Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

the British rushed, also the graves which lay here and there all over the place. Just a little pile of stones and a wooden cross. Passing also just before dark where Long’s guns were captured. He moved on to Mooi River, one of the last places the war reached in Natal. The camp was still there and those still in occupation provided the opposition for two days of cricket. On the first, Hayes made 55 and took four wickets against the Royal Artillery and the next against the 7th Dragoons, had 188 and seven wickets. It was then back to Nottingham Road, followed by a month in Durban with his cousins, before returning, this time by the west coast route, on the Armidale , having clearly enjoyed his winter away, excited by travel and taking a keen interest in the significance of recent historic events. Surrey: 1904 Refreshed by a winter overseas, which had provided him with some cricket, though that had not been the purpose of the trip and it had been no sort of practice for the first-class game, Hayes reported to The Oval. Convention demanded an amateur captain. The club was unable to find one to do the job on a regular basis, with the result that a poor, rudderless season saw Surrey lose twelve matches out of 28 – a figure exceeded only once since – and finish in eleventh place in the County Championship. The palmy days of the previous decade and the successes under John Shuter and Kingsmill Key were almost a distant memory. There were wider problems, too: they fielded 34 players in the competition, and were now without the bowling strength of Lockwood and Richardson for most of the season. Hayes had a mixed season – he was, though, Surrey’s leading batsman in the Championship. The absence of success on the northern tour – ‘I have never done well on this tour,’ he laments – was counterbalanced by a couple of fifties against Essex and a career best at the time of 273 not out, his first double century in first-class cricket, at Derby, taking part in three century partnerships on the way. It was a far from chanceless innings, but occupied only five and a half hours and included a six, a five and 39 fours. It was later to be eclipsed as the highest innings of the season by Percy Perrin’s 343 for Essex, also against the hapless Derbyshire. Without Bill Bestwick to open the bowling, Derbyshire captain A.E.Lawton had no answer to Surrey’s and Hayes’ Overseas Trips and Chaos at The Oval 41