At the Annual General Meeting of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust, held on 10 May at the Spitfire St. Lawrence Ground, Canterbury, the chair made his annual statement as follows:
“I am happy that I can report on another interesting and invigorating year for the Heritage Trust. Progress has not always been as rapid as we would like, but for this we are happy to blame the ECB, whose selling of the franchises to their monstrous invention, The Hundred, has dominated our thinking and put a brief brake on our plans to develop a ‘Heritage Hub’ at Canterbury. I am very pleased to say that we have the full and enthusiastic backing of the club board for this project, but in order to use any of the money earned by Kent as a result of the franchise sales, we will have to submit a detailed budget and marketing plan to justify the spend, before any money is released. This is something we will begin in earnest once the franchise deals have been finalised and we know what our financial position will be.
“Having said that, the result of the sales of the Hundred franchises has been much higher than the ECB could have hoped, so there will be more money available for all the projects that the club is hoping to develop over the next few years.
“We have been taking a deeper look at what is in our collection, and what we should keep and what, if anything, we should dispose of. We have taken the decision that any item that is not strictly a part of Kent’s cricket history (e.g., a Kent player’s England cap), or which is duplicated (e.g. several hundred scorecards), is not a crucial part of our collections, and therefore can be disposed of. As a result of this, we recently sent a number of items to auction, and have realised a gross income of around £50,000. The club, whose property the collections all are, have agreed to ringfence this income for use in the development of our Hub, and we hope and expect that there will be more sales and more contributions to the Hub fund, which is now hovering around the £100,000 mark, over the next year or two.
As our Hon. Curator reports, we have received a number of interesting donations over the past twelve months, all of which we welcome with gratitude. We are focussing on trying to build up our knowledge, archive and collection of items related to women’s cricket in Kent, and thanks to the efforts of Rosemary Piddock, in particular, we are making good progress. Many former Kent Ladies (as they were then known) have told us of their playing days and we are hoping to publish a History of Women’s Cricket in Kent before too long. Other publishing projects include a look at every hat-trick taken by a Kent bowler, and the life and times of Cuthbert ‘Pinky’ Burnup, Kent’s captain in 1903, and the only man whose bowling was ever struck for 10 off one ball.
“We also have set ourselves the task of updating Lord Harris’s History of Kent County Cricket Club, with a new appendix continuing the story over the past two decades up to the present day. This is not an easy task, as the number of players who have represented the county, in both red-ball and white-ball cricket, whether as regular contracted players, or temporary imports or loanees, has grown exponentially since the turn of the century, and there is a great deal of material to cover.
“Howard Milton continues to produce “Inside Edge”, our regular newsletter, which is now also available on the club’s website, and we hope you have all visited our website (kcht.co.uk), and seen us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter/X (@kcht), Instagram (@kentcricketheritagetrust), and our blog (kentcricketheritagetrust.wordpress.com). We are in the process of redesigning and updating our digital presence and will have more to announce about that in due course.
“Financially, as you will see from the accounts, we are in a strong position. Our membership remains steady at around 100 members, which is actually quite a large number when compared with heritage groups at other counties.
“Finally, I would like to thank all my fellow committee members for all their work over the past year. I cannot let this opportunity slip by without paying tribute to the man without whom we might not have much of a collection, let alone a Heritage Trust. David Robertson began working on the heritage and history of the club many years ago under the aegis of Jim Swanton, and was appointed Hon. Curator in 1999, a post he held for 20 years with great distinction. Since the formation of KCHT, he has been a pillar of support, both as curator and Trust secretary, but now he feels that age is beginning to catch with him, so he is stepping down. All I can say, on behalf of all of us involved with the history of cricket in this county, is a heartfelt thank you.”
Jonathan Rice, Chair May 2025