Jack Hobbs

Jack Hobbs – Sir John Berry Hobbs – was the poor man’s son who became the finest batsman in the world, earned a knighthood, and bore it with innate modesty and dignity. His ability with a cricket bat was such that the title of ‘The Master’ settled upon him as the recognition of fact. He was in all ways, a fine cricketer but transcendent as a batsman. Amidst his many records, still unsurpassed, Hobbs scored more runs than anyone else in the entire history of the first-class game, and more centuries – 197, of which 98 were made after he had reached the age of 40. The weight of his run scoring is of historic importance but it misses the essence of cricket: others scored faster, hit the ball harder, more obviously murdered bowling; no one else, though, ever batted with more consummate skill, which was based essentially on an infallible sympathy with the bowled ball.

John Arlott’s first sight of first-class cricket was also his first sight of Jack Hobb’s batting, at the Oval in the final Test of 1926. It made a profound impression and led to an admiration, and later a friendship, which lasted until The Master’s death in 1963. Arlott’s own mastery of language, his ability to conjure up the spirit of cricket in its most glorious ages, is thus combined with the deeply personal remembrance of ‘a humble, gentle, kindly man with a streak of flawless steel which he revealed only when honour demanded it’.