Lives in Cricket No 8 - Ernest Hayes

innings. He played twenty matches at The Oval, and another four elsewhere in London, with thirteen involving travelling from the capital. In June he had three consecutive away games at Bournemouth, Northampton and Horsham: later he had successive matches at Sheffield, Chesterfield and Manchester. All his travel, of course, was by public transport, and overnight accommodation sometimes meant a dodgy bed and breakfast. 1910 In spite of the loss of Crawford, Rushby and Marshal, the season was a successful one for the county, thanks mainly to ‘Razor’ Smith and his 215 Championship wickets. But it was a disappointing one for Hayes as, after a good start he spent much of it injured, a rupture of the calf muscles causing him to miss nine county matches. Still batting at three, his contribution to the Surrey’s second place in the Championship was 1,007 runs at 32.48, a dozen wickets and 35 catches. Now 33, he failed to score a first-class century in the season for the first time since 1898. Nor did he ‘trade up’ to any of the more important representative matches: the No.3 place there was firmly in the hands of J.T.Tyldesley. Failure in Australia, Success at Home 73 Hayes (left) arriving for practice at The Oval at the start of the 1910 season.