{{short description|English cricketer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Use British English|date=February 2016}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Jack Hubble | image = Jack Hubble.jpg | fullname = John Charlton Hubble | birth_date = {{Birth date|1881|2|10|df=yes}} | birth_place = Wateringbury, Kent | death_date = {{Death date and age|1965|2|26|1881|2|10|df=yes}} | death_place = St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex | batting = Right-handed | role = Wicket-keeper | club1 = Kent | year1 = {{nowrap|1904–1929}} | family = Harold Hubble (nephew) | type1 = FC | debutdate1 = 23 June | debutyear1 = 1904 | debutfor1 = Kent | debutagainst1 = Gloucestershire | lastdate1 = 20 July | lastyear1 = 1929 | lastfor1 = Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) | lastagainst1 = Royal Navy | columns = 1 | column1 = First-class | matches1 = 360 | runs1 = 10,939 | bat avg1 = 23.57 | 100s/50s1 = 5/58 | top score1 = 189 | deliveries1 = 36 | wickets1 = 0 | bowl avg1 = – | fivefor1 = – | tenfor1 = – | best bowling1 = – | catches/stumpings1 = 437/221 | date = 6 January | year = 2009 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/15015.html CricInfo }} '''John Charlton Hubble''' (10 February 1881 – 26 February 1965), known as '''Jack Hubble''', was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club in the first half of the 20th century. He was a right-handed batsman and wicket-keeper who played professionally for 25 years and was part of the Kent teams which won four County Championships before World War I.<ref name=carlaw>Carlaw, pp. 269–272. (Retrieved 21 December 2020.)</ref>
==Cricket career== Hubble joined Kent as a First XI player in 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.<ref name=cafc>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30440/First-Class_Matches.html First-class matches played by Jack Hubble], CricketArchive. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref>{{sfn|Birley|1999|p=}} 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.<ref name=wisden66>[http://www.espncricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/234625.html Hubble, John Charlton – Obituaries in 1966], ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', 1966. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref><ref name=caseasons>[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/30/30440/f_Batting_by_Season.html First-class batting and fielding in each season by Jack Hubble], CricketArchive. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref> He played nine times in the 1906 team which won the County Championship for the first time in the club's history, but did not play more than ten games until 1910.<ref name=caseasons />
Hubble played a more important part for Kent 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.<ref name=caseasons /> Huish retired after the 1914 season and when first-class cricket returned after the war Hubble became the first choice wicket-keeper.<ref name=wisden66 /><ref name=kccc2aug09>[https://kentcricket.co.uk/news/three-former-kent-greats-honoured-in-special-presentation Three former Kent greats honoured in special presentation], Kent County Cricket Club, 2 August 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref> 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.<ref name=wisden66 /><ref name=cc9apr13>Sengupta A (2013) [https://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/alan-knott-ndash-arguably-the-greatest-wicketkeeper-ever-25010 Alan Knott: Arguably greatest wicketkeeper ever], Cricket Country, 9 April 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref> The three men filled the role for Kent for half a century.<ref name=wisden66 /> thumb|Kent Cricket Team c1922
Hubble played ten times for Kent in the 1927 season, before playing for MCC in South Africa. Hubble was not a member of the MCC tour party but was coaching in South Africa at Dale College and Queen's College during the tour.<ref name=tct>[http://www.test-cricket-tours.co.uk/page_3116511.html Test Cricket Tours – England to South Africa 1927–28], Test Cricket Tours. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref> He was invited to play in a first-class match for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) 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.<ref name=kccc2aug09 /><ref name=kccchistory>[https://www.kentcricket.co.uk/the-club/history A brief history], Kent County Cricket Club. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref> He played just five first-class matches in 1928 and 1929 combined, ending his first-class career playing for MCC against the Royal Navy in July 1929.<ref name=cafc />
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.<ref name=wisden66 /><ref name=kccc2aug09 /> He contributed to over 500 dismissals as a wicket-keeper and took a total of 437 catches in his career, with his best season behind the stumps being 78 dismissals in 1926.<ref name=kccc2aug09 />
As a batsman Hubble scored more than 10,000 runs for Kent and was considered a "beautiful exponent of off-side strokes".<ref name=wisden66 /><ref name=kccc2aug09 /> He could score quickly at times, his highest score of 189 being made in less than three hours at Tunbridge Wells in 1911.<ref name=wisden66 /> He only scored five centuries during his career but of Kent's main wicket-keepers only Ames and Alan Knott have, as of April 2016, scored more runs for the county.<ref name=kccc2aug09 />
==Later life== Hubble set up a sports goods business in Maidstone in 1910.<ref name=km10aug12>Hunter C (2012) [http://www.pressreader.com/uk/kent-messenger-maidstone/20120810/281835755847536/TextView It's the end of a true sporting legend], ''Kent Messenger'', 10 August 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2016.</ref> He joined forces with former teammates Les Ames and Tich Freeman after the Second World War, setting up stores under the names ''Hubble and Ames'' in Gillingham and ''Hubble and Freeman'' in Maidstone. The company later merged with Readers who manufactured cricket balls and was eventually taken over by Kookaburra Sport. The stores closed in 2012.<ref name=km10aug12 />
Hubble coached cricket in South Africa for a number of years<ref name=wisden66 /> and after retirement became a qualified umpire. He died in 1965 aged 84. Hubble's nephew, Harold Hubble, also played first-class cricket for Kent for three seasons.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |author-link=Derek Birley |title=A Social History of English Cricket |year=1999 |publisher=Aurum Press |location=London |isbn=978-18-54107-10-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialhistoryofe0000birl_d1n5 |via=Internet Archive}} * {{cite book |last=Carlaw |first=Derek |title=Kent County Cricketers, A to Z: Part One (1806–1914) |publisher=ACS |location=Cardiff |year=2020 |url=https://archive.acscricket.com/books/Kent_Cricketers_A_to_Z_Part_One_Revised_Expanded.pdf}} * {{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Paul |title=For Kent and Country |publisher=Reveille Press |location=Eastbourne |year=2014 |isbn=978-19-08336-63-7}}
==External links== *{{cricinfo|id=15015}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubble, Jack}} Category:1881 births Category:1965 deaths Category:English cricketers Category:Kent cricketers Category:Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Category:English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 Category:20th-century English sportsmen Category:L. G. Robinson's XI cricketers Category:People from Wateringbury Category:Wicket-keepers Category:Cricketers from Kent