling players when to get their hair cut. However, his success with England was not reflected in his county captaincy, Surrey finishing fifth and ninth in the Championship, in the years when he was in charge. Then again, Surrey did not have a Larwood or a Voce . . . There is photographic evidence of Hayes playing in 1933, though the scrapbook annotation does not say for whom. Homecoming 111