Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

shape of proceeds of £1,264 for a premium of £150. Not all professional cricketers were as astute, a number being left with very little after the deduction of expenses; nor were they as fortunate as some of their amateur brethren. Yorkshire’s Lord Hawke had a testimonial in the same year which yielded £1,843. A collection was made during the Nottinghamshire match in early August which realised £79 3s and a further one during the fixture against Yorkshire, a match in which Hayes deputised as wicket- keeper for the injured Herbert Strudwick and claimed five catches. The replacement benefit match at The Oval on 10, 11 and 12 September was not an undiluted success, the weather being cool throughout. An attendance of 3,600 on the first day and rather fewer on the second saw the South extend their innings to 501 for 6 declared with J.W.H.T.Douglas, according to Wisden , showing a ‘degree of caution for which there was no necessity whatsoever.’ Hayes had made 66, Hayward 112. Several big names were occupied elsewhere in the Hambedon v England celebrations at Broadhalfpenny Down and Leveson Gower withdrew from the South at the last minute. The North managed 293 and 154 to lose by an innings and 54 runs. Hayes chipped in at the end with one for 17. Surrey retained most of the funds he had raised and invested them for him, a rather paternalistic approach which was common at the time and which continued in some counties until the 1950s. Earlier that year at Headingley, against the bowling of principally Hirst and Haigh, he outscored all his colleagues combined with a fifty he regarded as one of his best innings, saying in an interview with Cricket which appeared on the day of his benefit that ‘a 30 or 40 is sometimes a better and more useful innings than 150’. That was probably an untypical effort though, perhaps as a result of his performances (or, more accurately, non-performances) of the previous winter, his style was beginning to attract some criticism, albeit of a positive and constructive kind. The Sporting Life had this to say: Even in the face of gratuitous advice from his critics to play himself in before forcing the pace, he has gone on hitting hard and early. He has realised that the gods designed him specially to attack, and that has been the foundation of his successful career. Failure in Australia, Success at Home 65