John Hubble (1881-1965)

Post date: Feb 02, 2021 5:25:20 PM

John Hubble is the most famous cricketer associated with Wateringbury. He is often known as John Charlton Hubble or Jack. He was born in Wateringbury on 10th February 1881 and was baptised in the local church on 1st May by the vicar Spencer Phillips. In the 1881 census his father, William, is described as a master grocer with 3 men and 1 boy employed. The family lived on The Street (Tonbridge Road) in Wateringbury, obviously in a substantial house as they (William and his wife Emma) had 5 children at home, 2 shopmen, and 3 domestic servants. In the 1891 census they were still on the Tonbridge Road but now in Maidstone. By 1901 the parents were still in Maidstone, now in Milton Street, with only one son at home and William having retired. Both William and Jack kept their contact with Wateringbury and both were in the village in October 1918 for the funeral of the grocer, Amos Baker, who succeeded them in their Wateringbury grocery store.

The following is based on material in the book "Kent Cricketing Greats" by Dean Hayes.

Hubble made his debut for Kent in 1904 and in his first season he played for Kent against Yorkshire at Harrpgate in a match declared void due to the wicket being tampered with.

Although he was an accomplished wicket-keeper, up to the war he had to concetrate on batting as Fred Huish was the Kent wicket-keeper. He scored 5 centuries in his career, his highest being 189 against Sussex at Tunbridge Wells in 1911. ,

In 1912 he scored 46 runs batting as number 6 to take Kent's total to 54, enough to beat Leicestershire.

His best batting season was in 1914 when he scored 1,212 runs.

In 1919 he replaced Huish behind the wicket yet had a good batting result against the Autralians at Canterbury on their first post war tour.

In 1921 he played for the MCC against Australia at Lords.

In 1923 in the match against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham he claimed 10 victims as wicket-keeper and had his most successful year overall with 78 victims (44 caught; 34 stumped).

His Kent career ended in 1929 having scored 10,229 runs and captured 628 victims.

He continued to play and umpire for MCC and built his own sports business in the Hubble and Freeman store, still operating in Mill Street, Maidstone