Kent County Cricket Club

Kent County Cricket Club
One-day name: Kent Spitfires
Captain: England Sam Northeast
Coach: West Indies Cricket Board Jimmy Adams
Overseas player(s): New Zealand Tom Latham
South Africa Kagiso Rabada
Founded: 1842
Home ground: St Lawrence Ground
Capacity: 15,000
Chief executive: England Jamie Clifford
First-class debut: Sussex
in 1825
at Hove
Championship wins: 7 (1 shared)
Pro40 wins: 5
FP Trophy wins: 2
Twenty20 Cup wins: 1
Official website: Official website
Kent County Cricket Club in 2016

Kent County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. The club's limited overs team is called the Kent Spitfires after the Supermarine Spitfire. Kent teams formed by earlier organisations since 1709 had major status and so the county club is rated accordingly from inception: i.e., classified as an unofficial first-class team by substantial sources from 1842 to 1894;[1][2] classified as an official first-class team from 1895 by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the County Championship clubs;[3] classified as a List A team since the beginning of limited overs cricket in 1963;[4] and classified as a major Twenty20 team since 2003.[5]

The club plays most of its home matches at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence in 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.

Honours

First XI honours

Second XI honours

Women's honours

History

Pre-1840

For details of Kent county teams before the formation of Kent County Cricket Club, see Kent county cricket teams.

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.

Further information: History of cricket to 1725

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

Poster for 1842 England XI game immediately before the foundation of the Kent County Club

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 when the Beverley Club was reconstituted as the Kent Cricket Club.[6] The new Kent club played its initial first-class match against All-England at White Hart Field in Bromley on 25–27 August 1842. In 1847 the club began using the St Lawrence Ground, having moved from the Beverley Ground on the other side of Canterbury. On 1 March 1859 a second county club was formed in Maidstone to support the Canterbury-based club. The two clubs merged in 1870 to form the present day Kent County Cricket Club.[6][7][8]

Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury by Albert Chevallier Tayler, which was commissioned by Kent to celebrate their 1906 County Championship victory.

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 beginning in 1906. 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. 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 ran up 803 for 4 dec against Essex CCC at Brentwood in 1934 with Bill Ashdown scoring 332, Ames 202* and Woolley 172. The total took seven hours, with 623 runs alone on the first day. Arthur Fagg scored two double centuries in the same match for Kent against Essex CCC at Colchester in 1938, while 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. 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.

Former Kent CCC logo

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.

Recent history

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.

Grounds

For more details on this topic, see List of Kent County Cricket Club grounds.
Kent v South Africans in 2003, showing the old lime tree

Kent's main ground is the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury. This ground has been used by the club since 1847 and Kent have played over 500 first-class matches at the ground. It is famous for having a tree, the St Lawrence Lime, on the playing field. The original tree, around which the ground was built, was broken in two by high winds in January 2005 and replaced by a smaller replacement lime tree later in the same year.[9][10][11] The ground hosts the annual Canterbury Cricket Week, the oldest cricket festival in the world.[12][13] This dates from 1842 and has been held at the ground since the club moved there.[14][15]

Kent played their first official match at White Hart Field in Bromley in August 1842 and have used 29 different grounds within the county for home matches, including grounds which formed part of the historical county of Kent but which are now within the Greater London area. Two outgrounds remain in regular use, the redeveloped County Cricket Ground, Beckenham and the Nevill Ground in Royal Tunbridge Wells. The latter ground hosts the Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week and has seen over 200 Kent home matches played on it.[16][17] Former venues include Mote Park in Maidstone, which was used until 2005 and has been the venue for over 200 Kent first-class matches,[18] as well as grounds in Gravesend, Tonbridge, Dover and Folkestone, all of which have had more than 100 home matches played on them.

The county's main offices are based at the St Lawrence Ground. Indoor cricket schools are in place at both this ground and at Beckenham which acts as a centre of excellence for player development in the west of the county.[19]

Players

Frank Woolley who made his Kent debut in 1906 and holds the record for the number of runs scored and appearances made the county.

Kent's most notable former players include Colin Cowdrey, the first man to play 100 Test matches, Frank Woolley, Derek Underwood and wicketkeepers Les Ames and Alan Knott. All five men played Test cricket for England, making at least 40 Test match appearances. They are the only players to have stands named after them at the St Lawrence Ground, Kent's home ground in Canterbury.[20]

Other particularly notable former players include spin bowlers Colin Blythe and Tich Freeman. Blythe was a major force in the four County Championship wins in the years leading up to World War I and took 100 wickets in every season from 1902 to 1914.[21] He played 17 Tests for England but was killed in action during World War I. A memorial at the St Lawrence Ground is dedicated to him. Freeman played in the period after World War I and took over 150 wickets in a season for Kent 14 times. He is the only bowler to take more than 300 wickets in an English season, a feat he achieved in 1928, and the only man to have taken all ten wickets in an innings three times.[22] Fast bowler Graham Dilley represented England in 41 Test matches in the 1980s, whilst all-rounder Mark Ealham played in 64 one-day internationals in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Other than Ames and Knott, Kent has produced a number of other top class wicketkeepers.[23] Fred Huish, who never played for England, is considered as the "first of a line of exceptional Kent wicket-keepers"[24] which have included Godfrey Evans, who played 91 Tests for England,[25] Geraint Jones, with 34 Test and 49 ODI appearances, as well as Edward Tylecote, George Wood and Hopper Levett all of whom were capped by the country.[26] Paul Downton started his career at Kent as part of this line of players and the teams' current wicketkeeper, Sam Billings, has made one-day appearances for England.

Overseas players who have made a significant contribution to Kent cricket include West Indians John Shepherd, Bernard Julien and Carl Hooper and Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal all of whom played multiple seasons for the county. South Africans Martin van Jaarsveld, Justin Kemp and Andrew Hall have done the same,[27] as has Australian Andrew Symonds. Other great world cricketers to have played for the county for single seasons include Sri Lankans Aravinda de Silva and Muttiah Muralitharan, India's Rahul Dravid and Australia's former Test captain Steve Waugh.

Captains

Rob Key was appointed captain in 2006.
For more details on this topic, see List of Kent County Cricket Club captains.

As of 2016 the current club captain of Kent is Sam Northeast who was appointed in September 2015 after Rob Key resigned. In total 32 men have been appointed as club captain, beginning with Lord Harris in 1875.[6] Colin Cowdrey captained the side for the longest span in the County Championship era, serving as captain between 1957 and 1971. Ted Dillon led the county to the County Championship title three times as captain, the only man to captain Kent to more than one championship title. Mike Denness' side of the early 1970s won six one-day titles in his five years as captain.

Current squad

As of 4 May 2016

Of the players in the current squad, James Tredwell has played Test matches for England and Sam Billings and Joe Denly have appeared in ODIs. Tom Latham, who joined the squad as an overseas player in 2016, is a current New Zealand Test player and South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada will play at Kent for a short period in the summer of 2016.[28][29]

No. Name Nationality Birth date Batting Style Bowling Style Notes
Batsmen
6 Joe Denly* double-dagger  England 16 March 1986 Right-handed Right arm leg break Nine ODI and two T20I appearances for England,[30] England Under-19s 2004-05
10 Alex Blake  England 25 January 1989 Left-handed Right arm medium-fast England Under 19, 2006/07
16 Zak Crawley  England 3 February 1998 Right-handed Right arm medium
17 Sam Northeast*  England 16 October 1989 Right-handed Right arm off break 2016 captain,[31] England Under 19, 2006–09
23 Daniel Bell-Drummond*  England 3 August 1993 Right-handed Right arm medium England Lions and England Performance Programme squads, 2015/16,[32] England Under 19, 2010–12
30 Fabian Cowdrey  England 30 January 1993 Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox
48 Tom Latham* double-dagger  New Zealand 2 April 1992 Left-handed Right arm medium 18 Test, 38 ODI and 12 T20I appearances for New Zealand
58 Sean Dickson  South Africa 2 September 1991 Right-handed Right arm medium UK passport holder
All-rounders
3 Darren Stevens*  England 30 April 1976 Right-handed Right arm medium
24 Adam Ball  England 1 March 1993 Right-handed Left arm fast-medium England Under 19, 2009–12
25 Calum Haggett  England 30 October 1990 Left-handed Right arm medium-fast England Under 19, 2009–10
26 Matt Coles*  England 26 May 1990 Left-handed Right arm fast-medium England Lions, 2012/13
Wicket-keepers
7 Sam Billings*double-dagger  England 15 June 1991 Right-handed — Five ODI and six T20I appearances for England.[33] England Lions squad, 2014–16,[32] England Under 19, 2009–10
12 Adam Rouse  England 30 June 1992 Right-handed — England Under 19, 2010
Bowlers
5 Ivan Thomas  England 25 September 1991 Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
8 Mitchell Claydon  England 25 November 1982 Left-handed Right arm medium-fast
11 Imran Qayyum  England 23 May 1993 Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox
14 Matt Hunn  England 22 March 1994 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
15 James Tredwell* double-dagger  England 27 February 1982 Left-handed Right arm off break Two Test, 45 ODI and two T20I appearances for England,[34] England Under 19s 2001. Former club captain.
18 David Griffiths  England 10 November 1985 Left-handed Right arm fast-medium England Under 19, 2004–05
19 Sam Weller  England 21 November 1994 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
22 Charlie Hartley  England 4 January 1994 Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
27 Hugh Bernard  England 14 September 1996 Right-handed Right arm medium-fast England Under 19, Winter 2015[35]
33 Adam Riley  England 23 March 1992 Right-handed Right arm off break England Lions 4-day squad, 2014-15[36]
— Kagiso Rabada double-dagger  South Africa 25 May 1995 Left-handed Right arm medium-fast Overseas Player (June and July)

Records

Frank Woolley, who played for Kent between 1906 and 1938, holds the record for the most appearances, most career runs and most runs in a season for the county. He is the only man to score more than 100 centuries for Kent with 122 and is the county's fifth leading wicket taker. Bill Ashdown holds the record for the highest score for the county with 332 runs against Essex in 1934. He is the only man to have scored a triple-century for the Kent with two to his name.[37]

Tich Freeman is the county's leading wicket taker with 3,340 wickets. Freeman took more than 150 wickets for the county 14 times and holds the record for the most wickets in a season. Fellow spin bowler Colin Blythe has the best bowling figures in Kent's history taking 10/30 against Northamptonshire in 1907.

Along with Woolley and Freeman, Wally Hardinge, James Seymour and Derek Underwood are the only men with more than 500 first-class appearances for Kent.[38]

Notes

  1. ↑ Known as the Gillette Cup (1963–1980), NatWest Trophy (1981–2000) and C&G Trophy (2001–2006), Friends Provident Trophy (2007–2009) and ECB 40 (2010–2013)
  2. ↑ Formerly known as the Sunday League (1969–1998). Ran until 2009 season.
  3. ↑ Names have included the Twenty20 Cup (2003-2009), Friends Life t20 (2010-2013) and NatWest t20 Blast (2014 onwards).

References

  1. ↑ ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
  2. ↑ ACS (1982). A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
  3. ↑ Birley, p. 145.
  4. ↑ "List A events played by Kent". CricketArchive. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  5. ↑ "Twenty20 events played by Kent". CricketArchive. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 A brief history, Kent County Cricket Club. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  7. ↑ A brief history of Kent, CricInfo. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
  8. ↑ Marshall I (2015) Playfair Cricket Annual 2015, Machete UK. (Available online). Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  9. ↑ St lawrence Ground, CricInfo. Retrieved 2016-01-09.
  10. ↑ End of innings for cricket tree, BBC News website, 2005-01-10. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  11. ↑ Cricket club reveal new lime tree, BBC News website, 2005-03-08. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  12. ↑ Kent Cricket 2015 fixtures revealed, Kent County Cricket Club, 2014-11-26. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  13. ↑ Kent Cricket will start 2015 season with two away trips, Canterbury Times, 2014-11-28. Retrieved 2016-02.09.
  14. ↑ Canterbury hosts festival week, ECB, 2008-07-08. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  15. ↑ London 2012: Kent chief executive not concerned at Olympic clash, BBC Sport website. 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  16. ↑ Nevill Ground, CricInfo. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  17. ↑ Kent coach Paul Farbrace hails Tunbridge Wells support, BBC Sport website, 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  18. ↑ Kent end 140-year Maidstone deal, BBC Sport website, 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  19. ↑ Kent buoyed by Beckenham ground redevelopment approval, Kent Online, 2012-01-14. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  20. ↑ Brenkley S (2015) Australia vs Kent day one match report: Shaun Marsh opens with century as Aussies underline their Ashes threat. The Independent, 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  21. ↑ Colin Blythe - Profile, CricInfo. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  22. ↑ Tich Freeman - Profile, CricInfo. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  23. ↑ Billings keen to match the Kent keeper kings, Canterbury Times, 2014-04-17. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  24. ↑ Obituary: Fred Huish, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1958. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  25. ↑ Foot D (1999) Godfrey Evans - Obituary, The Guardian, 1999-05-04. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  26. ↑ Ryder R (1972) The great wicket-keepers - from Tom Sueter to Alan Knott, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  27. ↑ Rabada to follow in footsteps of great South Africans at Kent, Kent County Cricket Club, 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  28. ↑ South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada to join Kent this summer on short-term deal, The Guardian, 2016-02-18. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  29. ↑ Kent: New Zealand's Tom Latham signs for 2016, BBC Sport, 2016-02-23. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  30. ↑ Joe Denly, ESPNcricinfo profile. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  31. ↑ Sam Northeast: Kent appoint batsman as club captain, BBC sport website, 2015-09-30. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  32. 1 2 Vince to lead England Lions, ECB, 2015-09-16. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  33. ↑ Sam Billings, ESPNcricinfo profile. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  34. ↑ James Tredwell, ESPNcricinfo profile/ Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  35. ↑ Taylor to captain under-19s in Colombo, ECB, 2014-09-24. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  36. ↑ Jonathan Trott selected for England Lions tour of South Africa to take step closer to England return The Independent, 2014-10-28. Retrieved 2015-09-30.
  37. ↑ Most runs in an innings for Kent, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
  38. ↑ Most appearances for Kent, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-02-13.

Bibliography

External links

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