Kent county cricket teams

[2] In 1705, a newspaper recorded an 11-a-side match between West of Kent and Chatham at "Maulden", generally considered to have taken place at Town Malling.

[3][4] Four years later, what is nominally the earliest known inter-county match took place when a Kent team met one from Surrey on Dartford Brent.

[6] Dartford was an important club in the first half of the 18th century and its team at this time featured William Bedle, who is acknowledged to have been cricket's first great player.

Stead developed a keen rivalry with the Sussex patrons Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and Sir William Gage.

[14] Strong teams played under the name of Kent throughout the 18th century with several famous patrons including Stead, Robert Colchin ("Long Robin"), Lord John Sackville, his son John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset and Sir Horatio Mann organising teams.

Kent at this time were led by Lord John Sackville and his team won the first All-England match on Bromley Common; the return on the Artillery Ground was drawn.

The most famous encounter was the one on Monday, 18 June at the Artillery Ground which was commemorated in a poem by James Love and is the subject of the world's second oldest scorecard.

Renowned Kent players in this period included William Bullen, Robert Clifford, Joseph Miller and John Minshull.

Large crowds were attracted to games in the county and Derek Birley states in his history that 20,000 gathered at Bourne Paddock for a match against Hampshire in 1772.

[30] Selby and Norton recruited "the best batsman in England",[31] Fuller Pilch of Norfolk, to play at Town Malling, maintain the cricket ground and run the connected public house.

Alongside other players such as Alfred Mynn, Nicholas Felix, Ned Wenman and William Hillyer, Kent teams selected by Selby played eleven matches at Town Malling between 1836 and 1841.

[30] Kent struggled against the prominence of Sussex in the early roundarm years but then enjoyed a glorious period in the middle of the century.