Old Oakhamian Magazine Issue 116

FROM CRICKET PITCH TO CLASSROOM

Oakham School legend Frank Hayes reflects on his extraordinary career, including mentoring the School’s greatest ever cricketer

As a blond Lancashireeight-year-old lad ‘saved the game’ when the local opposing (senior) cricket team couldn’t bowl him out, it set Frank Hayes on an interesting journey. One that took him from Preston, to playing for his country. Then saw him move into teaching Physics and coaching cricket – most notably to another young blond player, Stuart Broad, who subsequently became one of the world’s best.

Anyone who was taught or coached by Frank Hayes, or worked alongside him at Oakham, knows that he has garnered far too many stories along this interesting journey to recount or do justice here. They will, no doubt, all make their way into the book he has begun to write since he retired after 20 years of teaching at Oakham. But it is all these many stories and experiences of his life, both on and off the cricket pitch, that formed the basis for his coaching, tutoring and teaching. “In Physics you can talk about forces and kinetic energy from when you kick the ball,” says Frank who was, by his own reckoning, “much better at football than cricket” but was put on a different path when his father sent him to a school that focused on rugby rather than football (although after he finished university he was still asked to play semi-professionally). In his tutorial sessions he tried to make the key messages relevant – including mentioning his experiences of seeing the consequences of drugs misuse first-hand at some all-star parties during his playing days in the 70s and 80s. He also frequently used his personal contact with Crista Cullen, Stuart Broad and many other famous sportsmen and sportswomen from Oakham and beyond that he had met, to highlight key attributes or concepts. Not because he was name-dropping – but because he knew the value of inspiring pupils. All with his ultimate goal – to help them to achieve their talents and maintain a good work ethic. “I’ve always taught the way I wanted to teach,” says Frank. “You can’t spoon feed children; it’s one of my pet hates - the input must come from them. They must put the hard yards in themselves.”

It’s always the stories rather than the numbers that Frank is interested in –although the numbers do make exceptionally good reading. He captained Lancashire teams from the age of 15 onwards and when he was 16 he scored a 100 batting in the Rose Bowl to win a game for his local club side. He was the recipient of the collection – one pound, 17 shillings and threepence – which was secured in his Lancashire boys cap and he later bought celebratory drinks for the team in the local establishment (in those days it would have bought 75 pints of best bitter). However it was the 106 not out that he made unbeaten in his first test appearance – securing his spot as the 13th man to score a century on his debut for England – that made his name. He played in another 8 tests, 6 international one day games, before captaining Lancashire for 3 years and retiring from cricket in 1984.

From a man who said “never, ever was I going to teach” following this retirement from professional cricket, he began coaching the U15s at Mere Cricket Club in Cheshire – which, thanks to the early success of his U15 team playing 12 and winning 12, he began to enjoy a lot more than owning and running a wine bar. It was his wife, Gill, who told him to apply for a teaching post – an original choice of Brentwood School changed to Felsted where he taught for 10 years prior to Gill, again, telling him to apply for the new role of Director of Cricket at Oakham. His own description of joining Oakham is, yet another, great story. “I had never heard of Oakham before – it had no cricket reputation – I hadn’t noted their name in cricketing circles. But we were going past Rutland Water and I thought this didn’t look a bad spot after all. It was a nice little town and when I saw the School and its facilities, I thought ‘Flippin heck this is fantastic’.” He joined Davie Steele, who was the cricket professional at Oakham at the time and the two became a formidable partnership. “On the first time in the nets I could not believe the talent that was here – it was ridiculous,” says Frank. One of these talents was a young Stuart Broad who joined Oakham in the same year. It is one of his favourite memories of his time at the School – “Throwing Stuart balls for the first time.” It was a most rewarding period of my life and I’m extremely proud of enhancing the cricket reputation of the School, not least, securing the first Eton and Harrow fixtures. He recalls Eton arriving for their first game on the last Thursday of term, “I can see them walking across the pitch. The Master in Charge had a boater on and he said ‘what kind of a place is this, what a wicket, good grief, 55 overs’. I told him we’re not playing overs cricket – we play proper cricket here!. We chased 250 and won with three balls to spare. What a memory that is! Although we don’t play them now, the record states that we’ve won 5 of the 9 games – so we are still on top!”

Frank with a young Stuart Broad outside the old Pavilion on the School's main square

He also recalls a game against Harrow, “We played away – we got off the coach and David Steele went straight out the wicket. It was just a bit damp and we decided in no uncertain terms we’d bowl. Steele and I enjoyed looking at the scene – we enjoyed a cup of tea and a biscuit – whilst the captain was running the practice session. That’s what it was all about – the guys, themselves running and organising their own game – not overcoached by stereotyping coaches. We bowled them out for around 150 – Broad took 3 for 20 and stuffed Harrow out of sight – winning by 7 or 8 wickets. Stuart had a field day and finished with 75 not out. The Harrow cricket professional was magnanimous in defeat saying – ‘that’s the best schoolboy cricket team I’ve seen in my life’.”

And this is Frank’s tour-de-force during his time at Oakham – his unwavering belief in not overcoaching. As he says; “don’t take me the wrong way; we could show and demonstrate to the boys any skill in the book, but we, also, told stories, encouraging players to find their own success, through their own love of the game and their own hard work. All the players that come though Oakham have their own mind; they aren’t stereotypes or robots. Of course, we help them develop and mentor them – but when they stride out on the pitch, they are themselves – it’s the soul of the player that you see, not the soul of the coach.”

Success with the White Rose led to nine Test caps and six ODIs for England. Batting with another Lancashire great, Farokh Engineer.