Blog
A collection of thoughts and opinions, interspersed with a few facts.
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A History of Kent Cricket in Fourteen Cricketers (part 4)
Alfred Mynn – The Lion of Kent Alfred Mynn – a big man On 7th and 8th July 1834, a match was played at Lord’s, billed as England…
A History of Kent Cricket in 14 Cricketers (3)
Herbert Jenner From 16th to 18th June 1828, the Marylebone Cricket Club played Kent at Lord’s. Kent won the game by six wickets,…
A History of Kent Cricket in Fourteen Cricketers (Part 2)
2. John Deedes Playing alongside John Willes in that match at Lord’s, if only for a few balls before Willes rode off in high…
A History of Kent Cricket in Fourteen Cricketers
To begin at the beginning – that would be good, if only we could. Do we start with the shepherds playing an ancestor of cricket…
KCHT Chair’s Statement at AGM 2025
At the Annual General Meeting of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust, held on 10 May at the Spitfire St. Lawrence Ground,…
Purple Patches and Dying Careers
The other day I stumbled across the scorecard of a match played in 1953 – Kent v Surrey at Blackheath, on July 11th, 13th and…
THE CRICKET BALLS OF KENT
At the start of the 2024 season, the ECB decided to experiment with two types of cricket ball, Kookaburra and Duke’s, so that…
A Recent Acquisition
This article appeared in the Christmas 2019 edition of Inside Edge, the journal of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust. From now on,…
A Cricketer’s Life
On Thursday 11th July 2024 Kent County Cricket Club hosts the 3rd match in England Women’s Cricket’s IT20 series against New…
Heritage Trust Chair’s Report 2023/24
On Friday 24 May 2024, the Annual General Meeting of the Kent Cricket Heritage Trust was held at the Spitfire Ground, at close…
Betty Archdale, captain of Kent and England
Betty Archdale, England’s first women’s Test captain Helen Elizabeth “Betty” Archdale, of Kent and England,…
The Walter Lawrence Trophy
The Lawrence Trophy was instituted in 1934 by Sir Walter Lawrence, a successful builder and keen promoter of all sports, and is…
THE KENNEDY GATES
George Kennedy and his gates When the redevelopment of the St Lawrence Ground began over a decade ago, the turnstile gates on…
DOCTOR GRACE IN PETTICOATS
In 1922, British Pathé News filmed a young woman called Muriel Maxted batting and bowling in Ashford. (You can find this 55…
ESCAPE TO VICTORY
This is the story of a remarkable man, captain of Kent for a season, but a national war hero for all seasons. His name was John…
THE MISSING 499 PRINTS – AN UPDATE
Thanks to all who actually read and paid attention to my previous blog about the Terence Macklin print. We have now largely…
HELP! – THE MYSTERY OF 499 MISSING PRINTS
We need your help. Any information leading to a successful outcome will be appreciated. Recently, while we were sorting through…
Clearing The Lime Tree
The famous Canterbury Lime Tree, which stood on the St Lawrence ground for at least 180 years, was blown down in a winter storm…
A VICTORIAN ECCENTRIC
In the 19th century, there were many amateur cricketers – and a few professionals – who lived their lives in a way which today…
THE CURIOUS TALE OF BOB THE BELL MAN
While sorting through some photographs in the club’s huge collection, we came across a picture inscribed “Bob The Bell Man, also…
KENT CRICKET IN DECEMBER
December seems to be the quietest month of the year for cricket in England, and Kent is, at first glance, no exception. However,…
FOUR REIGN CRICKETERS
The sad death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II means that after seventy years there is a new monarch on the throne. It also…
ANTIQUES, ROAD SHOWS AND ROAD TRIPS
This has been an exciting summer for both Kent cricket and BBC Television, especially their Antiques division. I qualify for…
A Photograph from Brighton, 1907
We have recently had donated to the Kent collections a number of photographs dating back to the first and second decades of the…
SWINGING SCOTLAND
The other day, a 51 year old man named Richard Scott broke a world record by sitting continuously on a playground swing for 36…
A VERY FAST BOWLER
Kent has never had much of a reputation for producing fast bowlers. Spin bowlers – yes, definitely; medium pacers – certainly,…
WOOLLEY MEMORIES
Birthdays are a mixed blessing. One a year is probably enough, but they are fun when they happen, even though at my age I…
SIXTY YEARS AGO
I was looking through, as you do, my collection of Kent CCC Annuals, and happened to open the 1963 edition for a quick browse….
KENT IN INDIA 1721
Historians suggest that the first known cricket on Indian soil was played three hundred years ago this year. Were Indians…
FATHERS AND SONS
Over the years, many fathers and sons have distinguished themselves on the first-class cricket field. We can straight away think…
THE HERITAGE OF 2021
The cricket season of 2021 was a strange one. The county championship was divided into three parts, like Caesar’s Gaul, and Kent…
CHATHAM CRUSADERS CRICKET CLUB
The club has just been given two team photographs of Chatham Crusaders Cricket Club, dating from 1910 and 1911. The trouble is…
A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME
(The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily endorsed by KCCC or KCHT) When Matt Milnes was called up to join Welsh…
AN EXTRAORDINARY GAME – KENT v SUSSEX, JULY 11-14 2021
The Covid pandemic has created many odd cricketing situations, but – so far – none has been quite as odd as the start of the…
KENT’S FIRST ‘FOREIGNER’
This is the story of Kent’s first cricketing import. Of course, when this particular player moved to Kent from ‘abroad’, there…
WHEN CAPPED KENT PLAYERS GO AGAINST EACH OTHER
The Second Test between England and New Zealand, starting on 10 June at Edgbaston, featured two capped Kent cricketers. Nothing…
Winning at Canterbury
I was looking at an early book on Kent cricket, snappily entitled “Kent Cricket Matches 1719 – 1880”, written by Lord…
W.G. GRACE – THE KENT CONNECTION
W.G. Grace, still comparatively young and slim David Robertson tells us the story of the Great Cricketer in Kent: More than 150…
FOOTBALLING CRICKETERS – THE CHARLTON CONNECTION
Charlton Athletic is a team that is deemed to be in Kent when they are playing well, but definitely in South London during their…
FOOTBALLING CRICKETERS (OR CRICKETING FOOTBALLERS) – Part One
We all know that Joe Denly once hurt his ankle playing football in a kickabout, causing him to miss a few games, and that Rob…
Never Too Old
I was browsing, as you do, through my collection of back copies of The Cricketer magazine, and I happened to come across their…
A SESQUICENTENARY ONLY COMES ALONG ONCE EVERY 150 YEARS
6th December 2020 marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Kent County Cricket Club, a fact that we…
WHERE IS CHESTER-LE-STREET?
On 18th January 2000, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? featured a chap called Peter Lee (definitely not the former Lancashire and…
ALL OUT NOUGHT
I was reading something about the Olympics, and whether or not they would ever allow cricket to be one of the participating…
THE DAY I WON MY COUNTY CAP
I recently thought I’d ask a few of Kent’s stalwarts what they remembered of the day they won their county cap. To those of us…
THE HSBAKPIODIFE SUCCESSION
Sam Billings, the current HSBAKPIODIFE Sam Billings hit 118 in a losing cause for England against Australia in the first of…
THE HSBAKPITFE SUCCESSION
At the Ageas Bowl on the second day of the Third Test against Pakistan, Zak Crawley completed his innings of 267, to beat the…
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust AGM 2020
The KCHT Annual General Meeting, which was to have been held on 22 May, after close of play on the first day of the Essex match,…
THE HAT-TRICK MAN
I have played cricket at school, club and village level for over fifty years, and have fooled hundreds of batsmen into giving up…
KENT COUNTY CRICKET GROUNDS
I have been far too slow to comment on the recently published book by Howard Milton and Peter Francis, entitled Kent County…
KENT’S GREATEST (WITH THREE INITIALS)
Whenever I find it a bit hard to drop off – a rare occasion, I must admit – I like to amuse myself until sleep overtakes me by…
CHEESMAN OR HODSOLL – KENT’S FIRST CRICKETER?
John Drew writes: Last autumn, my cousin Richard and I – our grand-uncle, on the unimpeachable testimony of his daughter,…
A BIT MORE MONCKTON BUSINESS
DAVID ROBERTSON writes: When I read the previous post I was especially attracted to the juxtaposition of the two principal…
THE LAWYER AND THE CORPORAL
This is the story of two cricketers from Kent, whose paths crossed briefly, but whose lives then went in very different…
MORE TALES FROM NUMBER ELEVEN – HOW NOT TO BAT
My blog yesterday about the batting skills of Norman Graham and Kevin Jarvis prompted Charlie Rowe to share a few memories of…
COME IN, NUMBER ELEVEN, YOUR TIME IS NOW
Big Norman Graham (left) and Kevin Jarvis (right), two of Kent’s better bowlers and lesser batsmen …
NORMAN HARDING – THE BOWLER BEATEN BY AN EPIDEMIC
Norman Harding 1916 – 1947 As I write this, about ten days into what might be three or more months of…
THE BLAKERS OF KENT
If you take a stroll down the promenade at Hythe, between the fish restaurant and the Imperial Hotel, you will pass a bench…
MRS. COWDREY’S MARMALADE
This time of year, I am told, is a good time for marmalade-making. Where you get the oranges from in mid-February with the…
WE NEED A LIBRARY
Next week, we are going to begin the winter cull of books in the Kent CCC collection. We, in common with all county clubs, have…
WHAT’S THE POINT OF THE PAST?
Sometimes, when I am sitting knee deep in old scorecards or surrounded by slightly tatty copies of the Kent Annual, the thought…
THE HISTORY MEN
Kent have just completed the biggest win, by runs margin, in their history, and the fourth biggest ever win in County…
A SHAMELESS PLUG
My new book, Stories of Cricket’s Finest Painting: Kent v Lancashire 1906, is published on 10 July. This is the second…
KENT AND THE WORLD CUP
The ICC World Cup is going on all around us (or at least, in those parts of the country not being flooded out by the glorious…
KENT’S WOMEN ARE WINNERS
A couple of weeks ago I was at the Polo Farm ground near Canterbury to watch the start of the Women’s county season, as Kent…
THE OLD BOYS CLUB
M.E. Trescothick, lbw b Stevens 5. Marcus Trescothick Darren Stevens When this dismissal…
TWO DOUBLE HUNDREDS
In February this year, the 28 year old Sri Lankan batsman Angelo Perera, captaining the Nondescripts against the Sinhalese…
A GREAT COACH
I was recently at the annual dinner of the Kent League, a very enjoyable occasion which celebrated the successes of the leagues…
WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, FATHER?
Two different stories grabbed my attention this week, and then combined in the shape of one Kent cricketer. The first story…
Fred ‘Nutty’ Martin – An Underrated Great
We have recently been asked, “Do you have any information or archive material re Fred “Nutty” Martin? I’m curious as to his…
DECISIONS, DECISIONS!
One thing about having a collection of memorabilia, portraits, cups, books, blazers and cricket balls – along with all the other…
CHARLES TAYLOR AND CANTERBURY CRICKET WEEK
This year we held the 167th Canterbury Cricket Week, in July rather than August because of the vagaries of the cricket…
KENT’S FIRST OVERSEAS PLAYER
We have been wondering recently who was Kent’s first overseas player. These days, every county has a whole raft of overseas…
LAND AND WATER
Sometimes a stone gets turned over almost by accident, to reveal a long forgotten part of Kent cricket history, and names which…
NAMING OF PARTS
Henry Reed, the Second World War poet, wrote a poem called “Naming Of Parts.” It begins “Today we have naming of parts….
TRUST CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT 2017/18
The Kent Cricket Heritage Trust’s AGM will take place on 11th May, in the Chiesman Pavilion after close of play. The…
MORE UFTON THAN KNOTT
On television this morning, the local BBC news showed a press conference with Jason Gillespie, newly installed as coach at…
GAMBLING: THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF CRICKET
I recently spent some time with a dozen of the young players of the Kent Academy. I was not, fortunately, being bowled at in the…
PRESIDENTS AND PLAYERS
I need to apologise for a grievous error in my previous blog. I stated, almost unequivocally, that “our President in 1984,…
THE COMMITTEE ROOM OF DELIGHTS
As we break for Christmas and the New Year holiday, the Committee Room at the Spitfire Ground is still acting as temporary…
HIDDEN TREASURES (AND PLENTY OF JUNK)
If ever you are able to go behind the Woolley Stand and go in the door marked ‘Committee Room’, and then climb two flights of…
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE UMPIRE IN THE POND and other oddities of Kent cricket
We are trying to compile a list of curiosities and oddities of cricket in Kent. It cannot possibly be comprehensive, but it…
MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THIS
We have recently had a few donations to the club’s archive, each of which has added to our knowledge of some half forgotten…
The History of Kent County Cricket Club – Part Eight: From the 1980s to Today
Concluding the history of the club, based on the original article written by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David Robertson. Now…
The History of Kent County Cricket Club – Part Seven: The Glory Years
Continuing the history of the club, based on the original article written by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David Robertson. In…
The 300 Club: Dickson and Ashdown (and Woolley and Cowdrey)
Sean Dickson’s recent 318 against Northamptonshire at Beckenham established several records. It was the highest score ever made…
The History of Kent County Cricket Club – Part Six: The Post-War Years
Continuing the history of the club, based on the original work by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David Robertson. The report on…
The History of Kent County Cricket Club – Part Five: Wicketkeepers
Continuing the history of the club, based on the original article written by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David Robertson. For…
THE HISTORY OF KENT CRICKET – Part Four: THE INTER-WAR YEARS
Continuing the history of the club, based on the original article written by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David Robertson. The…
SIGNS OF HERITAGE AT CANTERBURY
The next time you come to the Spitfire St. Lawrence Ground, you will, unless you are remarkably unobservant, notice that there…
A New Frank Woolley Portrait
It has for many years been an issue at Canterbury – why is there no portrait of Frank Woolley, probably the greatest player ever…
THE HISTORY OF KENT CRICKET – Part Three: County Champions
Continuing the history of the club, based on the original website article written by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David…
THE HISTORY OF KENT CRICKET Part Two – Lord Harris Takes Charge
Continuing the history of the club, based on the original website article written by the Hon. Curator of Kent CCC, David…
THE HISTORY OF KENT CRICKET
Recently, Kent County Cricket Club updated its website, and created a timeline on the website which recalls the outstanding…
WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Every six months or so, at the beginning and end of each season, those people who spend their days helping with the heritage and…
OF INKSTANDS AND COUNTY CAPS
We have acquired a new inkstand. It is not the sort of thing that Staples or W.H. Smith would have on their shelves – in…
Cricket in Crisis?
In the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter “Inside Edge” (email david.robertson81@btinternet.com if you want…
What James Tredwell owes to James Seymour
2017 is James Tredwell’s Testimonial Year. The festivities kick off with a lunch (which I suspect will run way beyond tea time) …