Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

Cambridge University, going through 1,000 first-class runs for the season in the process. Firmly established at No.3, Hayes had seven centuries that season and additionally some of his shorter cameos made significant contributions to his team’s performance. He followed his half-century in the Lord’s Gentlemen v Players match in 1905 with another one in pursuit of an unlikely victory target of 300 to give his team an outside chance. Though ultimately in vain, the innings attracted the admiration of Wisden ’s correspondent: ‘When at 54 a blunder in running cost Hayward’s wicket the match seemed all over, but Hayes and John Gunn – Hayes playing incomparably the better cricket – brought a change and shortly before half-past three, the Players, with four wickets in hand, only wanted 90 to win.’ Victories against Yorkshire – the only county with more wins than defeats against Surrey – were always satisfactory, perhaps few more so than that at The Oval in 1906, against the full might of Lord Hawke’s team which included Wilfred Rhodes, George Hirst Under New Management, Test Cricket, and a Purple Passage 57 Chart, an early example of this type of analysis, showing Hayes’ 155 at The Oval against Leicestershire on 10 and 11 May, 1906. This was the first of his seven first-class centuries this season.