CRICKET
Our challenge is to keep the pitches at The Spitfire Ground healthy and in good enough condition for play to
” Head Groundsman Adrian Llong - frustration!
help, which is always a useful money saver. If things do get underway later in the summer, Adrian believes The Spitfire Ground like other county grounds will be ‘on duty’ deeper into autumn than usual, so combatting morning dew will be a task that moves up the grounds work agenda. Four day County Championship matches may well be sacrificed to leave room in the remaining weeks for one-day cup and Twenty20 games. Kent Spitfires will be ready for take-off, you can be sure of that, and home fixtures at Canterbury and Beckenham will be staged on pitches fresh and raring to go. Kent supporters will be raring to go too,
Kent’s famous lime tree ... and other history
Kent County Cricket Club’s main ground is the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury. This ground has been used by the club since 1847 and Kent have played over 500 first-class matches there.
It is famous for having a tree, the St Lawrence Lime, on the playing field. The original tree, around which the ground was built, was broken in two by high winds in January 2005 and replaced by a smaller lime tree later in the same year.
The ground hosts the annual Canterbury Cricket Week, the oldest cricket festival in the world. This dates from 1842 and has been held at the ground since the club moved there.
Kent played their first official match at White Hart Field in Bromley in August 1842 and, since then, have used twenty-nine different grounds within the historic county. Some of these grounds, although
still in the historic county of Kent are now also within the Greater London area.
Two outgrounds remain in regular use, the redeveloped County Cricket Ground, Beckenham and the Nevill Ground in Royal Tunbridge Wells. The latter ground hosts the Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week and has seen over 200 Kent home matches played on it. Former venues include Mote Park in Maidstone, which was used until 2005 and has been the venue for over 200 Kent first-class matches, as well as grounds in Gravesend, Tonbridge, Dover and Folkestone, all of which have had more than 100 home matches played on them.
The county’s main offices are based at the St Lawrence Ground. Indoor cricket schools are in place at both this ground and at Beckenham which acts as a centre of excellence for player development in the west of the county.
but it is likely they will be distance watching - either when a match is screened or by following a day’s progress online. One of its longest fans, a Yorkshire man by chance, was barely off our screens this spring for his remarkable NHS funding feat. Captain - sorry, Colonel - sorry Sir - Tom Moore drew public praise from Kent Captain Sam Billings for his fortitude and endeavour in setting himself a challenge with such a magnificent result, and, of course, for reaching a ton. “Our challenge is to keep the pitches at The Spitfire Ground healthy and in good enough condition for play to commence pretty well right away when the signal is eventually given,” Adrian says.
commence pretty well right away when the signal is eventually given
“We just have to follow Captain Tom’s
example and stick with it. Like he says, better days are ahead. We are being patient. Cricket will return.”
The old lime tree (above) was replaced by a smaller one following storm damage in 2005
PC June/July 2020 83
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