Sir John Berry Hobbs, always known as Jack Hobbs, was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930.
144 Facts About Jack Hobbs
2.
Jack Hobbs is the leading run-scorer and century-maker in first-class cricket, with 61,237 runs and 197 centuries.
3.
Jack Hobbs was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Shane Warne, and Sir Viv Richards.
4.
Jack Hobbs's reputation grew and when he qualified to play for Surrey, he scored 88 on his first-class debut and a century in his next game.
5.
Jack Hobbs' success was based on fast footwork, an ability to play many different shots, and excellent placement of the ball.
6.
Jack Hobbs was particularly successful on difficult pitches for batting.
7.
An opening batsman, Jack Hobbs established several effective opening partnerships; with Tom Hayward and Andy Sandham for Surrey and with Wilfred Rhodes and Herbert Sutcliffe for England.
8.
Jack Hobbs was very close to Ada, his wife of 56 years; the pair were able to live comfortably in later life through Jack Hobbs' substantial wage from Surrey, his commercial endorsements, and the proceeds of the sporting goods shop he opened in 1921 and ran for nearly the rest of his life.
9.
Jack Hobbs died, aged 81, a few months after her in 1963.
10.
Jack Hobbs was born in Cambridge on 16 December 1882, the first of 12 children to John Cooper Jack Hobbs, a slater, and his wife Flora Matilda Berry.
11.
Jack Hobbs was raised in a poor, run-down area of the city, and he spent most of his childhood in near poverty.
12.
From an early age, Jack Hobbs played cricket whenever he could.
13.
Jack Hobbs was educated at a primary school affiliated with his local Anglican church, St Matthew's, and moved in 1891 to York Street Boys' School, a fee-paying establishment; Hobbs later admitted to being a poor scholar but was successful at sports.
14.
Jack Hobbs played cricket regularly for the St Matthew's choir team and the York Street school team, and during holidays helped his father at Jesus College.
15.
Aged 16, Jack Hobbs became an apprentice gas fitter, and practised cricket on Parker's Piece, an open area of common land in Cambridge, in his spare time.
16.
Jack Hobbs played for various local clubs but did not initially stand out as a cricketer: although better than most other Cambridge batsmen, no coaches or major teams approached him, and his batting gave little indication of the success which came later.
17.
Jack Hobbs's batting improved throughout the season, during which he scored 102 for Ainsworth against the Cambridge Liberals, his first century.
18.
Early in 1902, Jack Hobbs was appointed as assistant to the professional cricket coach at Bedford School, working as a groundsman and bowling in the nets.
19.
Jack Hobbs's success delighted his family and made him a local celebrity.
20.
Consequently, in late 1902, Jack Hobbs batted on Parker's Piece against Hayward and Bill Reeves, an Essex cricketer born in Cambridge, impressing Hayward in the process.
21.
Jack Hobbs was summoned to Surrey for a trial in April 1903, and subsequently offered a contract with the ground staff at the Oval on a basic wage during the season of 30 shillings a week.
22.
Jack Hobbs's batting was praised, particularly when he scored 195 and 129 in two matches against Hertfordshire.
23.
Jack Hobbs made his debut on 24 April 1905 against a team representing the "Gentlemen of England"; after scoring 18 runs in the first innings, he scored a rapid 88 in the second before rain ensured the match was drawn.
24.
The Surrey team and committee were impressed, and Jack Hobbs retained his place for the club's opening County Championship match against Essex.
25.
In first-class cricket that season, Jack Hobbs scored 1,317 runs at an average of 25.82, including two centuries and four other scores over fifty, to finish ninth in the Surrey batting averages.
26.
The Times noted that, while performing well, Jack Hobbs had fallen short of the standards suggested by his start.
27.
Jack Hobbs was generally the junior partner, and was overawed by Hayward, to the extent that he did not feel confident enough to invite him to his wedding.
28.
Jack Hobbs scored four centuries in total and by the end of the season had scored 2,135 runs, averaging 37.45.
29.
Jack Hobbs was one of only three men to pass 2,000 runs; he was second to Hayward in the Surrey averages, and eighth nationally.
30.
Jack Hobbs's appearances were further limited by the reluctance of the MCC captain, Arthur Jones, to select him.
31.
Jack Hobbs played in only two of the early matches, failing on both occasions, and was left out of the team for the first Test match.
32.
Jack Hobbs made his Test debut on 1January 1908 at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
33.
Opening the England batting on the second day, Jack Hobbs scored 83 runs in 182 minutes.
34.
Jack Hobbs retained his place for the rest of the series.
35.
Jack Hobbs scored 302 runs in the Tests at an average of 43.14.
36.
Jack Hobbs scored fewer runs in 1908, despite better conditions for batting.
37.
Jack Hobbs began the 1909 season with a succession of large scores, including a double century in one match and two separate centuries in another.
38.
England lost the next two matches, and Jack Hobbs was unsuccessful, with a top-score of 30 in four innings.
39.
Jack Hobbs struggled to regain his form when he recovered; he averaged 40.65 for the season, but of the 2,114 first-class runs he scored, nearly half came in the first month of the season.
40.
Jack Hobbs accepted an invitation to tour South Africa that winter with the MCC.
41.
Jack Hobbs steadily improved his batting, eventually becoming an opening batsman.
42.
Jack Hobbs scored 89 in the first innings and 35 in the second, and while England lost narrowly, he appeared much more comfortable than the other English batsmen against the googly.
43.
England lost the second Test, but Jack Hobbs scored 53 and 70, sharing two substantial opening partnerships with Rhodes.
44.
However, the series was lost when England were defeated in the fourth match; Jack Hobbs scored 0and 1, the only time in his Test career that he failed to reach double figures in either innings, and his worst match return in first-class cricket.
45.
Jack Hobbs scored 187, an innings praised by Wisden for its "brilliancy".
46.
Jack Hobbs scored 1,124 first-class runs at an average of 66.11 on the tour, while in the Test matches, he scored 539 runs at 67.37.
47.
Jack Hobbs scored 1,982 runs at an average of 33.03, the lowest average of his career apart from his first season.
48.
Jack Hobbs played few large innings, but was very effective in high-pressure games, and scored 2,376 runs at 41.68.
49.
Bowling more frequently than in other seasons, Jack Hobbs took 28 first-class wickets.
50.
Against Oxford University, Jack Hobbs bowled throughout the second innings to take seven wickets for 56 runs, the best figures of his career.
51.
Rhodes was in the team, but did not open the batting owing to his poor form; Jack Hobbs opened with Septimus Kinneir.
52.
Wisden commented that Jack Hobbs "played one of the finest innings of his life", and England won by eight wickets.
53.
Jack Hobbs ended the series with an aggregate of 662 runs at an average of 82.75, setting a new record number of runs for an individual batsman in a Test series.
54.
Jack Hobbs's average was far greater than any other batsman on either team, and the tour established him as the world's best batsman.
55.
Wisden remarked that Jack Hobbs did not bat particularly well for Surrey.
56.
Jack Hobbs made a slow start to the competition when he was bowled in the first over in England's opening match, and his form was uncertain in the early part of the season.
57.
Jack Hobbs continued with scores of 55 and 68 in the next two games against South Africa, and his batting was praised by the press; for the first time, in the Times, he was referred to as "a great master".
58.
Jack Hobbs had the best batting average for the summer from all three teams; he averaged 40.75 against South Africa and 56.00 against Australia.
59.
In 1913, batting in a more controlled fashion, Jack Hobbs scored 2,605 runs at an average of 50.09, placing him second in the national averages.
60.
Jack Hobbs continued to score quickly, twice scoring 100 runs before lunch on the first day of a match; against Worcestershire, he and Hayward shared an opening partnership of 313 in 190 minutes.
61.
Jack Hobbs scored 443 runs at an average of 63.28 in the series; he did not score a century, but accumulated scores of 82,92 and 97, while he and Rhodes shared two century opening partnerships and another of 92.
62.
Jack Hobbs scored his 11th century of the season before public pressure terminated the cricket season.
63.
Unlike many other cricketers, Jack Hobbs did not immediately join the army, but worked in a munitions factory, possibly as a clerk.
64.
Jack Hobbs continued to play for Idle in 1916, and was more successful, scoring 790 runs at 52.60 and taking 65 wickets at 6.27.
65.
Jack Hobbs joined the Corps in October 1916 as an air mechanic and after training was posted to London, then Norfolk; at first he had time to appear in charity cricket matches and in several games for Idle.
66.
In September 1918,110 Squadron, as part of the newly formed Royal Air Force, was sent to France and took an active part in the fighting, but Jack Hobbs never discussed his career in the RAF.
67.
Sandham usually played the subordinate role and Jack Hobbs took most of the bowling.
68.
Jack Hobbs made a good start to the 1919 season and, despite a brief spell of failure through over-aggression, batted consistently.
69.
In total that year, Jack Hobbs scored 2,594 runs in first-class matches, more than anyone else, at an average of 60.32.
70.
Jack Hobbs took five wickets for 21 runs against Warwickshire, and his 17 wickets at an average of 11.82 placed him at the top of the Surrey bowling averages.
71.
Jack Hobbs scored two centuries in the opening three first-class games, and in the first Test top-scored in both England innings with 49 and 59.
72.
Jack Hobbs scored a century in defeat in the third Test, hitting 123 in the final innings as England failed to score 489 to win the game.
73.
Jack Hobbs did not pass 50 again in the series; after a failure on the fourth Test, he tore a thigh muscle batting in a game before the final Test.
74.
Jack Hobbs scored a total of 924 first-class runs on the tour, at an average of 51.33; in Test matches, he scored 505 runs at 50.50.
75.
Jack Hobbs played just five first-class matches in 1921, when Australia toured England.
76.
Jack Hobbs consulted Sir Berkley Moynihan, a prominent surgeon based in Leeds, who diagnosed acute appendicitis and operated the same day.
77.
Jack Hobbs returned to cricket in 1922 and batted effectively throughout the first months of the season, scoring 10 first-class centuries in total.
78.
Less successful during the wet 1923 season, Jack Hobbs failed on many occasions and was unsuccessful in both Gentlemenv Players games.
79.
Jack Hobbs was still struggling with the after-effects of his operation and Wisden noticed he once more tried to score too quickly early in an innings.
80.
Jack Hobbs's form recovered to the extent that his biographer, John Arlott, described it as the beginning of "his quite phenomenal second lease of cricketing life".
81.
Jack Hobbs established an opening partnership with Yorkshire's Herbert Sutcliffe; the pair had opened together briefly in previous seasons and were chosen to open in a Test trial early in 1924, beginning a six-year Test association.
82.
When England batted first, the pair added 136 for the first wicket; Jack Hobbs, playing a Test innings in England for the first time since 1912, scored 76.
83.
Jack Hobbs finished second in the national averages, and the cricket press noted that, although Hobbs scored more slowly and in less spectacular fashion than previously, he batted in a safer, secure style which was more successful in terms of run-scoring.
84.
Jack Hobbs began the tour well, and scored consistently in the matches before the Tests.
85.
Jack Hobbs went on to his seventh century against Australia, beating the previous record number in England-Australia Tests by Victor Trumper.
86.
For tactical reasons, Jack Hobbs did not open the batting but scored 119 and shared another century partnership with Sutcliffe.
87.
Jack Hobbs ended his season with an innings of 266 in a Gentlemen v Players match at the Scarborough Festival, his highest to date and the best score made in the Gentlemen v Players series, and 104 for the Rest of England against Yorkshire, the County Champions.
88.
Jack Hobbs attended several functions in his honour but rejected offers to appear on stage, in film and to stand as a Liberal parliamentary candidate.
89.
Jack Hobbs began the season well, and after the first Test, which was badly affected by rain, he remained in form by scoring 261 against Oxford University, sharing an opening partnership of 428 with Sandham; this remained a Surrey first wicket record as of 2016.
90.
Jack Hobbs scored 119 but was criticised for slowing down later in his innings, leading to accusations that he was more concerned with reaching three figures than batting for the team.
91.
The selectors and players on both teams believed Jack Hobbs performed well tactically.
92.
Jack Hobbs scored 74 in England's innings, but heavy rain ensured a fourth successive draw.
93.
Immediately after reaching 100, Jack Hobbs was out and received a prolonged ovation from the crowd.
94.
Late in the season, Jack Hobbs made the highest score of his career, 316 not out for Surrey against Middlesex at Lord's, establishing a record individual innings for Lord's which survived until 1990.
95.
In total, Jack Hobbs scored 2,949 runs at 77.60, including 12 centuries, to be placed first in the national batting averages.
96.
Jack Hobbs missed a large part of the 1927 season with a combination of illness and injury.
97.
Jack Hobbs scored 1,641 runs at 52.93, including seven centuries.
98.
Jack Hobbs began the 1928 season with four centuries in the first month, but another leg injury kept him out of cricket for six weeks.
99.
Jack Hobbs maintained his batting form until the end of the season; he finished second in the batting averages, scoring 2,542 runs at an average of 82.00 and hitting 12 centuries.
100.
Jack Hobbs made little contribution to England's victories in the first two Tests, and some critics noticed a decline in his batting, a judgement reinforced when he was out to a poorly-chosen shot in the first innings of the third Test for 20.
101.
Jack Hobbs was out for 49; at his suggestion, Douglas Jardine came in to bat next, and England reached the end of the day having lost just one wicket for a score of 199.
102.
In first-class games on the tour, Jack Hobbs scored 962 runs at 56.58.
103.
Jack Hobbs missed more cricket with injuries and illnesses in 1929; between 1926 and 1930, he missed more than a third of Surrey's matches.
104.
Critics observed a general slowing in Jack Hobbs' scoring throughout the season, and he scored more often in singles than in his earlier years.
105.
Jack Hobbs began 1930 in good form, and, with Rhodes, was added to the selection panel again for the Ashes series that season.
106.
When he came out to bat in the second, in the face of a large Australian first-innings lead, Jack Hobbs was given an ovation by the crowd and the Australian fielders gave him three cheers.
107.
Jack Hobbs was moved by his reception but scored only nine runs before he was dismissed, and Australia won the match and series.
108.
Jack Hobbs retired as the leading run-scorer in Test matches, a record he held until it was passed by Wally Hammond in 1937.
109.
Jack Hobbs was very popular with the crowds, and scored 593 runs.
110.
Jack Hobbs never believed that the matches were, or should have been, of first-class status, but statisticians later judged them to be first-class.
111.
Jack Hobbs played several representative matches and took part in the 150th century opening partnership of his career.
112.
Jack Hobbs scored 161 not out for the Players against the Gentlemen, his 16th century in the fixture, to pass the record total of WG Grace for the Gentlemen.
113.
When he returned to England, Jack Hobbs openly criticised the English tactics in newspaper columns and in a book he wrote about the tour.
114.
Jack Hobbs did not play every game, and the Surrey committee allowed him to choose which matches to play.
115.
Jack Hobbs realised his career was over: in February 1935, he announced his retirement.
116.
Later in 1935, Jack Hobbs was made an honorary life member of Surrey.
117.
Neville Cardus said that Jack Hobbs was the first batsman to develop a technique to succeed consistently against googly bowlers, and that he mastered all types of bowling, all over the world and in a variety of conditions.
118.
Jack Hobbs's pad-play was controversial: it removed any possibility of dismissal but was regarded by some cricket authorities as negative and unsporting.
119.
In difficult batting conditions Jack Hobbs batted with great success, and several of his most highly regarded innings came in such circumstances.
120.
Jack Hobbs' technique was based on strong forearms and good foot movement.
121.
In contrast to many leading batsmen from his time, Jack Hobbs preferred to play off the back foot as he believed it gave him more time to see the ball and adapt his shot.
122.
Jack Hobbs liked to score his first run quickly when he came into bat, and he often looked to score quickly at the start of an innings, before the bowlers had settled; on occasion, Hobbs targeted the main bowling threats from the opposition in an attempt to neutralise them.
123.
Early in his career, mainly before the First World War, Jack Hobbs was an aggressive, fast-scoring batsman who played many shots.
124.
Jack Hobbs concentrated to a greater extent on batting for longer periods; many critics, including Hobbs himself, recognised the change and suggested that he was a better batsman before 1914.
125.
Jack Hobbs was an occasional medium-paced bowler who bowled a good length and made the ball swing.
126.
Jack Hobbs fielded in the covers and was expert in cutting off potential runs and returning the ball quickly to the wicket-keeper.
127.
Jack Hobbs regularly led the Players team against the Gentlemen and sometimes at Surrey in the absence of Percy Fender, but he was a reluctant captain.
128.
Jack Hobbs disliked the responsibility and decision-making of leadership, and rarely even offered tactical advice.
129.
Jack Hobbs was twice selected as Wisden's Cricketer of the Year, in 1909 and 1926; only he and Pelham Warner have received this award twice.
130.
Jack Hobbs was comfortably the leading Test run-scorer during his career, and had the highest number of Test runs at the time of his retirement.
131.
Gideon Haigh suggests that Jack Hobbs was a "spontaneous and original", trend-setting batsman who was not afraid to depart from orthodoxy.
132.
Jack Hobbs was a man of moral probity, religious conviction, and personal commitment.
133.
Jack Hobbs avoided confrontation, although he was "quietly determined", according to Wisden, and tried to avoid publicity.
134.
In 1900, Jack Hobbs met Ada Ellen Gates, a cobbler's daughter, at an evening church service held in St Matthew's, Cambridge.
135.
Jack Hobbs so disliked being separated from his wife during cricket tours that in later years she often accompanied the team overseas.
136.
Jack Hobbs's earnings placed them roughly in the bracket of lower middle class according to McKinstry: although more prosperous than he had been during his childhood, the family were not initially financially comfortable.
137.
Consequently, in 1928, the family moved to a large house in private grounds, and Jack Hobbs was able to send his children to private schools.
138.
Jack Hobbs had greater financial independence than most contemporary cricketers, but he was always first concerned to give his family the security lacking from his childhood.
139.
Jack Hobbs continued to work at his sports shop and he and Ada moved home several times.
140.
Jack Hobbs supported several charities in his spare time and continued to play cricket at club and charity level.
141.
In 1946, Jack Hobbs became the first professional to be elected to the Surrey committee.
142.
In 1953, Jack Hobbs was knighted, the first professional cricketer to be so honoured.
143.
Jack Hobbs was reluctant to accept it and only did so when convinced that it was an honour to all professional cricketers, not just himself.
144.
Jack Hobbs remained active into the 1960s, including working in his shop.