Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

myself and can record by far my most successful season up to this time.’ Once again, the Australians were in England and once again Hayes was to make an impression for his county against the tourists, registering the first of his 48 first-class centuries. With the exception of Hayes, Surrey struggled against the accurate medium-pace of William Howell and Hugh Trumble. A press-cutting in the scrapbook records: Some of the Surrey batsmen played like innocent children against [Howell’s] slow ball, scraping forward in a feeble way and finding themselves utterly deceived in the pace. In the second innings Trumble divided honours with him, the only Surrey batsman who showed any capacity to cope with the splendid bowling being Hayes. This young cricketer who seems now to have fairly secured the place in the Surrey team which ought to have been his two years ago proved to demonstrate that Howell’s bowling could be hit with a confidence that was curiously lacking in the efforts of his more experienced colleagues. He is in first-rate form just now, and if he can go through the season as he has begun he will soon be a special pet with the Oval crowd. He seems to have gained considerably in power since last season. . . . He strikes one as being one of the big players of the immediate future. In the first match in May, he had 43 out of 64 in 90 minutes in the second innings as Surrey were annihilated by an innings and 71 runs, never recovering from the devastation of Howell’s first-innings return of 23.2-14-28-10. It was virtually a single-handed demolition, eight of his wickets being bowled and one caught and bowled. Hayes then had influenza and was laid up for a week, but had recovered by July and the return match with the tourists when he was to record his maiden first-class century. Inevitably, Albert Craig produced the appropriate verses: Will Ernie prove another Walter Read: One hundred ‘notches’ in the hour of need, Cautious, unhurried, patient, watchful, cool, Rear’d in Old Surrey’s nursery, Surrey’s school. Oh! how his leaders glory in his ‘fire’. Young Hayes, like Abel, never seemed to tire. Coaching in South Africa and then a County Stalwart 29