The Mote, Maidstone

posted by John Winn

Kent first played cricket at Mote Park, Maidstone in June 1859 when the MCC sent an XI and the first championship match was played there in 1890 when Gloucestershire, WG and all, visited this lovely setting. WG carried his bat for 109 in the visitors' first innings but Kent ran out winners by five wickets. The scoring system of that time gave Kent one point and deducted one from Gloucestershire. Simple. Frederick Martin was Kent's hero with 11 wickets in the match. !00 years later, on the 30th June 1990, I made my first visit, to see a Lancashire side captained by David Hughes and including Mike Atherton, Graeme Fowler, Neil Fairbrother, Wasim Akram and Phil de Freitas take on a Kent XI captained by Chris Cowdrey.

I was there on the first day, again a Saturday, a 35 mile journey from the Sussex coast having taken me over The Weald of Kent to the county town in under an hour. On winning the toss Kent batted first but not helped by two run outs were dismissed for 237. 3 wickets for Akram. A century for Atherton, 98 for  Jesty, and not much for anybody else gave Lancs a modest lead but they went on to win the match by three wickets for which they were awarded 22 points, 16 for the win, 2 batting points and 4 bowling points while Kent got 2 for batting and 4 for bowling. Not so simple.

By this time I had begun my quest of seeing each county play all other counties at least once* and the following July I returned to The Mote to see Kent v Glamorgan. This time I attended on the second day, again a Saturday, when Glamorgan having bowled out Kent for 331, a century for Trevor Ward, started the day on 16 for1. The feature of the day was a knock of 84 by night watchman wicketkeeper Colin Metson who put on 98 for the fourth wicket with Matthew Maynard. Ward became the sixteenth Kent player to score two centuries in the same match when he hit 109 in the Kent second innings but rain on the third day ensured Glamorgan took a draw back to the valleys.

My third visit to The Mote came the following season for a match which started on a Tuesday. Despite work commitments I managed to see some play on the second day when Kent were bowled out by Notts for 359. 22 overs had been lost on the opening day but aggressive batting by Benson and Fleming ensured Kent had four batting points by stumps. Fleming had left his bag in Gateshead and batted in borrowed kit but the next day, reunited with his own gear, he was out first ball. Notts declared with only three down and 246 shy of Kent's score and after a brief spell of batting for the home side Notts were set to chase 302. Despite a century from Mark Crawley they fell 35 short.

In July 1997 I knew I was just two months away from retirement from full time work but in spite of this my memory suggests that it was quite late on the first day of Kent v Northants when I parked up outside Mote Park. Kent had been put in and despite the loss of early wickets reached 306 all out at the close. Although  a four day match, they had become the norm by that time, two declarations were needed to set up a finish and what a finish, for the visitors chased down 322 when with the last ball of the match Jeremy Snape hit a four to win the match and register Northants' first championship win of the season. Warren, Bailey and Sales all made significant contributions.

The four matches I have described all counted towards my pursuit of the 153 matches on my must see list but I recall one other visit to The |Mote on a lovely day, again in July , this time in 1996 when Durham's attack was torn apart by Carl Hooper who hit 105 off 87 balls including five sixes. On the fourth and last day Durham were bowled out for 255, a deficit of 83.

Championship cricket continued to be played at The Mote until sadly but appropriately Gloucestershire were the last visitors in June 2005. WG Grace having retired they were captained by Chris Taylor. The west country men were bowled out cheaply in their first knock and very cheaply
second time around. Kent's scores were modest too which suggests the wicket played some tricks. Wisden confirms that this was the case for Kent were docked 8 points for preparing a substandard pitch. Maidstone was removed from the 2006 fixture list and cricket at the venue is now confined to league cricket with The Mote CC being the occupiers. Relegated from the Kent Cricket Premier League in in 2011 they have since plied their trade in the First and then the Second Division finishing third in 2019.

* regular readers may recall that I have come close to achieving this pursuit which I started 30 years ago. Two matches remain, Somerset v Gloucestershire and Somerset v Leicestershire. The first of these is on offer on two occasions this season, at Bristol and Taunton. Not exactly handy for the Lower Ure Valley but I am anticipating two days at Bristol at the end of April.