Throwback Thursday: Kent’s 40-over fortunes reviewed

Last year saw the end of the 40-over competition replaced by the new Royal London One-Day Cup contested over 50 overs, Kent member TIM FLISHER looks back to the county's 40-over record.

Kent claimed the honour of the greatest ever 40-over run chase of 337–7 in the Yorkshire Bank 40 match between Kent and Sussex at Canterbury on 19 June 2013.

This match was noteworthy as the first occasion on which a Kent batsman had scored a century against Sussex in the YB40 or its predecessor competitions in the lengthy period stretching back to 1969 when the Sunday League was introduced.

Hitherto and since 1998 (when Trevor Ward hit 101 against Lancashire at Canterbury), Sussex had been the only first class county side against which Kent had not scored a century in the one day league.

It is somewhat ironic that Kent's very first one day century had been scored by Peter Richardson against Sussex in the Gillette Cup knock out competition at Tunbridge Wells way back in 1963 and that this was their last chance to do so in the league game before the expansion to the apparently permanent 50 over competition in 2014 .

The first century in the old Sunday League was scored by Brian Luckhurst at Weston-super-Mare in 1970, incidentally sharing a record first wicket partnership of 182 with Mike Denness which stood alone until it was equalled by Rob Key and Sam Northeast at Worcester in 2013.

More centuries (6) had been scored by Kent batsmen in league competitions against Somerset, at 4 different venues, than against any other county prior to the 2014 season when another two were added by Northeast and Sam Billings.

Luckhurst is one of only two Kent players to have scored 2 centuries against the same county (he also hit 104 at Canterbury against Somerset in 1973), the other being Chris Tavare (110 and 103* against Glamorgan in 1980 and 1982, both at Canterbury).

The win against Sussex, of course, included 2 Kent centuries, by Darren Stevens (118) and Sam Northeast (115), both being their maiden tons in this competition.

Two centuries in a single innings had occurred on 2 previous occasions, courtesy of Trevor Ward (123) and Aravinda de Silva (124) against Surrey in 1995 and Carl Hooper (100) and Alan Wells (118) against Durham in 1998. All of these “twin century” matches were at Canterbury.

It is inevitable that, up to 2014, more Kent centuries (24, or 44% of the total of 55) have been scored at Canterbury than at any other venue.

However, none have been achieved at Canterbury against Leicestershire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire or Warwickshire.

Nottinghamshire is the only county against which Kent have not scored a home century, all 3 (by Rob Key, Trevor Ward and Bob Woolmer) being hit at Trent Bridge.

Maidstone has seen five centuries with two each at Folkestone and Tunbridge Wells, the latter being notable for Kent's highest individual score (146 by Andrew Symonds against Lancashire in 2004) and the lone century scored against a non-county, 144* by Rob Key against Holland in 2013.

The latter was, coincidentally, the third highest knock and, possibly, destined to remain unique in view of the exclusion of non-counties from the replacement Royal London One Day Cup Competition from 2014.

Kent have scored both home and away centuries against most counties but, apart from Nottinghamshire, the other counties where this feat has not been achieved are Durham, Lancashire, Sussex and Warwickshire.

No away centuries being scored against any of these counties. The latter is the only county against which just a single century has been scored, 122* by Chris Tavare at Folkestone in 1983.

In addition to the 2 Tunbridge Wells knocks and Brian Luckhurst's 142 in 1970 at Weston, other batsmen to have exceeded 130 before 2014 have been Sam Billings (143 v Derbyshire at Canterbury, 2012), Chris Tavare (136* v Gloucestershire at Canterbury, 1978), Carl Hooper (145 v Leicestershire at Leicester, 1996) and Trevor Ward (131 v Nottinghamshire at Nottingham, 1993). No Kent batsman has passed the magic 150.

Stevens and Northeast became the 23^rd and 24^th Kent players to hit centuries in this competition. Rob Key has scored more centuries (7) in this format than any other player, against 7 different sides and on 6 different grounds. Notable batsmen who did not score hundreds include Mark Benson, Chris Cowdrey, Colin Cowdrey, David Fulton, Simon Hinks, Graham Johnson and Neil Taylor.

!7 of the 45 years of this format have failed to produce a Kent century. The 1970s and 1980s were somewhat barren, apart from that wonderful summer of 1976 which produced 5, but by just 2 batsmen (Asif Iqbal 106 against Gloucestershire and 100* against Middlesex, both at Maidstone, and 103* against Surrey at The Oval and Mike Denness 108* against Northamptonshire at Canterbury and 118* against Yorkshire at Scarborough).

Before 1993, just 19 centuries had been scored in 24 seasons. During the next 7 years, 1994 and 1996 each produced 2 centuries, 1993 and 1998 each had 3 and 1995 produced the maximum for any year of 6 (Mark Ealham 112 against Derbyshire at Maidstone, Graham Cowdrey 105* against Hampshire at Souhampton and 101* against Middlesex at Lords, Aravinda de Silva 105* against Somerset at Taunton and 124 against Surrey at Canterbury and Trevor Ward 123 also in the latter match).

Those who have enjoyed Kent cricket over the last 20 years will recall those seasons, no doubt fondly, when Kent had some very effective and entertaining firepower.

Over the 14 seasons from 2000 to 2013, only 2006 and 2009 failed to produce centuries. 2013 was the most productive of this period with 4 (the third highest annual total).

There seems to be no correlation between the number of centuries and the length of matches (the 45 over format was used during 2000 – 2005, following the earlier 50 over experiment in 1993).

The re-introduction of 50 over matches this year might be thought to encourage longer innings but sparkling centuries from Sam Northeast (132) and Sam Billings (135*) at Taunton defied this supposed trend in an extraordinary match of 754 runs.

But, even that rate of scoring was eclipsed on that special night back in the final season of YB40 in 2013.