Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

Honor Oak: 1892 to 1894 He joined the Honor Oak Club in 1892 at the age of 15 and remained a member until his death more than 60 years later. In those early days the Club played at Colyton Road, East Dulwich, having relocated there from Peckham Rye in 1884. It was not until 1932 that it moved to its present location at Dulwich Common on London’s South Circular Road. His elder brother Christopher Daniel played with Honor Oak’s second eleven. It is at this point that the scrapbooks begin. In beautifully legible script, Hayes records: ‘Having first started playing cricket regularly in 1892 age 15½ years, following is outline of perform- ances for that season and following ones up to 1895 (full account being written in previous books).’ Those ‘previous books’ have not survived. He had earlier been scorer, but now began scoring runs with his bat rather than his pencil and in that first season, showed early promise with 577 runs – mainly for the second eleven – at an average of 44.38, precipitating a reference as ‘a young cricketer who bids fair to become a Lohmann or a Streatfeild’. It was only the previous year that F.H.Huish had joined the Club. He was later to keep wicket for Kent, playing almost 500 first-class matches. The following season, the young Hayes held a regular first eleven place and was second in the averages to Honor Oak stalwart and future captain, G.S.Harrison. In 1894, adding leg-spin bowling to his now well-established right-hand batting skills, he topped the batting and bowling averages in a season epitomised by an all-round performance on August Bank Holiday Monday when he made 65 and took six wickets against Hornsey Rise. His scrapbook records: I now come to what is no doubt the most successful, up to the present, cricket season I have had. Playing throughout all the matches for the first eleven at the finish of the season I was top in the batting by thirteen points and also top in the bowling averages. This latter was an unlooked-for surprise and my success no doubt came about through having been bowled more than previous years and thus gaining experience and confidence. He had already attracted Surrey’s attention and played for the Young Professionals against the Young Amateurs, scoring 33. 12 Childhood and Early Cricket