He continued to practise hard, batting in the mornings and evenings on Parker's Piece; the cricket pitches here were poor quality and some critics have attributed Hobbs' later success to his formative years on difficult batting pitches.McKinstry, pp. 33–34. Even so, he did not stand out as a cricketer at this time, in contrast to other successful batsmen who excelled from an early age. No coaches or teams approached him and he was 18 years old before hitting his first century. Hobbs later admitted that he was a slow developer, and there seemed little realistic prospect at this time of him pursuing a career as a professional cricketer like his father, although he continued to harbour the hope.McKinstry, pp. 34–35.
