‘Kent County Cricket Grounds’ book now on sale

Kent Cricket is delighted to announce that a new book, ‘Kent County Cricket Grounds: 150 Years of Cricket Across the Garden of England’ is now on sale in the Club’s 150th Year, written by Howard Milton and Peter Francis.

Buy your copy of ‘Kent County Cricket Grounds’ now >>>

Kent can make a very strong claim to having the greatest tradition of cricket in the world. No small part in this are the many and various grounds in Kent on which the ‘county club’ has played.

As Kent Cricket celebrates its 150th anniversary, it is a most opportune time to look back at those centres of cricket, most of which, but not all, still survive, and commemorate the part they played in that history.

This is a unique volume in the extensive bibliography of cricket in Kent. The result of forty or more years of award-winning research, it not only includes the 18 post-1870 grounds but for completeness, mentions all those used before 1870 for first team matches and since 1911 for second eleven matches.

This is truly a comprehensive account (239 pages) of county cricket across the Garden of England supported by an extensive collection of illustrations (over 330), including those of how these grounds or their sites look today.

Along the way, there is be found many individuals whose names  you were not expect to be found in such a volume as this. Julius Caesar, Elizabeth Taylor, the man whose fascination with shells led to the naming of a world famous company, the man who invented refrigerated sea cargo, Wat Tyler, Field-Marshal Montgomery, a Jack the Ripper suspect and much more.

The book is available from the Kent Cricket Club Shop online >>>

Responsible for this important new publication are two individuals with a long commitment to Kent county cricket:-.

Howard Milton was born in Gravesend in 1946 and has been a member of Kent County Cricket Club since 1969. Educated at Gravesend Grammar School, he has an honours degree in modern history from the University of Durham and a diploma in librarianship (with distinction) from the University of London. Howard worked for the Ministry of Defence Library Service for 35 years, retiring as Senior Librarian in 2004. Honorary Librarian of The Cricket Society 1977-2017 and Honorary Statistician of the Kent County Cricket Club since 1977, he was awarded Cricket Statistician of the Year in 1995 for his work on Kent cricket grounds. Since 2013 he has been a Trustee of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust, whose newsletter Inside Edge he also edits. Howard has authored or co-authored 14 books on Kent county cricket, including two of the appendices to the Club’s official history. He lives in Gravesend, just along the road from his beloved Bat and Ball Ground and, for his sins, is a season ticket holder at Ebbsfleet United Football Club.

Peter Francis became a life member of Kent County Cricket club in 2004 on retiring from business. A committee member of the Supporters Club he became editor of their famed quarterly magazine at the start of 2011, and has now produced some 35 editions. Born and bred in the Medway Towns, he played cricket until his late forties for Old Anchorians Cricket Club, until his knees decided to give up the struggle. He is a committee member of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust and a member of The Cricket Society. He now lives in Maidstone, with his wife Mary, praying, like a lot of Kent members for the resurrection of ‘The Mote’ to County status.

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