Kent County Cricket Club

Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent. The club's limited overs team is called the Kent Spitfires.

The club plays most of its home matches at the St Lawrence Ground, Canterbury, but also plays some home matches at The County Cricket Ground, Beckenham, and the Nevill Ground, Royal Tunbridge Wells where they host the Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week.

In the 2006 season, Kent finished fifth in Division One of the County Championship while the Spitfires were fifth in the NatWest Pro40 League Division Two.

On 4 August 2007, Kent won the Twenty20 Cup for the first time, defeating co-favourites Sussex in the semi-finals, captain Rob Key hitting 68 not out. In the final they defeated Gloucestershire in a see-saw game where in the final over, chasing 148, they required 13 off the last over, before making it home with 2 balls to spare, Matthew Walker hitting 45 and Darren Stevens hitting 30 not out to see the Spitfires home. Earlier in the final, Ryan McLaren got a hat-trick.

On 27 September 2008, Kent were relegated from the First to the Second Division of the County Championship for the first time.

Honours

• County Championship (6) - 1906, 1909, 1910, 1913, 1970, 1978; shared (1) - 1977
• FP Trophy ^a[›] (2) - 1967, 1974
• National League ^b[›] (5) - 1972, 1973, 1976, 1995, 2001
• Twenty20 Cup (1) - 2007
• Benson and Hedges Cup (3) - 1973, 1976, 1978

Second XI honours

• Second XI Championship (7) - 1961, 1969, 1970, 1976, 2002, 2005, 2006; shared (1) - 1987
• Second XI Trophy (1) - 2002
• Minor Counties Championship (2) - 1951, 1956

Records

History

Pre-1840

Kent, jointly with Sussex, is believed to be the birthplace of cricket. It is widely held that cricket was invented by children living on the Weald in Saxon or Norman times. The game's earliest tentative reference, re creag in 1300, relates to Newenden in Kent.

The first definite mention of cricket in Kent concerned a match at Chevening in 1610 between teams from the Weald and the Downs.

Cricket became established in Kent during the 17th century and the earliest village matches took place before the English Civil War. It is believed that the earliest county teams were formed in the aftermath of the Restoration in 1660. In 1705, West of Kent played Chatham at Malling. The first recorded inter-county match took place in 1709 between Kent and Surrey.

Kent had strong teams throughout the 18th century, often challenging All-England. The county had several famous patrons including Lord John Sackville, his son John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset and Sir Horatio Mann. In the latter half of the 18th century, Kent and Surrey were the only counties that could realistically challenge the power of Hambledon.

In the 1822 MCC versus Kent match at Lord’s, John Willes of Kent opened the bowling and was no-balled for using a roundarm action, a style he had attempted to introduce since 1807. Willes promptly withdrew from the match and refused to play again in any important fixture. His action proved the catalyst for the so-called "roundarm revolution".

In 1837 Kent was unofficially proclaimed the "champion county" and had the most successful team through most of the 1840s. Mainstays of the Kent team in those years included Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, Nicholas Wanostrocht aka "Felix", Ned Wenman and William Hillyer. William Jeffrey Prowse wrote these famous lines about the Kent side, as part of his poem In Memoriam, Alfred Mynn:

And with five such mighty cricketers, t'was but natural to win,

As Felix, Wenman, Hillyer, Fuller Pilch, and Alfred Mynn.

Post-1840

On 6 August 1842, formation of the original Kent County Cricket Club took place in Canterbury. The new Kent CCC played its initial first-class match against All-England at the White Hart Ground in Bromley on 25, 26 & 27 August 1842. In 1847 the club began using the St Lawrence Ground. On 1 March 1859, a substantial reorganisation occurred to create the present Kent CCC.

Kent enjoyed two periods of prolonged success: the first in the years before World War I, when in the space of eight seasons they were county champions four times. The bowling of Colin Blythe and the captaincy of Cloudesley Marsham, and later Ted Dillon were key factors in Kent's decade of success. They remained highly consistent until the 1930s, with high quality players such as Tich Freeman, Frank Woolley, Wally Hardinge and Les Ames all playing at the peak of their career.

Kent did not become successful again until the 1970s, when they claimed ten domestic trophies, including the County Championship title in 1970, 1978 and a shared title in 1977. They also claimed the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1973, 1976, 1978, and the Gillette Cup in 1974. Their success was this time due to the batting of Brian Luckhurst, Asif Iqbal and Colin Cowdrey.

Kent have become well-known for producing high-quality wicket-keepers. Les Ames, Godfrey Evans, Alan Knott, Paul Downton and Geraint Jones have all progressed from the Kent ranks to the English national side.

Players with most first-class appearances

• Frank Woolley
• Colin Cowdrey
• Derek Underwood
• Wally Hardinge
• Les Ames
• Tich Freeman
• James Seymour
• Alan Knott
• Mike Denness
• Godfrey Evans

Club captains

Current squad

The Kent squad for the 2011 season currently includes:

(Players with international caps are listed in bold)

Kent Facts and Feats

• George Farmer Bennett of Kent was the first County batsman to be given out by handling the ball. Playing against Sussex at Hove in August 1872 he had not got off the mark when he removed a ball that had lodged in his clothing. Sussex appealed and the umpire was forced to give him out. This unfortunate incident came before the introduction of Law 33 (b) in 1899 which declared such a ball to be 'dead'.

• Left arm spinners Colin Blythe and Frank Woolley bowled unchanged through both innings against Yorkshire on a rain affected pitch at the Mote in Maidstone in 1910. Kent won on their way to a second successive county championship.

• The pavilion at Tunbridge Wells was burned down by Suffragettes in April 1913. Though valuable records were lost the Pavilion was rebuilt in 9 weeks, the funds raised by public subscription.

• Kent ran up 803 for 4 dec against Essex CCC at Brentwood in 1934 with Bill Ashdown scoring 332, Les Ames 202* and Frank Woolley 172. The total took seven hours, with 623 runs alone on the first day.

• Frank Woolley scored over 2,000 runs for Kent in 1935 aged 48. He retired in 1938 with 58,959 runs, 145 centuries, 2066 wickets and 1018 catches to his name.

• Arthur Fagg scored two double centuries in the same match for Kent against Essex CCC at Colchester in 1938.

• Doug Wright, who took over 2000 wickets with his brisk leg breaks and googlies between 1932 and 1957, took his 7th hat trick in 1949, the most ever. He also took 108 wickets for England.

Notes

^ a: An unofficial seasonal title proclaimed by consensus of media and historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted; for titles claimed by Kent teams before the county club was founded, see Kent county cricket teams
^ b: Formerly known as the Gillette Cup (1963-1980), NatWest Trophy (1981-2000) and C&G Trophy (2001-2006)
^ c: Formerly known as the Sunday League (1969-1998)
^ d: Amjad Khan played for Denmark in nine ICC Trophy matches in 2001. He gained British citizenship in 2006.

References

Bibliography

• F S Ashley-Cooper, Kent Cricket Matches 1719-1880, Gibbs & Sons, 1929
• Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
• Arthur Haygarth, Scores & Biographies, volumes 3-11 (1841–1870), Lillywhite, 1862–79
• The History of Kent County Cricket Club; Dudley Moore. 1988. ISBN 0-7470-2209-1
• Playfair Cricket Annual
• Wisden Cricketers Almanack

External links

• Official Kent County Cricket Club Website
• Official Website of Kent Cricket Board