Gideon Haigh: Time catches up with Jack Hobbs at Lord's in June 1930

FROM THE MAG: Each month in The Cricketer GIDEON HAIGH writes about a favourite photograph of his. For our June issue he chose a candid off-field shot of the great Jack Hobbs

Gideon Haigh writes every month for The Cricketer magazine about one of his favourite photographs in his 'The Window' column. This is his column that features in our June 2023 issue. To read Gideon Haigh and all of our game's other greatest writers every month in The Cricketer, click here to subscribe.

'There he is, there he is.' You can hear the murmuring among the onlookers, to go with the turned heads, and the curious gazes.

It is June 1930, and an unnamed photographer on patrol at Lord's has managed to secure a surprisingly candid shot of Jack Hobbs.

Test cricket's tallest scorer, England's master batsman, nonpareil professional and current selector gazes warily out the window of a left-hand drive car; next to this most uxorious of cricketers is his wife of 24 years Ada, as he had insisted she be on the 1924/25 Ashes tour, much to Marylebone's annoyance.

The Daily Express speaks for many when it insists that the great man "must not be permitted" to retire, as "in many respects, Hobbs is England."

But he is 47, and tired. He will fail twice at Lord's, while fielding through Australia's 729 for 6, and afterwards incline to leaving himself out, only for the selection panel to overrule him.

Perhaps he can feel the people looking. Perhaps he can sense the passing of the generation. Having made 254 at Lord's, Bradman will make 334 at Headingley, an avarice that Hobbs finds quite vulgar: "He was too good; he spoilt the game."

Ada? She can feel it too. When first they met, Hobbs had overcome his shyness by driving himself to make more runs: "I wanted to win her admiration, and it appeared to me that the more successful I was, the more she would look up to me."

When he made his 100th first-class hundred, his first act was to have a telegram boy field the pre-made wire to her he had in his pocket: 'Got it at last – Jack.' When he gazed out over the great sea of well-wishers after Ashes victory at The Oval in 1926, he was surprised to find her face in the crowd instantly, as though they were supernaturally connected.

A friend waiting in a car smuggled them both out. The Hobbs raised four children amid apparently complete domestic contentment, and to her he devoted My Life Story (1935): 'Dedicated to MY WIFE whose loving care and devotion and interest in the game have been a great help to me and the inspiration of my career.'

But as Leo McKinstry reports in Jack Hobbs (2011), Ada also felt the strain, and suffered through her husband’s short final Test innings at The Oval six weeks later: "The most dreadful moment of my life! That was how I felt when Jack was out in the second innings of the Oval Test match. He felt so fit; he was so anxious to do well." (He made 47 and 9 in the Test).

Then again, she would never have to worry again. When he retired, they both did, as it were. No more glory, but no more vicarious anxiety or challenging gauntlets.

Inside our June 2023 issue of The Cricketer magazine, you'll also find:

- Paul Hayward can scarcely believe The Hundred has a free August run
- ECB chair Richard Thompson answers questions from our readers
- Mike Brearley thinks ahead to the forthcoming Ashes series
- Simon Wilde puts forward the case for an England Test museum
- Huw Turbervill gives his verdict on Manoj Badale’s Test window idea
- Mike Selvey says The Hundred is emptying the ECB exchequer
- Football legend Glenn Hoddle explains why he loves cricket
- Nasser Hussain is concerned about preserving Test cricket
- Nick Friend profiles Katherine Brunt-Sciver following her retirement
- And much, much more...