Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

Australian team of 1896 on the Oval. It is a coincidence that thirteen years afterwards he should be asked to make his first appearance in international cricket on the same enclosure – the Oval that he knows so well. If the man of 33 can match the lad of 19, cricketing England will be delighted. Of the match, Hayes himself writes: Next came the crowning event of my career – that of playing for England v Australia. As it happened I was only successful in one department of the game that of fielding, although always in a different position than usual. But fortunately my runs were not wanted the game being a hopeless draw, thus Australia won the rubber winning two matches to England’s one. It was the final Test match of the summer, played at The Oval, and ‘The Ashes’ although recognised, were by no means as significant as they were subsequently to become. The match was the one in which Frank Woolley made his Test début and also that in which Warren Bardsley became the first batsman to score a century in each innings of a Test match. Hayes had undistinguished innings of four and nine and bowling figures of 4-0-10-0 and 2-0-14-0. In his only innings for Honor Oak that season, Hayes scored 98 against Bromley Town. Despite being able to make only rare appearances for the club, he never lost touch with his roots, taking a county side to play the club in most seasons, serving on the committee in the first part of the century, then being made a Vice-President and later a Life Member. The previous season, in an interview with Cricket magazine to mark his benefit match, when asked to comment on the possibility of a tour by Australia and the likely outcome of the series, he said: I hardly think they will come over, but should they do so we certainly ought to win the rubber for they are by no means as strong as they used to be. The old ones are getting older and the young men are not so good. Why, even with our ‘second eleven’ side out there last winter we should probably have won three at least of the Test matches had we taken our chances. In retrospect, both series seem to have been classic cases of English underachievement – by no means the only ones in cricket history. Surrey’s Annual Report was suitably complimentary: 70 Failure in Australia, Success at Home