Hubble Jack Image 1 Kent 1926

Description

Wateringbury, Kent born wicket-keeper Jack Hubble first played for Kent in June 1904 making his debut against Gloucestershire at the Angel Ground in Tonbridge, where he had been part of the Tonbridge Nursery, Kent’s turn-of-the-century training ground for young professionals under Captain William McCanlis. He played few matches for the First XI initially and was used mainly as a batsman, the wicket-keeping position being held by Fred Huish in the years before the First World War. He played nine times in the 1906 side which won the County Championship for the first time in Kent’s history, but did not play more than ten games until 1910.

Hubble played a more important part in the Kent side from 1910 to 1914, playing in 30 matches in 1913 as the County won the last of their four County Championship titles of the Golden Age of cricket. Huish retired after the 1914 season and when first class cricket returned after the First World War Hubble became the first choice wicket-keeper. He continued to play regularly until the end of the 1926 County Championship season when Les Ames succeeded him as the main wicket-keeper. Between them Huish, Hubble and Ames are considered the first in the line of great Kent wicket-keepers. The three men filled the role for Kent for half a century.

Hubble played ten times for Kent in the 1927 season, before playing for M.C.C. in South Africa. Hubble was not a member of the M.C.C. tour party but was coaching in South Africa at Dale College and Queen’s College during the tour. He was invited to play in a first class match for M.C.C. against a South African Invitational XI at Benoni in December. He never played international cricket, although he is often considered to be unlucky not to have done so. He played just five first class matches in 1928 and 1929 combined, ending his first class career playing for M.C.C. against the Royal Navy in July 1929.

As a wicket-keeper, Hubble made over 200 stumpings during his career. He dismissed ten batsmen in a match in 1923 against Gloucestershire at College Ground, Cheltenham, a Kent record that as of April 2016 he still holds jointly with Huish. He contributed to over 500 dismissals in his career as a wicket-keeper and took a total of 437 catches (many made in the outfield) and made 221 stumpings, with his best season behind the stumps being 78 dismissals in 1926.

As a batsman Hubble scored more than 10,000 runs for Kent, with 10,939 in all his 360 first class matches at an average of 23.57, and was considered a “beautiful exponent of off-side strokes”. He could score quickly at times, his highest score of 189 being made in less than three hours against Sussex at Tunbridge Wells in 1911. He only scored five centuries during his career, also making 58 half centuries, but of Kent’s main wicket-keepers only Ames and Alan Knott have, as of April 2016, scored more runs for the County.

Vintage Cricketers was founded in July 2019. There may be more photographs of this cricketer in the Vintage Cricketers library, which are due to be loaded in due course. In the meantime, please send a message to us using the contact form at the bottom left of this page and we can arrange to prepare and publish all images of this cricketer if you have a particular interest in him.