Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

His gallant rivals opened wide their eyes, Their worthy chief seem’d taken by surprise. Untiring Trumble, brilliant from the start, Kept struggling on nor even once lost heart. Illustrious Noble brought his skill to bear, Still Ernie kept his post and settled there. Worrall and Laver grac’d the bowlers track And yearn’d in vain to see the batsman’s back, At last the well earned century appears. The Australians join our people in their cheers. Brave youth to thee our heartfelt thanks we give, In history’s page thy deathless deed shall live, A worthier pen than mine may write of thee And hand thy fame down to posterity But none more gladden’d at the event can be, And more grateful than thy friend A.C. Hayes had, almost single-handedly, turned a losing position (Surrey were 53 behind on the first innings) into a comfortable victory notwithstanding Trumble’s eight for 35 and five for 137. The ball with a silver-mounted band was presented to him and became a family heirloom. He reached 1,000 first-class runs in a season, the first time he had achieved this milestone, but it was one he would not fail to repeat before the First World War brought a halt to the first-class game fifteen years later. Wisden appreciated his value to the county, commenting that ‘Apart from Abel, Hayward and Jephson, the batting strength of the side was represented by Hayes, Lockwood, Brockwell, Crawford, Lees, and in a lesser degree, Holland. Of these half-dozen players, Hayes can show the best record, and taking one day with another, he was perhaps the best bat, his fearless hitting being often of the utmost value.’ His season was thus one of considerable success. He batted mostly at three or four, far higher than previously, filling in the spaces left by Frank Crawford, who injured his knee in early June, and Holland also played only rarely in 1899, but had played 21 matches in 1898. He scored his first first-class century in July, off the Australian touring side, before 15,000 people: according to The Times it was an innings of ‘vigour.’ In the Championship he 30 Coaching in South Africa and then a County Stalwart