East Kent and West Kent were titles sometimes given to two

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

teams from their respective areas of the English county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

which generally played in matches prior to the foundation of the official Kent County Cricket Club in the mid 19th century. West Kent (or West of Kent) teams have been recorded from 1705 but there is no known record of an East Kent team until 1781. There were seven major matches from 1781 to 1790 in which teams of this type faced each other, although there is doubt about the match titles with sources using different team names. The first Kent Cricket Club was founded in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

on 6 August 1842, formed out of the Beverley Cricket Club, and played its first match against

All-England The All England Open Badminton Championships is the world's oldest badminton tournament, held annually in England. With the introduction of the Badminton World Federation, BWF's latest grading system, it was given BWF Super Series, Super Series st ...

three weeks later. In 1859 a second county club was formed at

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

to support the Canterbury club, the two often being known as the East Kent and West Kent clubs respectively. Marsham G (1907
A short history of Kent cricket
''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'', 1907. Retrieved 2018-03-06.Kent County Cricket Club Timeline
Kent County Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-11-23.The history of Kent Cricket: Part 1 – Prehistory
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust. Retrieved 2017-12-01.The history of Kent cricket Part Two - Lord Harris takes charge
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust. Retrieved 2018-02-15. The two clubs amalgamated in 1870 to form the modern day Kent County Cricket Club.
CricInfo. Retrieved 2016-02-14. Teams called East Kent and West Kent played each other twice in 1856 in minor matches. Those two matches are the last known to involve an East Kent team. West Kent became the name of a 19th-century club which played minor cricket only and was for a long time based at

Chislehurst Cricket Club Chislehurst Cricket Club is based in Chislehurst, Kent. Historically the club played several top-class matches in the 18th century. Its home venue was at Chislehurst Common. History Chislehurst is first recorded in July 1738 when it played London ...

, with which it ultimately amalgamated in 1980 as the Chislehurst and West Kent Cricket Club.

Matches

The earliest known record of a "West Kent" or "West of Kent" team is in a match against

Chatham Cricket Club Chatham Cricket Club was founded by 1705 in Chatham, Kent, England. The first reference to its team is a match against West of Kent in August 1705. There is a specific reference to a "Chatham Club" in a description of a single wicket match i ...

on 7 August 1705, played at a place called "Maulden" in the primary source. There is no such place although it is generally believed to refer to Town Malling near

.Town Malling Cricket Club [TownMallingCC
The Old County Ground in @west_malling #westmalling 191yrs of cricketing history in The Garden Of England @VisitKent @westmallingCEP @west_mallingpc #KentDay
(Tweet), via Twitter, 2018-05-26. Retrieved 2018-05-26.300 Years of Cricket at Town Malling
Town Malling Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-12-13.Read C (2017
10 reasons you should visit West Malling
''Kent Life'', 2017-04-24. Retrieved 2017-12-12. Maun I (2009) ''From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750'', p. 7. Cambridge: Roger Heavens. . The result and details of the teams are unknown. The next mention is a match on 22 September 1769, played at

Sevenoaks Vine The Vine Cricket Ground, also known as Sevenoaks Vine, is one of the oldest cricket venues in England. It was given to the town of Sevenoaks in Kent in 1773 by John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–1799) and owner of nearby Knole ...

between West Kent and a Surrey team. The original report merely states that the

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

s will be "pitched soon after 10". The earliest known match involving an "East Kent" team is one played against West Kent at Sevenoaks Vine on 20 and 21 June 1781. The question of nomenclature arises here because, with at least three

given men A given is a statement or a condition assumed to be true or known, often to explain or give an example of something; for related topics, see: * Presumption (in law) * Axiom (in formal logic) * Givenness (in discourse) * Conditional probability, u ...

on each side, the match is also called Duke of Dorset's XI versus Sir Horatio Mann's XI after the two team patrons

John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, KG (25 March 174519 July 1799) was the only son of Lord John Philip Sackville, second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. His mother was the former Lady Frances Leveson-Gower. He succeeded ...

and Sir Horatio (Horace) Mann. The "East Kent" team, Mann's XI, included John Small, Richard Aubrey Veck and Lamborn of Hambledon and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

. The "West Kent" team, Dorset's XI, featured the Hambledon players

Noah Mann Noah Mann (15 November 1756 at Northchapel, Sussex – December 1789 at Northchapel) was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club. The outstanding Hambledon all-rounder Noah Mann made his first-class debut in 1777. He made 5 ...

and

Tom Sueter Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

with the

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in t ...

and Surrey players William Bedster and

Lumpy Stevens Edward "Lumpy" Stevens (1735 – 7 September 1819) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket in the 18th century. He was an outstanding bowler who is generally regarded as the first great bowler in the game's his ...

. Noted Kent players involved in the match include Joseph Miller, William Bullen, William Bowra, Robert Clifford and Thomas Pattenden. Sevenoaks Vine was Dorset's home ground and there was a return match at

Bourne Paddock Bourne Paddock was a cricket ground at Bourne Park House, the seat of Sir Horatio Mann, at Bishopsbourne around south-east of Canterbury in the English county of Kent. It was a venue for first-class cricket matches from 1766 to 1790. The ground ...

at Mann's Bourne Park House near Bishopsbourne from 8 to 11 August. This also featured guest players with Surrey's William Yalden and Hampshire's James Aylward joining Small, Lamborn, Sueter, Bedster, Mann and Stevens.Haygarth, pp. 49–50. Dorset's West Kent XI won both matches, the first by 10 wickets and the return by 106 runs. Part of the confusion around match titles comes from the ways in which

Arthur Haygarth Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as num ...

records matches. He calls the June match "West Kent with Mann, Sueter & Lumpy versus East Kent with Small, Veck & Lamborn", but then calls the August match "Sir Horace Mann's Side versus the Duke of Dorset's Side". In its "Important Cricket Matches" guide, the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

follows Haygarth by using the abbreviated titles "East Kent with 3 gm v West Kent with 3 gm" for the June match and "Duke of Dorset v Sir H. Mann" for the August match ("gm" meaning "given men").ACS, p. 25. On 25 and 26 June 1783, a match at Sevenoaks Vine involved "West Kent with

Harris Harris may refer to: Places Canada * Harris, Ontario * Northland Pyrite Mine (also known as Harris Mine) * Harris, Saskatchewan * Rural Municipality of Harris No. 316, Saskatchewan Scotland * Harris, Outer Hebrides (sometimes called the Isle of ...

, Stevens and Bedster versus East Kent". East Kent won this by 2 wickets. A curious condition of the match was that Lumpy Stevens, generally reckoned the outstanding bowler of the time, "was not to bowl, by agreement". This would have severely handicapped his team, which lost the match, as he was not a good batsman and so, as Haygarth says, "not much use as a given man".

Stephen Amherst Stephen Amherst or Amhurst (1750 – 6 May 1814), was an English cricketer and organiser of cricket matches. Amherst was born in 1750.Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

man and the patron of later West Kent teams, played in this match for the East. Amherst had become a match organiser by the start of the 1789 season and led his team to a five-wicket victory against that of Mann at Coxheath on 22 and 23 May. A contemporary report in the ''Maidstone Journal'' describes the game as "Sir H. Mann with a select eleven of the County against S. Amherst, Esq. and the County at large, for 100

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

". The ACS calls the match "Sir H. Mann v S. Amherst".ACS, p. 27. However, the next Mann-Amherst match on 29 and 30 June, also at Coxheath, is called "East Kent v West Kent with each side having 4 gm". This follows Haygarth, whose title is "East Kent with Boorman and Four of Hampshire versus West Kent with Four of Surrey". East Kent won by 8 runs and Haygarth confirms Mann and Amherst as respective managers. The guest players in this match were John Boorman, Richard Purchase, John Small, David Harris and

Tom Taylor Tom Taylor (19 October 1817 – 12 July 1880) was an English dramatist, critic, biographer, public servant, and editor of ''Punch'' magazine. Taylor had a brief academic career, holding the professorship of English literature and language a ...

for the East and Billy Beldham, Harry Walker, Tom Walker and John Wells for the West. Apart from a couple of changes in the East Kent lineup, the same teams met again at Coxheath on 4 and 5 August, East Kent winning by 57 runs. The final match between Amherst's West and Mann's East took place at Bishopsbourne from 7 to 11 September 1790. Haygarth called it "East Kent with Purchase versus West Kent". West Kent won by 130 runs.Haygarth, pp. 108–109. Sir Horatio Mann became MP for

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

in 1790 and reduced his involvement in cricket. The match in September 1790 is the last East Kent v. West Kent match that can be considered a major fixture.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{English cricket teams in the 18th century Cricket in Kent English cricket in the 19th century English cricket teams in the 18th century Former senior cricket clubs History of Kent 1705 establishments in England