The next time you come to the Spitfire St. Lawrence Ground, you will, unless you are remarkably unobservant, notice that there are five new signs round the ground. The Heritage Trust has commissioned these signs, which have been put up on the Woolley, Ames, Cowdrey and Underwood/Knott stands to commemorate the achievements of the cricketers after whom these buildings have been named. We think they look rather good.

One comment which I heard as the signs were being put up was, “This makes the place look more like a cricket ground.” One thing that has always concerned us at the Heritage Trust was that you could walk right round the ground and be forgiven for thinking it was just a collection of buildings with a well-tended field in the middle, rather than a place where cricket has been played for 150 years. By putting up these signs to remind us of some of the great players of Kent over the years, we hope we have started to make the place more obviously a cricket ground. We also hope that those young enough not to know much about even Derek Underwood and Alan Knott, let alone Colin Cowdrey, Leslie Ames and Frank Woolley, will have their interest whetted by what the signs tell them, and go on to take a deeper interest in the heritage of the club.

These signs are merely the first batch. We hope to find ways of commemorating many other great players of the past with signs, plaques and notices around the ground, as well as creating a timeline of Kent’s cricket history which can be followed around the ground.

Please let us know if you like these signs, or even – Heaven forbid – if you don’t like them. We want to connect the past to the present with these new signs, and plan to go on doing so, so your feedback is very important to us.

jnhrice@googlemail.com