Barry John Hayes

  General Notes:

Barry Hayes joined the Royal Australian Navy in October 1960 and served un til October 1969. He was a cook and travelled to many countries includi ng Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Malaya and Born eo as well as numerous Australian ports. After leaving the Navy he remain ed in the Emergency Reserve for the five years from 1969 to 1974. This ent ailed thirteen days duty each year. He was awarded the Australian Active S ervice Medal 1945-1975 and the Malayan Service Medal.

The Sun Melbourne, Friday December 8th 1978

BARRY KNOWS THE SCORE

BARRY HAYES is one of the keenest cricket fans I have met.
Since 1972, he has spent $14,000 on trips to England to see the Australi an Test team play there.
In the middle of the 1977 tour of England - when L first met him - his fa ther died.
He flew home to Victoria to be with his mother for six weeks, then flew ba ck to London to see the Fifth Test on the Oval.
Last year, against the Indians in Australia, I saw Barry at a couple of Te sts and at the Victoria-India game at the MCG.
This year it was at Leongatha for the game between England and a Country X I, and in Brisbane for the First. Test.
We agreed in Brisbane that it was pleasant to see Graham Yallop doing so w ell and Kim Hughes getting among the runs at last, and we made the usual c ricket small talk.
"OK," said Barry as he left the 'Gabba. "I'll see you over at the WACA dur ing the Second Test. "Maybe we'll do a bit better over there. . ."
And it was then, when I made some remark to the effect that it must be ni ce to be able to follow cricket teams around as a hobby, instead of as a j ob, that Barry told me his background.
He's 36 years old, a qualified cook, has his home in Colac, but lives a nd works mainly on oil rigs.
"That's where I get the money for my cricket trips," he said.
"You spend six months cooking up at Exmouth Gulf (he had seven years in t he West all told), and you can afford "an air fare or two."
Right now, Barry is a casual cook on an oil rig in Bass Strait, off Sal
"You work a week on and week off and I generally manage to be off when t he Tests and good matches are on." he said.
At 36 he is a bachelor and has no plans to marry,
"I have a pretty steady girlfriend I met in Yorkshire with the Australi
team," he said," But we haven't any plans. There is no way I could affo rd it with Australia playing in the World Cup in England next year, in t he Centenary Test at Lord's in 1980, and the next full trips," he said.
Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to watch World Series Cricket in Australia?
"You'd have to be joking," said Barry. "Don't get me wrong: I think Pack er has done a good thing in boosting the players' pay. But how anyone c an get wrapped up when one bunch of his employees put on a show with anoth er bunch of his employees is beyond me. It is show business, that's a ll it is, like the Harlem Globetrotters."
Barry, who was a "mediocre medium pace" bowler with Balintore, in the Col ac and District League, very much identifies himself with the Australian T est team and its battles against England.
"These kids like Kim Hughes and Rick Darling will make the difference ," he said. "They're our Test players of the future."

Barry married Soledad Fernandez on 15 Dec 1984. (Soledad Fernandez was born on 1 Jan 1947 in Manilla, Philipines.)