Jack Hobbs

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The numbers tell the story: Their tally of 15 century stands is next to only 16 shared by Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes, who averaged Greenidge and Haynes were also the second pair to put up run stands twice — almost six decades after Hobbs and Sutcliffe. While Hobbs and Sutcliffe occupy the top spot among openers, the second spot goes to Wilfred Rhodes and — Hobbs. In 36 stands Hobbs and Rhodes had added 2, runs at The number, though substantially behind Hobbs and Sutcliffe, is still ahead of others.

Hobbs and Rhodes had added fifty 13 times, of which there have been 8 century stands, which amounted to a conversion rate of When they added in the Ashes Test of MCG in , Hobbs and Rhodes also became the first pair to put on and for any wicket. Wisden has named its list of five cricketers for every year since they also named 6 bowlers in , 9 batsmen in , and 5 wicketkeepers in There have been only three exceptions to this, when a single person was nominated as the Player of the Year: John Wisden , Plum Warner , and Hobbs Wisden also never repeats its player of the year, but they made exceptions for Warner and and Hobbs and Most First-Class fifties In addition to these hundreds, Hobbs had also scored fifties in First-Class cricket, which took his tally of fifty-plus scores to The 2K-lead Hobbs finished with Test numbers of 5, runs at Most runs after 40 Hobbs scored 2, runs after he turned forty, at an astonishing Most hundreds after forty In terms of hundreds after 40, too, Hobbs leads the way with 8.

Most runs at an overseas venue Hobbs was the first batsman to score a thousand runs at a venue away from home: Partners-in-crime, Candidate 1 It is well-known that Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe formed probably the greatest opening stands in history. Partners-in-crime, Candidate 2 While Hobbs and Sutcliffe occupy the top spot among openers, the second spot goes to Wilfred Rhodes and — Hobbs. The Wisden factor Wisden has named its list of five cricketers for every year since they also named 6 bowlers in , 9 batsmen in , and 5 wicketkeepers in From this point of view, Hobbs was, without argument, the most accomplished batsman known to cricket since WG Grace.

In his career, Hobbs scored 61, runs with an average of He played in 61 Test Matches. Other players have challenged the statistical values of Hobbs' cricket. None has, since Grace, had his creative influence. Like WG, he gave a new twist or direction to the game. Grace was the first to cope with overarm fast bowling, the first to mingle forward and back play. Hobbs was brought up on principles more or less laid down by WG and his contemporaries -- left leg forward to the length ball.

Right foot back to the ball a shade short, but the leg hadn't to be moved over the wicket to the off. Pad-play among the Victorians was not done. It was caddish -- until a low fellow, a professional from Nottingham, named Arthur Shrewsbury, began to exploit the pad as a second line of defence -- sometimes, in extremity, a first.

Hobbs, then 22 years and four months old, scored 18 and 88 -- taking only two hours making the Grace contemplated the unshaven youth from his position of point. He stroked the beard and said: Hobbs learned to bat in circumstances of technique and environment much the same as those in which Grace came to his high noon.

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The attack of bowlers concentrated, by and large, on the off stump. Pace and length on good pitches, with varied flight. On sticky pitches the fast bowlers were often rested, the damage done by slow left-hand spin or right-hand offbreaks. Legbreaks were called on but rarely, then as a last resort, though already Braund, Vine and Bosanquet were developing back-of-the-hand trickery. But in those days only one and the same ball was used throughout the longest of a team's innings. And the seam was not raised as prominently as on balls made at the present time.

In , two summers after Hobbs' baptism of first-class cricket, the South Africans came to this country, bringing a company of googly bowlers as clever as any seen since -- Vogler quick , Gordon White, Faulkner and Schwarz. Partly on the strength of his showing against the South Africans, Hobbs was chosen for his first overseas tour: But it was two years later, when the MCC visited South Africa, that Hobbs demonstrated quite positively that he had found the answer to the problems of the back-of-the-hand spinners.

The amazing fact is that he made his demonstration on the matting wickets then used in South Africa. What is more, it was Hobbs' first taste of the mat, on which the South African spinners were at their most viciously angular. South Africa won this rubber of by three wins to two. In the Tests Hobbs scored runs, average It was Hobbs who first assembled into his methods all the rational counters against the ball which turned the other way. Moreover, on all kinds of pitches, hard and dry, in this country or in Australia, on sticky pitches here and anywhere else, even on the gluepot of Melbourne, on the matting of South Africa, against pace, spin, swing, and every conceivable device of bowlers, Hobbs reigned supreme.

His career was divided into two periods, each different from the other in style and tempo. Before the war of he was Trumperesque, quick to the attack on springing feet, strokes all over the field, killing but never brutal, all executed at the wrists, after the preliminary getting together of the general muscular motive power. When cricket was resumed in , Hobbs, who served in the Royal Flying Corps as an Air Mechanic after a short spell in a munition factory, was heading towards his 37th birthday, and a man was regarded as a cricket veteran in if he was nearing the forties.

Hobbs entering his second period, dispensed with some of the daring punitive strokes of his youthful raptures. He ripened into a classic. His style became as serenely poised as any ever witnessed on a cricket field, approached only by Hammond. He scored centuries effortlessly now; we hardly noted the making of them. They came as the hours passed on a summer day, as natural as a summer growth. An astonishing statistical fact about The Master is that of the centuries to his name in County cricket, 85 were scored after the war of ; that is, after he had entered middle age. The more his years increased the riper his harvests.

From to his seasons' yields were as follows:. From the time of his 43rd to his 46th birthday, Hobbs scored some 11, runs, averaging round about the sixties.

Yet he once said that he would wish to be remembered for the way he batted before The Master knows how to perform within limitations. Hobbs burgeoned to an effortless control not seen on a cricket field since his departure. The old easy footwork remained to the end. At Old Trafford a Lancashire colt made his first appearance against Surrey.

He fielded at mid-off as McDonald, with a new ball, opened the attack on Hobbs. After a few overs, the colt allowed a forward stroke from Hobbs to pass through his legs to the boundary.

His colleagues, notably burly, redfaced Dick Tyldesley, expostulated to him, "What's matter? The colt explained, or excused his lapse. He had been so much mesmerised watching Hobbs' footwork as he played the ferocious speed of McDonald that he could not move. It is sometimes said that Hobbs in his harvest years took advantage of the existing leg-before-wicket rule which permitted batsmen to cover their wickets with their pads against offspin pitched outside the off stump.

True it is that Hobbs and Sutcliffe brought the second line of defence to a fine art. By means of it they achieved the two wonderful first-wicket stands at Kennington Oval in and at Melbourne two years later, v Australia, each time on vicious turf. But, as I have pointed out, Hobbs' technique was grounded in the classic age, when the bat was the main instrument in defence. Always was the bat of Hobbs the sceptre by which he ruled his bowlers.

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In his last summers his rate of scoring inevitably had to slacken -- from 40 runs an hour, the tempo of his youth, to approximately 30 or 25 an hour. In , at Lord's for Surrey v Middlesex, he scored not out in six hours 55 minutes, with 41 boundaries -- a rate of more than 40 an hour, not exceeded greatly these days by two batsmen together.

And he was in his 44th year in , remember. It was in his wonderful year of that he beat WG's record of centuries, and before the summer's end gathered at his sweet will runs, with 16 hundreds, average He was now fulfilled. He often got himself out after reaching his century. Those of us who saw him at the beginning and end of his career will cherish memories of the leaping young gallant, bat on high, pouncing at the sight of a ball a shade loose, driving and hooking; then, as the bowler desperately shortened his length, cutting square, the blow of the axe -- a Tower Hill stroke.

Then we will remember the coming of the regal control, the ripeness and readiness, the twiddle of the bat before he bent slightly to face the attack, the beautifully timed push to the off to open his score -- the push was not hurried, did not send the ball too quickly to the fieldsman, so that Hobbs could walk his first run. I never saw him make a bad or a hasty stroke.

Sometimes, of course, he made the wrong good stroke, technically right but applied to the wrong ball. An error of judgement, not of technique. He extended the scope of batsmanship, added to the store of cricket that will be cherished, played the game with modesty, for all his mastery and produce, and so won fame and affection, here and at the other side of the world. A famous fast bowler once paid the best of all compliments to him -- "It wer''ard work bowlin' at'im, but it wer' something you wouldn't'ave missed for nothing.

The greater part of this memoir first appeared in the Guardian and is reproduced by kind permission of the Editor. Jack was the finest batsman in my experience on all sorts of wickets, especially the bad ones, for in our day there were more bad wickets and more spin bowlers than there are to-day. He soon knocked the shine off the ball and he was so great that he really collared the bowling. He could knock up fifty in no time at all and the bowlers would often turn to me as if to say Did you see that?

Despite all the fuss and adulation made of him he was surprisingly modest and had a great sense of humour. On any type of wicket, he was the best batsman in my experience, a first-class bowler if given the chance, and the finest cover point I ever saw.

Jack Hobbs: 11 records that stand the test of time

He never looked like getting out and he was just the same whether he made or 0. Faulkner after an England tour in South Africa, saying to Jack: If you did not know it how did you know it would turn from the off? I was his partner on many occasions on extremely bad wickets, and I can say this without any doubt whatever that he was the most brilliant exponent of all time, and quite the best batsman of my generation on all types of wickets.

On good wickets I do believe that pride of place should be given to Sir Don Bradman. I had a long and happy association with Sir Jack and can testify to his fine character. A regular church-goer, he seldom missed the opportunity to attend church service on Sunday mornings both in England and abroad. He was a man of the highest integrity who believed in sportmanship in the highest sense, teamwork, fair-play and clean-living.

His life was full of everything noble and true. Jack was the greatest batsman the world has ever known, not merely in his generation but any generation and he was the most charming and modest man that anyone could meet. No one who saw him or met him will ever forget him and his legend will last as long as the game is played -- perhaps longer. My first trip to Australia in was Jack's last and I remember with gratitude how he acted as a sort of father and mother to the young players like myself.

Jack Hobbs (footballer) - Wikipedia

Always a boyish chap at heart, he remained a great leg-puller. When 51 he promised to come up and play in my benefit match in and despite bitterly cold weather he hit the last first-class century of his career. He told me he got it to keep warm! Jack was one of the greatest sportsmen England ever had, a perfect gentleman and a good living fellow respected by everyone he met. I travelled abroad with him many times to Australia and South Africa, and I always looked upon him as the finest right-handed batsman I saw in the 30 years I played with and against him. He was the greatest batsman of my time.

Brendon McCullum looks forward to play with CSK core in Rajkot Team

I learned a lot from him when we went in first together for England. He had a cricket brain and the position of his feet as he met the ball was always perfect. He could have scored thousands more runs, but often he was content to throw his wicket away when he had reached his hundred and give someone else a chance. He knew the Oval inside out and I know that A.

Batting for Britain - a rare breed of hero

Chapman was thankful for his advice when we regained the Ashes from Australia in For love and money. A "professional who batted just like an amateur", he was perceived as businesslike, but was actually a brilliant, spontaneous, original player. Cricket's most prolific batsman. His Test record is imposing enough, but Hobbs has set some first-class records that will probably never be surpassed.

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Explore Sir Jack Hobbs's performance. Batting and fielding averages. From to his seasons' yields were as follows: Gideon Haigh on Jack Hobbs For love and money A "professional who batted just like an amateur", he was perceived as businesslike, but was actually a brilliant, spontaneous, original player. December 16, It all begins in Cambridge. Is born John Berry Hobbs, the eldest of 12 children of John Hobbs, a groundsman at Fenner's, a professional umpire, and later groundsman and umpire at Jesus College. Becomes second coach and second umpire at Bedford Grammar School.

In August of that year he plays for Royston, receiving a fee of half a guinea for each appearance. Is signed by Surrey, but the two-year period of qualification for the county involves many an up and down. He starts with a duck, but his talent is obvious over the next two years.

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