FAMOUS CRICKETER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 88, 15 April 1935, Page 8

FAMOUS CRICKETER

RETIREMENT OF HOBBS. ' ' MOST SUCCESSFUL CXRKHR. f| J. B. Hobbs, the famous England and Surrey cricketer, recently announced his retirement from first-class cricket. Last season, at the age of 51, he played comparatively little. He was not in the best of health, and during the winter a long period of illness in- | tiuenced him to .-iimiulon the county game. •‘i am very sorry to have to make a decision like this,’’ said Hobbs, in an interview. •• It is a big break, but it has been coming to me for a long time. What I feel most is having to give disappointment to so manjy of my friends | who wanted me to get the 200 cen- | turies. I have not worried much about ' records myself. Mrs. Hobbs thinks I j ought to go on, but those who have ' been urging me to do this scarcely ! seem prepared to supply me with two i new legs. .\fler many years in the! field, mine get very tired nowadays! about 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. John Berry Hobbs was born at. Cam- ' bridge on December 16, 1882. As i groundsman to Jesus College, his father I saw that his son should know the game. | Young Hobbs played his first match ! with Jesus College choir-boys, and he tells how “1 was trembling like a leaf 1 when 1 went in to bat.” Hobbs progressed rapidly, until for Cambridgeshire in 1904. he scored 696 | runs with an average of 53. Under the I influence of Tom Hayward, himself at that time, the greatest batsman in the I Surrey eleven, Hobbs had joined the ground staff at the Oval in l!)(i:‘.. r l.hvo , years later he entered upon his long ! career in the Surrey eleven with 155 1 at the Oval against Bssex. Going on I from success to success, he placed most • English records to his name until last. May, -with .11(5 at Old Trafford, he earned his final laurels as a centurvmaker with a total of 197 separate hundreds. A complete chronicle of his doings I tells best what Hobbs accomplisheil, ! but figures cannot convey his influence I as an opening batsman. Both for Sur- j rey and for England he constantly I paved the way to a winning position, or, by supreme skill in defence and. scoring under difficulties, turned a desperate situation. His manner of dealing with all kinds of bowling, when turf and weather favoured run-getting. 1 revealed the fu[] art of stroke play! Ln fielding, Hobbs for many years was , without a superior at cover-point. Few | batsmen would attempt, twice a short , single for a stroke anvwhcre near Hobbs. Hobbs has been as popular in Australia. as on the English playing fields. He holds a strong opinion against “direct attack.” In August, 1932, he protested against the bowling of 1 Bowes, the Yorkshireman. at the Oval, • and has said; “Seriously, somebody will be killed one of days by a • bumping ball from some fast bowler, and then the practice will be stopped.” One of the stories Hobbs is fond of r telling concerns his departure for the 3 South African tour of 1909-10. He and Strudwick, the England wicket-keeper, could not find a taxi-cab to take them to Waterloo, and, in desperation, stopped a. donkey-barrow, put their bags on if, and marched behind to meet their colleagues at the station. During the tour began the many first-wicket stands between Rhodes and Hobbs, and, as Hobbs put it. “ We em- ! barked on our famous short-run busi- ■ ness.” In this the two batsmen aston-I ished the South Africans, who could i not believe that they had no ,secret n signals. Hobbs tells this about, such' affairs: •'There was once a pair of j, batsmen who tried to make their signals very secret indeed. Their plan was, ‘When I say no, you run;, when I say yes, you don’t.’ And they always succeeded in running themselves out.’’ e A ftGr Seating W. G. Grace’s record t of .126 hundreds Hobbs wrote: “For all my joy when I. passed ’ W r .G. ’s’ wonderful figures I experienced manv a pang. All my lite Grace meant a lot to me. and 1 seemed to be thrusting him • farther into the shades.”