Mote Park, also known as The Mote, is a cricket ground in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

in the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. It is inside the grounds of the

Mote Park Mote Park is a multi-use public park in Maidstone, Kent. Previously a country estate it was converted to landscaped park land at the end of the 18th century before becoming a municipal park. It includes the former stately home Mote House toget ...

and is owned by The Mote Cricket Club.The Mote CC - About Us
, The Mote Cricket Club. Retrieved 2011-04-09. The ground is also used by the Mote Squash Club and Maidstone rugby club.Maidstone Rugby Club
, Maidstone Rugby Club. Retrieved 2011-04-09 It 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 ...

as one of their out-grounds for county cricket matches. The club played over 200

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches on the ground between 1859 and 2005.First-class matches played on Mote Park, Maidstone
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-05. The ground is located around south-east of the centre of Maidstone on the western fringe of Mote Park. The

A229 road The A229 is a major road running north–south through Kent from Rochester to Hawkhurst via Maidstone. It is a former Roman road that ran from Rochester to Hastings. The road is well known for Blue Bell Hill, which connects Rochester to Ma ...

runs to the east of the ground, Maidstone Leisure Centre is immediately to the south of the ground and

Maidstone Grammar School Maidstone Grammar School (MGS) is a grammar school in Maidstone, England. The school was founded in 1549 after Protector Somerset sold Corpus Christi Hall on behalf of King Edward VI to the people of Maidstone for £200. The Royal Charter fo ...

just south-west of the site.Explorer Map 148 – Maidstone & the Medway Towns,

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 ...

, 2015-09-16. Originally the ground was separated from the urban area of Maidstone by farmland, but 20th century housing has been built up to the western edges of the site.Kent LXLII.7,

map, revised 1907, published 1908.

Establishment

The ground was established in the mid-19th century inside

, at the time a country estate to the west of

.A brief history of the Mote

CricInfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a Sports journalism, sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including Liveblogging, liveblogs and sco ...

. Retrieved 2011-03-23. It had been emparked in the 14th century and by the end of the 17th century was owned by the Marsham family.

Charles Marsham, 1st Earl of Romney Charles Marsham, 1st Earl of Romney (28 September 1744 – 1 March 1811), known as The Lord Romney between 1793 and 1801, was a British politician who sat in the British House of Commons, House of Commons from 1768 to 1790, inherited his peerag ...

built a new mansion in the grounds of the park in the 1790s and the grounds were redeveloped during the mid-19th century by both the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds, The Second, or (The) 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Minute and second of arc, ...

and 3rd Earls.History of Mote Park
Mote Park Fellowship. Retrieved 2018-03-02. Cricket was first played on a ground in the park in 1854 and the ground was established fully by 1857. The park was sold to

Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, (5 November 1853 – 17 January 1927), known as Sir Marcus Samuel between 1898 and 1921 and subsequently as Lord Bearsted until 1925, was a Lord Mayor of London and the founder of the Shell Transport and Tr ...

in 1895 and the ground developed extensively under his ownership to allow it to be used regularly for county cricket. The ground was levelled and the pitch turned through 90 degrees in 1907. The

cricket pavilion A cricket pavilion is a pavilion at a cricket ground. It is the main building within which the players usually change in dressing rooms and which is the main location for watching the cricket match for members and others. Pavilions can vary from ...

and The Tabernacle, built as Viscount Bearsted's private pavilion, were built between 1909 and 1910.Mote Park Cricket Ground, (also known as The Mote), England
Parks and Gardens Trust. Retrieved 2018-03-02.Maidstone Cricket Ground, ''

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 ...

'', 1907-12-31, p.5. After the death of the 1st Viscount Bearsted in 1927, his son sold Mote Park itself to Maidstone Corporation, with the cricket ground being excluded from the sale and being gifted to The Mote.Mote Park

. Retrieved 2018-03-02.Mote Cricket Ground, Maidstone, ''

'', 1929-04-06, p.7. The Tabernacle was initially gifted to the Band of Brothers, a private cricket club closely associated with the county club, and eventually transferred to The Mote in the 1940s.

Cricket history

The first known match at Mote Park was between Maidstone and an All-England XI in 1854, Maidstone playing with 18 batsmen. A Mote Park team first used the ground the following year.Mote Park, Maidstone
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-03-02. The first match given retrospective

status took place in 1859, Kent playing MCC. The county used the match twice in the 1860s before beginning to play more regularly on the ground in the 1870s. The ground saw several matches played by the amateur Gentlemen of Kent side during the 1860s and the Australian Aborigine team played there twice during their tour England in 1868. Other touring sides to have played at the ground include the Australians in 1890,

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

and 1951 South Africans, 1954 Canadians and the New Zealanders in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

and

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

. Other than a break when the ground was re-laid in 1908 and 1909, Kent used the ground regularly for an annual cricket week until the end of the 2005 season.Cricket: The Kent Festivals, ''

'', issue 40239, 1913-06-16, p.13. Over 200 first-class matches took place on the ground, with Kent also using it for

limited overs cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

from 1969. It was removed from the list of county grounds used by Kent when an over-watered "green" wicket, prepared for a County Championship match against

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 ...

, led to a low scoring game which ended after less than two days. The club was deducted eight points due to the state of the pitch.Kent end 140-year Maidstone deal

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2016-04-05. The ground was also used by Kent's Second XI, including in the

Second XI Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually eve ...

, and by the

Kent Cricket Board The Kent Cricket Board is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the historic county of Kent. This covers the local authorities within the modern county of Kent as well as the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham ...

side in both

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 ...

and the Minor Counties Trophy. The

Kent Women cricket team The Kent Women cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English county of Kent. They play their home matches at St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, as well as the County Cricket Ground, Beckenham. They are captained by Meg ...

first used the ground in 1936 and the ground was used by England Women XIs to play touring sides in 1937 and 1979, with one of the two matches taking place against the West Indies Women in 1979 being an official

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

. Redevelopment of the facilities at the ground had been approved during 2005 as part of a larger scheme to increase the profile of cricket in the county town.Major changes for cricket ground

, 2005-06-02. Retrieved 2016-04-05. Since 2005 The Mote Cricket Club have relaid a number of wickets at a cost of £14,000 with the help of grants and technical assistance from the County Cricket Club and Maidstone Borough Council. Kent have expressed a wish to return to the ground at some point, although as of April 2016 the quality of the wicket and the pavilion were still seen as issues that needed to be addressed.Redevelopment may lead to Kent's Mote return
''

Kent Online KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations, TV and websites throughout the county. Yattendon Group#Iliff ...

'', 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2011-03-23Kent County Cricket Club say they want to play at grounds around the county
''

'', 2011-12-02. Retrieved 2016-04-05.Kent Cricket chief executive Jamie Clifford says the county would love to return to Maidstone but that there are too many hurdles at the moment
''

'', 2016-04-05. Retrieved 2016-04-05.Tucked C (2013
Exciting plans for redevelopment of The Mote
''

'', 2013-08-13. Retrieved 2018-03-04.

Records on the ground

A total of 218 first-class matches were held on the ground between 1859 and 2005, all of them featuring Kent as the home side. Kent also played List A matches regularly on the ground, with 53 fixtures being played between 1969 and 2005. The

played another five List A matches on the ground in the

Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. Lan ...

between 1999 and 2002. Two of Kent's T20 matches were hosted at the ground in 2004.Grounds Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

First-class cricket

*Highest total: 580/6 declared by Kent against

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, 1947 and 580/9 declared by Kent against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

in 1998 *Lowest total: 31 by

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

against Kent, 1967 *Highest partnership: 368, 4th wicket by PA de Silva and GR Cowdrey, for Kent against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, 1995 *Highest individual score: 260, APF Chapman for Kent against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, 1927 *Best bowling in an innings: 10/131, AP Freeman for Kent against Lancashire, 1929 *Best bowling in a match: 15/114,

Mohammad Sami Mohammad Sami (; born 24 February 1981) is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team between 2001 and 2016. Domestic career Sami joined the Indian Cricket League following the tour of Indi ...

for Kent against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, 2003 The partnership between de Silva and Cowdrey set a new record as the highest partnership for any wicket for Kent. It remained Kent's highest partnership in first-class cricket until 2017 when it was surpassed by Sean Dickson and

Joe Denly Joseph Liam Denly (born 16 March 1986) is an English professional cricketer who plays for Kent County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional leg break bowler who plays as a top-order batsman. Denly played age group cricket ...

who made 382 runs for the 2nd wicket against

Northants Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordsh ...

County Cricket Ground, Beckenham The County Ground, Beckenham is a cricket ground in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley. The ground is owned by Leander Sports and Leisure and is used as an outground by Kent County Cricket Club for First XI fixtures, as well as for other ...

.Milton H (2016) 'Team Records' in Reid J (ed) ''2016 Kent County Cricket Club Annual'', pp.199–202, Canterbury:

Dickson's 318 tops day of Kent records

, 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-07-04. In 1910,

Colin Blythe Colin Blythe (30 May 1879 – 8 November 1917), also known as Charlie Blythe, was an English professional cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team during the early part of the 20th century. Blythe was a Wisden Cricketer of ...

and

Frank Woolley Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club between 1906 and 1938 and for the England cricket team. A genuine all-rounder, Woolley was a left-handed batsm ...

bowled unchanged throughout both innings of a fixture with

repeating a performance from 1889, also against Yorkshire, by bowlers Walter Wright and Fred Martin.

List A cricket

*Highest total: 338/6 by Kent against

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, 1996 (50 over match) *Lowest total: 65 by

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

against Kent, 1979 *Highest partnership: 172, 2nd wicket by D Byas and DS Lehmann, for

against Kent, 1998 *Highest individual score: 122, ET Smith for Kent against

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

, 2003 *Best bowling: 5/19, DL Underwood for Kent against

, 1972 In 1995

Mark Ealham Mark Alan Ealham (born 27 August 1969) is a former English cricketer, who played Test cricket, Test and One Day International cricket. He played domestic cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club as an all-rou ...

set a record for the fastest century in 40-over cricket. In 44 balls, Ealham scored a hundred, with nine sixes and nine fours. This remained the Kent record for the fastest century in List A cricket until Darren Stevens equalled the record in 2013.Stevens' 44-ball ton chases 337

, 2013-06-19. Retrieved 2018-03-02.

Twenty20 Cricket

Two

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

matches were played on the ground in 2004. Kent made the highest T20 score on the ground, scoring 157/3 against

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

who made 155/7 in reply. The match was reduced by rain to 18 overs per side. Middlesex batted first and Kent reached their target in only 13.1 overs.Symonds batters Middlesex

, 2004-07-02. Retrieved 2018-03-02.Symonds powers Kent to Twenty20 win
''

'', 2004-07-02. Retrieved 2018-03-02.

Andrew Symonds Andrew Symonds (9 June 1975 – 14 May 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, who played all three formats as a batting all-rounder. Commonly nicknamed "Roy", he was a key member of two Cricket World Cup, World Cup–winning squads. ...

scored 112 runs in the match, the only T20 century scored on the ground. Symonds scored his century in 34 balls, at the time a record for the fastest century in T20 cricket. As of March 2018 it remains the third quickest century scored in top-level T20 matches worldwide and the fastest scored in the UK.Dutton J (2013
Chris Gayle and the story of the fastest centuries in cricket
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2018-03-02.Fastest Hundreds

. Retrieved 2018-03-02. The best bowling figures in a T20 match on the ground were 4 wickets for 20 runs from 3.2 overs by Scott Brant for

in the grounds other T20 match.

Other uses

As of 2018, the ground is the current home of

Maidstone FC Maidstone Football Club is an English rugby union club based in Maidstone, Kent. The men's first XV currently compete in Counties 2 Kent - a league at the eighth tier of the English rugby union system. The club has thriving mini and youth secti ...

who have played

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 ...

on it since the 1950s.Club history

. Retrieved 2018-03-04.Tucked C (2015
Maidstone Rugby Club are ready to end their long-running dispute with The Mote Cricket Club by finding a new ground
''

'', 2015-08-07. Retrieved 2018-03-04.Welcome to Maidstone F.C, the rugby club at the heart of Kent’s County Town

. Retrieved 2018-03-04. The redevelopment of parts of the ground is likely to mean that the rugby club moves to a new ground in the future.Tucked C (2015
Maidstone Rugby Club keen to move from current ground at The Mote to new development in Tovil
''

'', 2015-11-15. The ground is also the home to The Mote Squash Club.Welcome to The Mote Squash Club
The Mote Squash Club. Retrieved 2018-03-04.

References

External links

{{Kent CCC

Maidstone