Kent County Cricket Club

“ Kent. He was a slow round arm bowler and a good field at point. After retiring from his work as schoolmaster, he wrote much on cricket, publishing 'A Cricketer on Cricket' (1900) ; 'Middlesex County C.C. 1864–1899' (1900) ; and 'The Cambridge C.C. 1829–1901' (1902) . He compiled the articles on 'Public School Cricket' for Wisden's 'Cricketers' Almanack' (1896–1904) and in Prince Ranjitsinhji's 'Jubilee Book of Cricket' (1897) . ”

“ I have suggested that we owe the increase of cricket to the growth of county cricket, and the reasons are not far to seek. When once a county is included in the first class, or aspires to it, its first effort is to enlist all its available talent, and as the reward of the great cricketer is no mean one, whether that reward come in the shape of reputation and amusement to the amateur, or of good red gold to the professional, the aim and ambition of every promising player and of the club to which he belongs is to get at least a fair trial in the higher spheres of the game. ”

“ A large number of English cricket teams have visited the United States and Canada. The first county to do so was Kent in 1904, in which year the Philadelphians also made a tour in England, in the course of which J. B. King (b. 1873) took 93 wickets at an average cost of 14 runs, and proved himself the best all-round man on the side. P. H. Clark (b. 1873) , a clever fast bowler, and J. A. Lester (b. 1872) , the captain of the team, also showed themselves to be cricketers of merit, while N. Z. Graves (b. 1880) and F. H. Bohlen (b. 1868) were quite up to English county form. ”

“ Surplus plants and cuttings are generally distributed without charge to educational or charitable institutions, and to the poor. Provision is made for cricket, football and other games in a number of the parks. Large gatherings of spectators are attracted to the first-class cricket matches played at Lord’s ground, St John’s Wood, by the Marylebone Club and the Middlesex County teams, Eton College against Harrow School, and Oxford against Cambridge University; to the Kennington Oval for the matches of the Surrey club, and the Leyton ground for those of the Essex club. ”

“ The good men of Surrey, in 1800, monopolised nearly all the play of England. Lord Frederick Beauclerk and Hammond were the only All England players who were not Surrey men.
Kent had then some civil contests—petty wars of single clans—bat no county match; and their great friend R. Whitehead, Esq., depended on the M. C. C. for his finest games: The game had become a profession: a science to the gentlemen, and an art or handicraft to the players; and Farnham found in London the best market for its cricket, as for its hops. The best Kent play was displayed at Rochester, and yet more at Woolwich ”

“ The influence of individuals and families, such as the Graces in Gloucestershire, the Walkers in Middlesex, and in recent times the Fosters in Worcestershire, has of course been of inestimable benefit to cricket in those counties; but Buckinghamshire and Norfolk and Cheshire send their sons to the public schools and universities no less than Lancashire or Kent. It is difficult, therefore, to understand why county cricket should so persistently confine itself to a small number of counties ”

“ At all hazards they must neither win nor lose on the first innings. They could not win the match. There was no time. And either a win or a loss on the first innings would lower their percentage sufficiently to enable Surrey to go to the top. For in the matter of averages it is better under certain conditions not to have fought at all than to secure only a portion of the honours.
It was an extraordinary afternoon's cricket. The Kent batsmen were very careful, but two minutes before time there were 156 runs on the board and the last two batsmen were at the wicket. ”

“ They did much good work in popularizing the game, and an annual match between the two at Lord’s on Whit-Monday was once a great feature of the season; but the increase of county cricket led eventually to their disbandment.
At this period, and much later, the first-class matches of “M.C.C. and ground” (i.e. ground-staff, or professionals attached to the club) occupied a far greater amount of importance than is at present the case. In recent years over 150 minor matches of the utmost value in propagating the best interests of cricket are annually played by the leading club. ”

“ League cricket has of late become exceedingly popular, especially in the North of England, a number of clubs—about twelve to sixteen—combining to form a "League" and playing home-and-home matches, each one with each of the others in turn; points are scored according as each club wins, loses, or draws matches, the championship of the "League" being thus decided.
English County Cricket.—The first English inter-county match which is recorded was played on Richmond Green in 1730 between Surrey and Middlesex ”

“ Amateur cricket owes a great debt to them, and also to the Incogniti, in which the present governor ot Jamaica has taken such keen interest. With varying sides, but unvarying good-fellowship, these pilgrims of cricket show how many withstand the attractions of golf, and prefer to drive the leather rather than the Haskell.
Each University has one club noteworthy to the community at large. Cambridge boasts the Quidnuncs, the cap of which is so familiar in county matches, because hardly any old blue seems to wear his 'Varsity colours. ”

“ Earlier in the year, however, on Windmill Downs, Kent defeated Hants by 56 runs. At the commencement of the present century, however, Hampshire cricket was on the wane; but in 1823 Hampshire beat England at Bramshill Park (Sir John Cope's seat) by 5 wickets, while two years later matches were arranged with Sussex, the first fixture at Petworth Park; the home side was victorious by 177 runs, while in the return Hants won by 72 runs.
Like Sussex, cricket in Hants was kept alive by prominent gentlemen in the county ”

“ Middlesex, like Kent, has been better served by amateurs than professionals. Indeed, with the notable exceptions of J. T. Hearne, who headed the bowling averages in 1891, 1896 and 1898, and of the imported Australian A. E. Trott, few professionals of high merit are conspicuously associated with the history of the county cricket. Trott, in 1899 and again in 1900, performed the previously unprecedented feat of taking over two hundred wickets and scoring over one thousand runs in the same season. ”

“ Sports have an important place in the life of towns and villages nowadays; but, though cricket and football are old games really, they have not always been as popular as they are now. Cricket, in some form or other, was played in the thirteenth century; indeed all games where a ball is used are more or less ancient. It seems to have been played at Guildford as early as 1598, but modern cricket only dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. Kent seems to have led the way, and Hampshire was the home of the game in 1774. ”

“ A modern professional who represents his county is partly a servant of the club, partly a servant of the public, and partly a skilled labourer selling his skill in the best market. He may or he may not have a local interest in the club he represents: that is another aspect of his case.
The introduction of spectacular cricket changed the basis of county cricket considerably. For many years the exhibition elevens and the counties played side by side, but gradually the former died out, and the new elements they had introduced into the game were absorbed into county cricket. ”

“ The "county" boundaries were not so rigid in those days. "You find us regularly," says Beldham to Mr. Pycroft—"us" being Farnham and thereabouts—"on the Hampshire side in Bentley's book," and it is quite true.
Then, from this little nucleus, cricket in the south extended. Beldham had a poor opinion of the cricket of Kent at first. Crawte, one of the best Kent men, was "stolen away from us," in Beldham's words. Aylward, the hero of the 167 runs, was taken, also to Kent, by Sir Horace Mann, as his bailiff, but "the best bat made but a poor bailiff, we heard." ”

“ For a long time Notts and Kent have been regular antagonists, and it seems almost a pity that their matches should be dropped; but even the best friends amongst the counties sometimes drift apart for a year or so, as has been shown again this year in the coy conduct of Surrey, who again refuse to play with Somerset, the county which has done so much to encourage Surrey cricket, originally by consistently beating her, and then by paying her the compliment of adopting and developing her most promising young players. ”

“ To begin with, first-class cricket, including representative M.C.C., county, and university matches, is quite different from any other—partly because the results are universally regarded as more important, partly because certain obligations towards the spectators have to be taken into consideration. The last point applies equally to any match which people pay to come to see. Again, school cricket is quite different from ordinary club cricket, and both of them from country-house cricket. ”

“ Let Sussex boast her Taylor, Kent her Mynn,
Your cricketer, right English to the core.
Still loves the man best he has licked before."
No one has done more for Kent, however, than Lord Harris. At one period he was captain, honorary secretary, and the committee rolled into one. Kent has produced also a succession of brilliant amateurs, which include such names as W. Yardley, C. A. Absolom, the brothers Frank and A. Penn, Hon. ”

“ Kent and Sussex were the ancestral homes of cricket, which is thus described by an old writer—"A game most usual in Kent, with a cricket-ball bowled and struck with two cricket-bats between two wickets. The name is derived from the Saxon word cryc, baculus, a bat or staff; which also signifies fulcimentum, a support or prop, whence a cricket or little stool to sit upon. Cricket play among the Saxons was also called stef-plege (staff-play) ." ”

“ In the 1845 diary of the late Mr Briant, who occupied the "Horns," at Kenmngton, for over fifty years, is an entry which cannot fail to be of interest to Surrey cricketers. At least, it is an evidence of the initial ceremony which secured for them the possession of a county ground with proper appliances. "March 1845.—The nursery ground, the Oval, Kennington, taken for a cricket-ground by Mr Houghton, the President of the Montpelier Club, from the 'Bee-Hive,' Walworth; thirty-one years' lease, at £120; taxes about £20; turf laid by Mr South, greengrocer." ”

“ In 1746 Kent again plays England, and wins by a short neck, i.e. by one wicket, while Sussex and Surrey seem great rivals; Surrey, indeed, beats England three years later, and in 1750 loses to Kent by 3 runs, but wins the return by nine wickets. From the names quoted, it is evident that cricket flourished in the south rather than in the north; but cricket was not unknown in the big manufacturing shires, for we find that Manchester and Liverpool were then, as now, desperate rivals, as were Sheffield and Nottingham. ”

“ The surprise was on Carpenter's side, the laugh on ours.
"Well, well! there's no fool like an old fool," said he. "To think I should have played cricket all these years, and get out in that way!"
Surrey came out excellently in county contests that year, and headed the list: Kent dropped to the bottom.
Lancashire made good progress also, and was much indebted for its success to two bowlers W. Mclntyre and Watson. So well did those two perform, that Mr. A. Appleby, almost at his best, played a comparatively small part in bowling for his county. ”

“ Five on the Side of the counties are out for three Notches. The Odds run high on the Side of Kent. Bryan and Newland go in; they help the Game greatly. Bryan is unfortunately put out by Kips. Kent, The first Innings, is Thirteen a-head. The Counties go in again, and get fifty-seven a-head. Kent, in the Second Innings, is very near losing, the two last men being in. Weymark unhappily misses a catch, and by that means Kent is victorious. ”

“ In 1793, the old Westminster men all but beat the old Etonians: and Essex and Herts, too near not to emulate the fame of Kent and Surrey, were content, like second-rate performers, to have, though playing twenty-two, one Benefit between them, in the shape of defeat in one innings from England. And here we are reminded by two old players, a Kent and an Essex man, that, being schoolboys in 1785, they can respectively testify that, both in Kent and in Essex, cricket appeared to them more of a village game than they have ever seen it of late years. ”

“ At the present day there are county clubs which rely mainly for their existence on the voluntary subscriptions and donations of their supporters, men whose only reward is the opportunity of seeing good cricket brought home to their own doors, and the promotion, expansion, and improvement of the game. Gate-money is of course an important factor in a club’s receipts, but it is sheer nonsense, it is almost mendacity, to declare that the county cricket of to-day is played for gate-money and for nothing else. ”

“ Being first of the second-class counties in 1892 and 1893—bracketed with Derbyshire in the latter year—it was duly promoted to higher rank, and opened the 1894 season in sensational fashion by defeating, in rapid succession, Notts, Surrey, and Kent, no other county being successful that year in beating Surrey at the Oval. The county has always held its own well, even though, with the exception of the internationals, Lilley and W. G. Quaife, it has produced no very prominent men: it has won its way by steady and consistent cricket, rather than by brilliancy. ”