Frank Hayes: An Appreciation

Martin Chandler | 9:37am BST 06 August 2023

Published: 2023
Pages: 39
Author: Cavanagh, Roy
Publisher: Red Rose Books
Rating: 4 stars

I have memories, regrettably not as vivid as I would like, of watching Test cricket in 1966. But at least it sparked my lifelong admiration for Garry Sobers, the man who to me will always be “The Greatest”. In those days there was very little county cricket to be watched on television, unless you lived in Wales, which I didn’t. So my first real memories of the county game are of watching Lancashire on their way to the very first John Player League in 1969.

In those pre streaming days there was, attending the matches apart, no way of watching the County Championship, but there were newspaper reports aplenty, and it was not difficult to keep up with what was going on. In 1970 remarkable stories began to emerge of a young batsman from Preston, initially from Lancashire’s second eleven and then in his early championship fixtures. Sadly the game was not always to prove so easy for Frank Hayes, but his spectacular start raised a huge amount of interest.

Hayes’ appeal was helped by the youth and enthusiasm that his presence on the field generated. Never afraid to hit the ball he was also in the vanguard of the superb crop of young ground fielders who, with the limited overs game, came into English cricket in the 1970s. Hayes wasn’t quite in the same class as Derek Randall, but he really wasn’t very far behind.

Three years after his Lancashire debut Hayes hit the high point of his career, a century on Test debut against West Indies, Sobers included. He never went down in my estimation, but a combination of bad luck, injuries and nerves meant that when he retired in 1984 his career record was a good one rather than the stellar one that I and, I have no doubt, Roy Cavanagh expected from him.

In the circumstances I was always going to enjoy this summary of Hayes’ life and career. There is little in it that I wasn’t already aware of, but that really doesn’t matter where our heroes are concerned. And there was one ‘new’ aspect of the Hayes story that I hadn’t really known, that being his record as a 14 year old schoolboy.

The reason I now know more about the precocious talent Hayes was is because he played in the same Salford Schoolboys side in 1962 as Roy Cavanagh. So Cavanagh is, despite being a good decade older than me, just as one-eyed about Hayes as I am. And this is why it is so important that this slim book is styled as appreciation rather than a biography – hagiography dressed up as biography really doesn’t work, but put it in the form of an appreciation and the converse is true. Cavanagh’s admiration for his subject shines brightly throughout Frank Hayes: An Appreciation, and any Lancashire supporter who remembers Hayes will greatly enjoy the memories it evokes.

To dovetail neatly with that 106* at The Oval the book appears in a limited edition of 106 copies, of which the first 16 are hardbacks. Both are available directly from the publisher at £36 or £10 inclusive of UK postage and packing. For those in the southern hemisphere copies will soon be available from Roger Page.