Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

swollen-headedness. There are also honest appraisals of the talents of others which would not normally be associated with an egocentric approach and critics in his later years were, in complete contradiction to what is said here, to comment, on Hayes’ modesty and complete absence of swollen-headedness. His end-of-season comment, that he was ‘completely satisfied with my season’s work it being the best I have had until now’, is born of neither complacency nor conceit, but of a realistic professional assessment of his contribution to the side. Given his 175 from a team total of 315 against Hampshire at Bournemouth and his 1,248 runs at an average of 32.00, the self-appraisal is no exaggeration. 1901 Census night found him at the Olive Branch Hotel at 27 Sillwood Street, Brighton. He was accompanied by Thomas Dickason, his regular opening partner at Honor Oak a few years before, perhaps enjoying a bit of week-end pre-season training. His father and eldest brother had remained in the area of the drapery trade, the Coaching in South Africa and then a County Stalwart 33 A cartoonist’s response to Hayes’ first Championship century, 150 against Worcestershire at The Oval in May, 1900. Abel scored 221, Lockwood 104* and Hayward only five.