He was mainly associated with Kent County Cricket Club, and made more than 150 appearances in first-class matches.
[1][2][3] Bennett was born in Shorne Ridgeway near Gravesend, Kent, where he was employed as a bricklayer[4] and for 25 years at Cobham Hall by John Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley as a cricket coach for his sons, including Edward and Ivo both of whom went on to play for Kent.
[5] He was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm slow roundarm bowler who played in 126 matches for Kent.
During the voyage, while the team was practising on deck, one passenger received a broken nose and cut cheek when he was struck in the face by a belaying pin which Bennett was using as an improvised cricket bat.
In a match for Kent against Sussex at the County Cricket Ground, Hove, in August 1872, he removed a ball that had become lodged in his clothing, and was given out before he had scored a run.