Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

The season had started on Easter Monday, 20 April, with Surrey v Gentlemen of Surrey, a match said Wisden ‘contested in bitterly cold weather’ when ‘early on Monday morning’, The Oval was covered in snow. It must have been quite a shock to the nervous systems of those like Hayes, recently returned from a southern hemisphere summer. He made 56 at No.3 out of a total of 390 as Surrey won by an innings and 41 runs. The low temperature, a maximum of 44°F (7°C) on the opening day, may have contributed to Hobbs and Hayes not staying long at the crease – they failed to make a run between them – and to W.G.Grace’s decision to play no more first-class cricket. Now in his sixtieth year, he signed off with 15 and 25. The match chosen for Hayes’ benefit – Lancashire at The Oval – was completely washed out, with not a ball bowled on any of the three days. It coincided with the Olympic Games athletic events at the White City, so the choice of dates may have been a little unwise. The ground was visited by campaigning suffragettes who were refused entry. Not that there was any cricket for them to watch, but maybe that was not the main purpose of their day out anyway. Still, what could have been a financial disaster turned out, through Hayes’ cautious foresight, to produce a tolerable return in the Failure in Australia, Success at Home 64 Hayes’ benefit plight recorded by two cartoonists.