Tom Hayward's Final Surrey Season — Retirement of an Edwardian Master, 1914

Hayward had played 35 Tests, scored over 43,000 first-class runs, and been the leading English professional of the 1900s before Hobbs.

By 1914 he was 43 and reduced in form. He intended to play one more season but the war intervened.

Hayward made his Surrey debut in 1893, took over as opening batsman before the turn of the century, and was the senior partner when Jack Hobbs joined the side in 1905. Together they opened for Surrey for nine seasons. By 1914 Hayward was 43 and clearly winding down; he scored only 1,061 first-class runs that summer, well below his old standard. With the season cut short by Grace's letter in late August, his career simply stopped. He never played first-class cricket again. He had scored 43,551 first-class runs and 104 first-class centuries, putting him among the most prolific batsmen of the pre-Bradman era. He continued as a coach, where his most famous pupil was Jack Hobbs, who described Hayward as 'the master who taught me everything I knew about opening the batting'.

“I owe everything to Tom Hayward.”

Hayward retired quietly into coaching. He died in 1939 in Cambridge.