Kent Spitfires celebrate 21st birthday

The Supermarine Spitfire. King of the skies over Kent and the South East during the Battle of Britain, and a symbol of triumph over adversity in this part of the world for decades since.

Whilst Kent County Cricket Club celebrates its 150th Year in 2020, the ‘Kent Spitfires’, the Club’s name used in one-day competition, turns 21 today.

It was ahead of the 1999 season that a new formation of the one-day Sunday League was devised. With that, came one of the biggest changes in county cricket in recent times – each county was encouraged have a ‘nickname’ attached to their traditional moniker.

“This season the idea is to reinforce the new aspects of the new league and introduce nicknames that will be relevant to young supporters,” a spokesman said. “It’s good from a marketing and PR point of view”.

By March, most counties had picked their new suffix. Yorkshire were now “Yorkshire Phoenix” and Durham had gone for alliteration with “Dynamos”. Overnight, Nottinghamshire had become “Outlaws” and Sussex had turned into “Sharks.” The only county that had not chosen their nickname before the start of the season was Kent.

On 13th April 1999, five days before the start of the new Sunday League, Kent Cricket CEO at the time, Paul Millman, finally revealed the new name for Kent Cricket in white-ball competition: Kent Spitfires.

“We were overwhelmed by the interest in the new name,” he said. “We are grateful to all those who took the trouble to phone and write in with their ideas.

“It’s not been an easy decision, trying to reconcile the traditions of cricket in Kent with the trends in modern cricket, all of which are aimed at broadening the appeal of the game to new audiences.”

And so, the Kent Spitfires were born.

Over the 21 years since, there has been excitement, success, turbulence and togetherness under the ‘Spitfires’ name.

This week we will be celebrating Kent Spitfires’ 21st birthday with: photos, videos, quizzes, articles and interviews on the Kent Cricket website and social media accounts.

Keep an eye out for your favourite Spitfires memory, and let us know if we haven’t covered yours via our social media accounts: @kentcricket.

Together, we are the Kent Spitfires.

---

Our ever-popular 2019 & 2020 Vitality Blast shirt is back in stock on the Kent Cricket Online Shop now >>>