Ahead of the Club’s 150th Year celebrations in 2020, Kent Members and supporters were encouraged to share their favourite memories as part of the “Kent 150: Your 150” project facilitated by the Club.

In random order, these are the 150 that have been nominated by Kent Members and supporters, members of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust, and staff at Kent Cricket.

  1. Frank Woolley (1887-1978) and Arthur Fielder’s (1887-1949) last wicket stand of 235 at Worcester’s Amblecote ground in 1909 is a Kent and England record.
  1. Leslie Ames (1905-1990), Kent and England’s prolific wicket-keeper/batter – `I ran across the ground at Gravesend to get Leslie Ames’ autograph.’
  1. Asif Iqbal (1943- ) played for Kent for fourteen years and captained it for three – `I remember Asif being awarded his cap on the pitch at Canterbury in 1968.’
  1. The Kent Women’s County Championship Team of 2019. The team have won the trophy eight times and the County T20 Championship three times.
  1. Kent’s first County Championship in 1906 – The Guardian said `A more brilliant side it would be hard to imagine’
  1. Rob Key (1979- ) captained Kent to the T20 cup in 2007 and scored a double century for England.
  1. Alan Knott (1946- ) – `My first visit to Canterbury was in 1982 – Alan Knott’s sartorial scruffiness contrasted with his unbelievably neat keeping.’
  1. West Indian all-rounder John Shepherd (1943- ) was voted one of 12 `Kent Legends’ by Club supporters.
  1. The 1889 Kent Team was captained by the Kent’s first Captain, the 4th Lord Harris.
  1. Gerry Weigall (1870-1944) was one of the game’s great eccentrics. He once held up the traffic in Piccadilly demonstrating how to combat bodyline bowling.
  1. Dean Headley (1970- ) equalled the world record of three hat tricks in a season in 1996.
  1. Colin Cowdrey (1932-2000) played for Kent for 26 years and was Captain of the County Championship-winning side in 1970.
  1. Colin Blythe (1879-1917) `the best left arm of my or any other time’ was killed at Passchendaele in 1917.
  1. Kent and West Indies’ Carl Hooper (1966- ) was one of only two batters to hit a ball over the Lime Tree.
  1. Steve Marsh (1961- ) was Kent’s wicketkeeper-batter from 1982 to 2000, and captain in 1997 and 1998.
  1. Kent won the Benson and Hedges Cup in 1976, beating Worcester by 43 runs.
  1. Kent won the 40 over National League five times, in 1972, 1973, 1976, 1995 and 2000.
  1. Frank Woolley (1887-1978) played for Kent from 1906 to 1938 – `In the 1930s my Father saw Frank Woolley hit the Pavilion Clock twice in one day.’
  1. Between sessions `We loved playing on the outfield at Canterbury’
  1. The 1970s Kent Team won the County Championship three times, in 1970, 1977 (shared) and 1978.
  1. Brothers Charles, Arthur and Manley `Bishop’ Kemp (1861-1951) all played for Kent in the Club’s early years.
  1. CHB `Slug’ Marsham (1879-1928) captained Kent to their first County Championship win in 1906.
  1. `Mohammad Sami scared the living daylights out of the Notts batters in taking 8 for 64 in 2003 – very quick bowling. And he took 7 for 50 in the second innings too.  Complete bedlam and great to watch, but not to face’.
  1. Doug Wright (1914-1998) was Kent’s first professional captain.
  1. Godfrey Evans (1920-1999) was described by Wisden as `arguably the best wicket-keeper the game has ever seen.’
  1. South African Stuart Leary (1933-1998) was one of the last sportsmen to play both top class cricket and football.
  1. `Tich’ Freeman (1888-1965) was the only bowler to take 300 wickets in an English season.
  1. Kent won the Gillette Cup for the first time in 1967, beating Somerset by 32 runs.
  1. Kent played many overseas teams, including the 1966 West Indians.
  1. Canterbury Week has been a cricketing and social highlight since 1842.
  1. Kent’s highest team score of 803 was against Essex at Brentwood in 1934.
  1. Kent and England Captain Charlotte Edwards (1979-) was a 2014 `Wisden Cricketer of the Year’.
  1. Joe Denly (1986-) is the first Canterbury-born cricketer to be capped by the county.
  1. Kent Women’s double-winning side of 2016 won both the Women’s County Championship and the Royal London One Day County Championship.
  1. Kent’s Head Coach Matt Walker (1974-) made the highest score by a Kent batter at the Canterbury ground with his 275 not out in 1996.
  1. Tammy Beaumont (1991- ) was a Wisden Player of the Year in 2019.
  1. Victa the Mascot is named for the Kent `Invicta’ white horse emblem.
  1. The Ames Levett indoor School and Sports Centre was opened by HRH The Duchess of Kent in 1992.
  1. Bill Bradley (1875-1944) `Kentish Lightning’ took a wicket with his first ball in a test match.
  1. Matthew Fleming (1964-) epitomised Kent’s competitiveness in the one-day game in the 1990s – `We cheered and cheered at his last game’.
  1. Twins Barbara (1913-2005) and Joan Blaker (1913-2001) formed the core of Kent Women’s middle order between 1936 and 1952, and played against Australia at Gravesend in 1937.
  1. G. Grace hit the first triple century in first class cricket – 344 – for the MCC against the Gentlemen of Kent in the Canterbury Cricket Week of 1876.
  1. `The St Lawrence Lime Tree was a legend and its demise was mourned by all lovers of cricket.’
  1. Sam Billings (1991- ) has been Kent’s Captain since 2018 and is a leading one-day player
  1. ‘The John Player Trophy landing on the pitch at Mote Park in 1976 after Kent played Gloucester’ to win the JPL league
  1. ‘Colin Cowdrey’s 100th First Class 100 at Mote Park on July 5 1973 against Surrey.’
  1. Derek Underwood (1945- ) – ‘As well as being one of the best bowlers the world has ever seen, he is one of the reasons I support Kent. Watching him bowl was an absolute joy.’
  1. ‘John Shepherd playing for the Second XI at Gore Court – the first Kent match I saw’ at The Grove in Sittingbourne.
  1. Watching `The T20 Final win at Edgbaston’ in 2007.
  1. ‘Aravinda da Silva’s magnificent season, (in 1995, …I saw) the record partnership with Graham Cowdrey at Maidstone and the B&H Final 100.’
  1. ‘Alan Wells hitting 6 consecutives 6s against Durham in a Sunday league Game’ at Canterbury in May 1998. Wells hit 118 in 80 balls.
  1. ‘Military Bands playing in the outfield in Canterbury Cricket week.’
  1. ‘Mark Ealham’s 44 ball 100 at the Mote’ against Derbyshire in 1995.
  1. ‘Clive Lloyd caning a depleted attack on the small ground at Hesketh Park’ on 9 May 1970, the game was drawn.
  1. ‘Games abandoned due to high winds at Canterbury …with the temporary floodlights’ in 2008 and 2009.
  1. ‘A farmer near the Nackington Road End burning stubble’ blowing across the ground and the match ‘finishing nearer eleven than ten’ against Sussex in 2013.
  1. ‘The Cowdrey and Woolmer partnership v Australia with Lillee and Thomson in their prime, Cowdrey hooking Lillee for 6s’, in June 1975. The partnership secured Kent’s first win against Australia since 1899.
  1. ‘Recently the One-Day Cup match between Kent and Surrey on the 5th June 2016 at Beckenham took some beating. It was a fantastic match and a great day out. Kent reached their target of 256 with one wicket left and Alex Blake whacking a six off the penultimate ball’
  1. ‘Matthew Fleming achieving 3 direct hit runouts from 4 balls in a win over Surrey has always stuck in my mind from August 2001 in Canterbury. The unlucky batters were Jonathan Batty, Saqlain Mushtaq and Martin Bicknell….Fleming had earlier run out Ian Ward with another direct hit.’  Kent won the Norwich Union League 45 over day/night game.
  1. ‘Every visit to watch Kent play at one of their home grounds. The travelling to the ground, the friendly welcome from the stewards, meeting and talking to my friends and other people at the game and watching Kent play…’
  1. ‘A glorious summer’s day at St Lawrence, I had just finished my A-levels and went with a group of friends, Warwickshire posted a good total of 300+ but Matt Walker responded magnificently with a brilliant 117 to chase it down and send Kent into the semi-finals’ Against Warwickshire in 1997.
  1. ‘Mine has to be Derek Underwood’s maiden and only first-class century’ – 111 against Sussex on 3 July 1984.
  1. ‘Andrew Symonds’ (1975- ) century at Mote Park’ against Notts on 11 July 2003.
  1. ‘We were members of Graham Johnson’s (1946- ) official fan club.’
  1. ‘Alan Ealham’s (1944- ) catch on the deep against Yorkshire in 1967’, catching Fred Trueman.
  1. George Collins (1889-1949) took 16 wickets in a game against Notts in 1922.
  1. Kent’s world record 40 over chase of 337 against Sussex in the Yorkshire Bank 40 in June 2013.
  1. ‘Blankets on the car windscreens at Canterbury.’
  1. ‘Being the only one in the crowd at Gravesend identifying that the aged, ailing and frozen Middlesex scorer was Patsy Hendren’ (1889-1962).
  1. The Old Stagers and I Zingari at Canterbury Cricket Week, providing entertainment and sport.
  1. Kent Women won their first County Championship in 2006 in an undefeated season.
  1. ‘My first day of cricket was Kent v Middlesex at the Mote on 27 July 1946.’
  1. Lord Harris (George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris) (1889-1949) was the dominant player and administrator in Kent’s early years – he played from 1870 to 1911.
  1. Zak Crawley (1998- ) has played for Kent since 2017 and scored the record score for a Kent batter for England of 267 in 2020.
  1. ‘A classic Colin Cowdrey hundred scored between tea and close of play at Gravesend in 1963, just before his famous injury at Lord’s.’
  1. The Crabble at Dover had over 100 Kent games played on it between 1907 and 1976.
  1. Cecilia Robinson (1924- ) played for various incarnations of Kent and England between 1946 and 1967, averaging over 50 for the County.
  1. ‘I collected Autographs. The players used to walk around the ground and were happy to sign our books for us.’
  1. ‘Fielders disturbed by Flappers’ reported the Times in August 1919, as ‘two flappers’ were joyfully collecting autographs from the Australian players long after the first two Kent batters had come out of the pavilion.’
  1. ‘The best ice-cream came from the Deal Ice-cream vans at Canterbury.’
  1. ‘A fresh Kent Membership card every year – I’ve kept all of mine.’
  1. The terrible ‘day we lost the Lime Tree’ at Canterbury in high winds on 8 January 2005.
  1. The first recorded Women’s match at Canterbury was played on 22 June 1963, when Kent defeated the Women’s Cricket Association by eight wickets.
  1. ‘Identifying in the Members’ Enclosure at Gravesend, Tony Hancock, and securing his autograph, which I still have.’
  1. Mike Denness (1940-2013) was Captain for 5 years in the successful 1970s.
  1. Kent’s great wicket-keeping tradition, from Huish, Ames and Evans, to Knott, Downton, Marsh, Jones and Billings.
  1. Cheriton Road in Folkestone. On its opening in 1925 the Times reported `It is a magnificent ground which ranks with the best in England’.
  1. ‘In 2005 we watched Geraint Jones (1976- ) take the winning catch in the Edgbaston Ashes test on the TV in a packed shop at Canterbury.’
  1. ‘We watched many games on the old wooden seats at Mote Park’ in Maidstone.’
  1. Percy Chapman (1900-1961) The Kent and England Captain played for the county from 1924 to 1938.
  1. Alec Hearne (1863 -1932) was a member of a famous cricket-playing family, and one of only two men to have taken 1000 wickets and scored 10000 runs for the county.
  1. The Centenary of Kent County Cricket Club in 1970 was celebrated with a philatelic First Day Cover.
  1. Tunbridge Wells week has been centred on the Nevill Ground since 1902.
  1. Colin Blythe and Frank Woolley bowled out Warwickshire for 16 runs in 45 minutes at the Angel Ground in Tonbridge in June 1913.
  1. Cricket ball-making was based in Kent – leading companies like Duke and Alfred Reader were in Penshurst and Teston, and smaller firms were based across the county.
  1. ‘Queuing to drive out of the ground at Canterbury in the old days, but happy to if we had won.’
  1. The Angel Ground in Tonbridge was used for first class cricket by Kent between 1869 and 1939.
  1. Gerry Chalk (1910-43) was Captain of Kent in 1938 and 1939, but was shot down over France in his Spitfire in 1943.
  1. Ted Dillon (1881-1941) captained Kent to the three County Championship wins of 1909, 1910 and 1913.
  1. David Fulton (1971- ) was the PCA Player of the Year in 2002 when he scored 1892 first class runs.
  1. James Tredwell (1982- ) bowled off-breaks for Kent and England between 2002 and 2018, and was part of Kent’s County Championship promotion in 2009.
  1. The County Cricket Ground at Beckenham has been used regularly by Kent since 2003 and is the home of the Kent Women’s Team.
  1. `Derek Underwood bowling with Alan Knott keeping in the first season of the John Player League at my first visit to Canterbury…my absolute cricketing heroes!’
  1. The Chiesman Pavilion at Canterbury was built in 1900, its interior based on the Long Room at Lords.
  1. Kent v Lancashire at Canterbury 1906 by Albert Chevallier Tayler, has been  called ‘cricket’s finest painting’.

 

  1. A pair of candlesticks was presented by the Club to each member of the 1910 Championship winning side.

 

  1. A Commemorative Book of Matches was issued by the Daily Mail to commemorate Kent’s County Championship win in 1913.
  1. All-rounder Jack Mason (1874-1958) played for Kent between 1893 and 1914, captaining the team between 1898 and 1902.  The Kent Cricket Collections hold his Kent and England caps.
  1. Arthur Fagg (1915-1977) scored a then unique two double centuries in the same match for Kent against Essex at Colchester in 1938.
  1. All-rounder Darren Stevens (1976 -) was Kent’s player of the year in 2005, 2010, 2013 and 2020.
  1. The Bat and Ball Ground at Gravesend was home to 143 Kent first class games between 1849 and 1971.
  1. England fast bowler Graham Dilley (1959- 2011) played for his home county Kent between 1977 and 1987, but is probably best remembered for his part in the Headingley Ashes test win of 1981.
  1. Fred Huish (1869-1957) ‘First of a line of exceptional Kent wicket-keepers’.
  1. Brian Luckhurst (1939-2005) played his whole career at Kent from 1958 to 1976, before becoming Manager, Administrator and President.
  1. The Angel Ground became the base for the Tonbridge Nursery in 1897, the Kent professional development programme.
  1. Bill Ashdown (1878-1979) holds the record for the highest score for the county – 332 in the famous innings against Essex in 1934.
  1. Opening bat Wally Hardinge (1886-1965) played over 500 games for Kent as well as football for Newcastle, Sheffield United and Arsenal – and one cap each for England at football and cricket.
  1. Kent Cricket Academy at the Canterbury ground was established in 2003 to produce professional players, with over 25 first team players to date.
  1. Left-handed bat Lydia Greenway (1985- ) played for Kent from 2000 to 2016 and in 2017 set up Lydia Greenway’s Cricket for Girls academy.
  1. Fast bowler Richard Ellison (1959- ) played for Kent from 1981 to 1993, and famously took four wickets for one run against Australia in 1985.  He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1986.
  1. Mark Benson (1958- ) was a prolific opening bat who played for Kent for fifteen seasons from 1980, later becoming an Elite Panel Umpire.
  1. Bowling all-rounder Alan Dixon (1933- ) played for Kent for twenty years after his first-class debut at age 16 in 1950.
  1. Fast bowler Norman Graham (1943- ) was known for his 6-foot 8 inches height, and his outstanding 1967 season, with an average of just 13.90.
  1. Off-spinner Colin Page (1930-1990) served Kent in a range of roles, from first team cricket and Captain of the Second XI, to Manager and Director of Youth Coaching.
  1. Left-arm spinner Min Patel was a regular for Kent between 1989 and 2008 and was the leading wicket taker in the country in 1994.
  1. ‘Sitting on the top deck of the pavilion at the Crabble Ground on 14 August 1948 and watching Arthur Fagg, who had been tipped to open with Len Hutton in the final Ashes test at the Oval, score 203 against Middlesex, captained by England selector Walter Robins. Earlier in the day England had been dismissed for 52 with Hutton being last out for 30.’
  1. ‘Some of the crazy one-day kits – you needed sunglasses for the Spitfire Gold kit in 2016.’
  1. All-rounder Kate Brown (1953- ) played for Kent for 32 years from 1973, taking 6-28 against Middlesex at Beckenham in 1993.
  1. Fast bowler Martin McCague played for Kent for ten years from 1991, and represented England though bought up in Australia.
  1. England opening bat Chris Tavare (1954- ) played for Kent for fourteen years from 1974, and was Captain for three of them.
  1. Derek Ufton (1928- ) was a wicket-keeper batter for Kent from 1949 to 1962, also playing as centre-half for Charlton Athletic.
  1. Bob Woolmer (1948-2007) played for Kent between 1968 and 1984 and went on to become one of the best-respected coaches in the game.
  1. ‘Picnics round the boundary at Canterbury – people brought deck chairs, tables, blankets, everything.’
  1. The first recorded Kent Women’s match took place on 29th May 1935 against a Civil Service XI (ground unknown).
  1. Kent Women faced Australia at the Bat and Ball Ground at Gravesend on 2 June 1937, the first International played by Kent Women.
  1. Kent Spitfires’ first Twenty20 game was played at the County Ground at Beckenham against Hampshire on 16 June 2003.
  1. In 2020 Kent awarded Women’s caps for the first time, to both past and present players.
  1. Kent’s youngest player to be capped was 18-year-old Colin Cowdrey in 1950.
  1. The Colin Blythe Memorial at the Spitfire St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury commemorates the 25 Kent players who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.
  1. A number of notable Umpires played for Kent, including Arthur Fagg, David Constant, Mark Benson and Martin Saggers.
  1. ‘My Father always inspected the pitch before a day’s cricket and would predict – usually incorrectly – how play would go.’
  1. ‘On arriving at the Canterbury ground, we’d always buy a scorecard and a paper at the wooden kiosk’
  1. A Banquet to celebrate the 1906 County Championship win was held at the Corn Exchange in Maidstone; the Kent Cricket Collections hold a copy of the dinner menu.
  1. ‘Celebrating a player in his Benefit Year, particularly when the collection bucket was passed down the rows at a game.’
  1. The first day/night County Championship match was played as a trial at Canterbury in September 2011.
  1. ‘Devon Malcolm hit a six over the Frank Woolley Stand during the Championship game in 1991 which landed on Chris Penn’s car, smashing the rear window.’
  1. ‘Watching Greg Chappell score 141 at Canterbury in 1972 – Doug Walters scored 150 for the Australians as well.’
  1. Tash Farrant (1996- ) is a fast-medium bowler who has played for Kent since 2012 and England in the one-day game.
  1. Fast bowler Mary Pilling (1938- ) played for Kent between 1959 and 1983, and played 57 times for England.
  1. Fast bowler Kevin Jarvis (1953) played for Kent between 1975 and 1987, and took 80 first class wickets in Kent’s Championship-winning year of 1978.

Compiled by Kent Cricket’s Curator, Caroline Ellis, 3 March 2021