Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

played XV of Orange River Colony. I came into form this match and scored 66 & 40 about time too. Also sprained ankle.’ The ankle injury was insufficiently serious to keep him out of the Fourth Test match at Newlands, but this time illness was to strike again and he was unable to make any contribution, batting down the order at No.9 and No.7. From here to Cape Town for our last two Test matches. In the first one, after fielding on Saturday, I was taken bad. I managed to get there on the Monday for a knock but got a duck. Went home to bed and getting up to have a 2nd innings, got another duck, thus ‘bagging’ them. We won this match by 4 wkts. In the last Test we were well beaten by an innings and 16. I was ill with tonsillitis and did not play. He recovered in time to enjoy his last three days in Cape Town. He concludes: ‘This finished our tour and we sailed for England on the ‘Norman’. I for one being heartily pleased as I had had such an unsuccessful time although thoroughly enjoying myself.’ Wisden ’s summary of his performances in his eight first-class matches makes particularly dispiriting reading. In spite of his familiarity with local conditions, he scored 186 runs at 14.30, with a top score of only 35. His 32 overs of wrist-spin, an activity where his South African opponents were sometimes close to unplayable, brought him just two wickets for 123 runs. Under New Management, Test Cricket, and a Purple Passage 55 Hayes ‘relaxing’ at his cousin’s home in Durban, January 1906.