Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

playing cricket there and doing well, albeit against mediocre bowling. By 1891, the family had moved to 121 Upland Road, also East Dulwich, a respectable two-up and two-down suburban residence. Ernest, now 14, was employed as a ‘merchant’s clerk’, his father is described as a ‘hosier and haberdasher’, the eldest brother as a ‘lace warehouseman’ and the second brother, William, as a haberdasher. So there is a similarity and a continuity of occupation in the family. Strangely, after leaving school in his thirteenth year 1 in 1889, Ernest played no cricket for three years. Later, the family moved to 42 Hollydale Road in Peckham, just south of Queen’s Road. Again the house has been demolished, like his birthplace on the Old Kent Road, subjected to Southwark Borough Council’s policies of ‘inner city regeneration’. On the site stands St Thomas the Apostle Catholic College, alma mater of current Ipswich Town footballer, Danny Haynes. Hayes’ early cricket, other than that at school, was with the Honor Oak Club, established as The Star Cricket Club in 1866 and changing its name in 1887. It is still extant, though now merged with Old Alleynians to form Edward Alleyn and Honor Oak Cricket Club and playing in the fourth tier of the Surrey Championship. For much of Hayes’ long association with Honor Oak, it was one of the leading clubs in South London. Childhood and Early Cricket 11 The Hayes family lived here in Upland Road, East Dulwich in the 1890s. 1 The school-leaving age under the 1870 Act was 13, with some exemptions in agricultural areas.