From the archive
Hobbs’ record hundred The Cricketer, Vol VI, No.16 (Aug 1925) and No.18 (Sep 1925)
Research by Jamie_Crawley
Had The Cricketer run a feature 90- odd years ago appraising the greatest England batsmen of all time, the debate – unlike in 2017 – would probably have been a binary one. The argument would start with WG Grace and end with Jack Hobbs – The Grand Old Man and The Master. This was afirmed by the national fascination with Hobbs’ pursuit of equalling WG’s record of 126 centuries through the 1925 season.
From Hobbs’ 125th against Kent at Blackheath in mid-July, an eternity seemed to elapse before No.126. In a similar way that all of England was seemingly overcome with the desire to see Stanley Matthews collect an FA Cup winners’ medal in 1953, it was the talk of every home, every pub, every workplace, and in the end bordered on the impatient and the intrusive. After the game at Blackheath, Hobbs played in six matches without tonning up. Newspaper placards around London read ‘Hobbs Fails Again’ after one of these against Nottinghamshire, when he had made ‘only’ 54.