Grounds in Kent Part 1.

posted by John Winn

As I mentioned in a posting I made over the festive season I made my one and only trip to Cheriton Road, Folkestone in 1986. The traffic on the A259 coastal road from my then home in East Sussex was slow and I missed the call of play, but visitors Essex had won the toss and I enjoyed most of a fine innings by Gooch who had good support from Fletcher against a Kent attack comprising Dilley, Alderman, Underwood, who was first change, Chris Cowdrey, Ellison and occasional bowlers Tavare and Graham Cowdrey. 54 for three became 280 all out with Pringle hitting 97.

On the second day Kent initially struggled against the pace of Foster but it was spin that won an exciting match for Essex with Childs taking ten in the match and Acfield six. Cowdrey (C) top scored in Kent's first knock with 60 but in the second innings when set 184 to win in a minimum 47 overs they fell 23 short with nobody reaching 40. Kent lost all ten wickets after tea.

Kent fared better in the second match of the week which began on September 3rd when Warwickshire had no answer to Underwood. They played other championship matches that season at Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Maidstone and Dartford all of which except the last I visited in the next few years. My first visit to Canterbury was in 1994 when South Africa, returning to the fold played their first first class match in England since they had faced TN Pearce's XI at Scarborough in 1965, a game played in such a cavalier fashion it lasted only two days.

In 1994 the men from the veld had warmed up with a one day game against the Earl of Carnavon's XI at Highclere  but the first day at Canterbury was washed out. Messrs Bird and Palmer(K) did not finally decide that there would be no play until after five o'clock and I can clearly remember a man sitting just in front of me tearing up his ticket in disgust, scattering the pieces to the four winds only to hear the announcement that Saturday's tickets would be valid for Sunday's play. Being a shade more canny I had kept my ticket and returned on Sunday when Chris Cowdrey hit a century. The South Africans as they should be correctly be called declared at 0 for 0, Kent forfeited their second innings and mainly through the good offices of Igglesden and Headley, Kent won the match by 34 runs.

Between these two games I had seen cricket in the Garden of England at Tunbridge Wells in June 1990 when Yorkshire came to see the rhododendrons. This three day match was spoilt by rain and is it a match Yorkshire opener Ashley Metcalfe would not wish to be reminded of, for following the sort of negotiations three day games often involved Yorkshire declared their first innings at 33 for1, AA Metcalfe c Davis b Benson, one of only five wickets taken by Benson in his first class career. Yorkshire then set about scoring 301 of a minimum of 95 overs and there was just time for Metcalfe to be out for the second time in 44 minutes, c Marsh b de Villiers for 14, before rain came again and left the match drawn. I was present on the third day when I saw 70 balls bowled, two of which accounted for the Yorkshire opener. At the other end Moxon picked up two not outs to boost his average.

In part two I shall describe my trips to Maidstone.