Famous Cricketers No 1 - Jack Hobbs

At medium pace with a late swerve he was also a useful bowler. He opened the bowling in three Tests in South Africa in 1909-10, and in 1920 he even headed the English averages with 17 wickets at 11.82. In the field he was brilliant, lurking at cover with deceptive casualness to trap the unwary. In Australia in 1911-12 he ran out 15 opponents. Above all, it was his style that attracted so much admiration. In Wisden 1964 Neville Cardus described him thus: ‘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.’ Surrey made Hobbs a life member in 1935, and MCC an honorary member in 1949; his knighthood in 1953 was the first conferred on a professional cricketer; the Hobbs Gates at The Oval and a pavilion on Parker’s Piece stand as tangible memorials of his career. But in a wider sense Hobbs was remembered as a potent symbol of the game, the small boy’s idol, known to thousands who never saw him play. No other great player has inspired such personal affection, nor permitted such a high degree of personal identification. His obvious integrity had something to do with this, his modest and disciplined way of life, his deep but unobtrusive religious beliefs, and his unassuming pleasure in his own achievement. But he was loved because he was so evidently an ordinary man, exceptional only in the endowment of a particular genius which he was humble enough to see in its proper perspective. With the proceeds of his benefit in 1919 Hobbs opened a sports shop in Fleet Street in which he continued to take an active interest after he left the game. He died at Hove on 21 December 1963, only a few months after his wife. A service held in his memory, on 20 February 1964, filled Southwark Cathedral. In Wisden 2000, a selected worldwide panel of 100 chose the five cricketers of the century. Hobbs came third in this list after Sir Donald Bradman and Sir Garfield Sobers. Every year on December 16, a special club meets at The Oval for a lunch party to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of one man. The menu, by tradition, is that man’s favourite meal, - game pate, roast lamb, and apple pie - though it is now nearly 40 years since he himself was able to attend. At this lunch, there is just one toast. It is, quite simply, to “The Master”. This is the Master’s Club. Note the position of the apostrophe. There is only one Master: Jack Hobbs . ABBREVIATIONS and SYMBOLS § Each § shown after the match number represents a century partnership in which Hobbs participated in that match. † The symbol † shown after the team score indicates that Hobbs was the top-scorer in that innings. 8