Stephen Chalke > Quotes

“Hobbs and Sutcliffe. More than any other players in those years they raised the status of the professional cricketer.”
― Stephen Chalke, Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Innings

“The two men gave not a chance, and they were still there at lunch. In two-and-a-half hours, on the stickiest pitch umpire Chester ever saw, they had lifted the total from 49 to 161. Hobbs, the freer of the two, had moved from 28 to 97; Sutcliffe, with his immense self-control, from 20 to just 53. The players and umpires made their way towards the pavilion, but the two batsmen remained for a minute in the middle, meticulously clearing the little divots of earth and patting down the pitch with their bats. “Well played, Jack”, said Sutcliffe. “Well played Herbert”, said Hobbs. Three words each, but in that very English way they acknowledged the ordeal of what they had been through.”
― Stephen Chalke, Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Innings