Garrison Ground 2 was a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

ground in

Gillingham, Kent Gillingham ( ) is a town in Kent, England, which forms a conurbation with neighbouring Chatham, Kent, Chatham, Rochester, Kent, Rochester, Strood and Rainham, Kent, Rainham. It is the largest town in the borough of Medway and in 2020 had a populat ...

. The ground, which has also been known as the Royal Engineers Sports Ground and simply the Garrison Ground, was used by

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ken ...

for first-class and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the num ...

between 1937 and 1972 and was the home ground of the Royal Engineers Cricket Club until 1961. The ground was located on Marlborough RoadKent XIX.8

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

map, revised 1896, published 1898.Garrison Ground 2, Gillingham
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-01. on the edge of the area known as the Chatham Lines, an area of open space historically containing a number of military fortifications.Brompton Lines Conservation Area Appraisal (Adopted Version)

Medway Council Medway Council is the local authority of Medway, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is ...

, May 2006. Archived 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2018-02-18.Explorer Map 163 – Gravesend & Rochester,

, 2015-09-16. The site, which is now used as a recreation ground, is around west of Gillingham High Street.

Cricket history

The ground was first used in 1864 by the Royal Engineers. It was used regularly by the club until 1961 when they moved to Garrison 1 Cricket Ground on the southern edge of the Chatham Lines. The ground played host to 30 first-class, 28 of which featured Kent as the home side, and three List A matches.Grounds Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

. The

Combined Services The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at Lo ...

played two home matches on the ground, one against Kent and one against the touring New Zealanders in 1949. Kent's Second XI used the ground occasionally, most recently in 1994, and it was the venue for a match between Kent and the touring West Indians in August 1984, a 40 over

benefit match A benefit is a match or season of activities granted by a sporting body to a loyal sportsman to boost their income before retirement. Often this is in the form of a match for which all the ticket proceeds are given to the player in question. Howeve ...

for

Bob Woolmer Robert Andrew Woolmer (14 May 1948 – 18 March 2007) was an English cricket coach, cricketer, and a commentator. He played in 19 Test matches and six One Day Internationals for the England cricket team and later coached South Africa, Warwicksh ...

.Kent v West Indians
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-01. By the end of the 1967 season the quality of the pitch was causing "grave concern" to the MCC's Advisory County Cricket committeeQuoted in 'Cricket fixtures for next summer', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 1967-10-24, p.14. Woodcock J (1967) Three pitches still on black list, ''

'', 1967-11-02, p.18. after 26 wickets fell in one days play in 1967 during which "the ball turned, stopped and lifted, sometimes prodigiously". Woodcock J (1967) Kent victorious in extra half-hour, ''

'', 1967-08-22, p.11. The following year 22 wickets fell in a day on a pitch which was described as "a nightmare for batsmen".Underwood unplayable, ''

'', 1968--07-09, p.12. Following the match the Pitches Committee determined that the ground should not be used for first-class cricket in 1969Decision on pitches, ''

'', 1968-08-03, p.5. and the 1968 match was the final first-class fixture on the ground, although three List A matches were played on the ground, two in 1971 and one in 1972. Kent have also used other pitches on the Chatham Lines, including Garrison 1 Cricket Ground and New Brompton Cricket Ground and cricket has been played on other pitches in the area.Other matches played on Chatham Lines, Chatham
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-01. The ground was used by Old Anchorians Cricket Club until 1999.

Records on the ground

A total of 30 first-class cricket matches were played on the ground, all but two with Kent as the home side. *Highest total: 512/3 declared by Kent against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, 1937 *Lowest total: 39 by

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

against Kent, 1958 *Highest partnership: 318, 3rd wicket by TW Graveney and JF Crapp, for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

against Kent, 1953 *Highest individual score: 211, TW Graveney for Gloucestershire against Kent, 1953 *Best bowling in an innings: 8/35, DVP Wright for Kent against

, 1949 *Best bowling in a match: 10/163, SH Martin for Worcestershire against Kent, 1939 The ground's three List A fixtures all featured Kent as the home side. The highest total made was 208 runs by Kent against Gloucestershire in 1971, with David Nicholls recording the ground's highest List A individual score in the same match with 64 runs.

Derek Underwood Derek Leslie Underwood (8 June 1945 – 15 April 2024) was an English international cricketer. In retirement he became president of the Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based s ...

recorded the best bowling figures on the ground in List A matches in the same game, taking four wickets for 25 runs from eight overs. All three matches on the ground were 40 over matches in the

John Player League The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on day ...

Modern use

The ground is no longer in use as a cricket ground. This site is used as a recreation ground with

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

pitches laid out and was used by the Royal Engineers for

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

, football and

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

in the past.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no. 28, December 1979, pp.2–10. The nearby

Garrison Stadium Garrison Stadium is a 5,000-seat college football stadium located in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. The stadium has been the home of the Hawks football team of Chowan University since the sixties. Beginning with the 2008 athletic year, the Hawks ...

has been used for a number of sports and is the current home of Medway Dragons who use it for

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

.Contact
Medway Dragons RLFC. Retrieved 2018-03-01.

References

{{Kent CCC Defunct cricket grounds in England Cricket grounds in Kent Gillingham, Kent