The Old County Ground is 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

West Malling West Malling ( , historically Town Malling) is a market town in the Tonbridge and Malling district of Kent, England. It has a population of 2,590. Landmarks West Malling contains several historic buildings, including St Leonard's Tower, West ...

, historically called Town Malling, 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 ...

.Old County Ground, Town Malling
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-13. It is known to have been used for cricket matches in 1705 and has been the home ground of Town Malling Cricket Club since their formation in 1827. Known under various names throughout its existence, the ground hosted 14

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 between 1836 and 1890.First-Class Matches played on Old County Ground, Town Malling
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-12.

History

The ground is first believed to have been used in 1705 in what is the first recorded organised cricket match to take place in Kent.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. A East and West Kent cricket teams, West Kent side played one from Chatham Cricket Club for a wager of 11 guineas a man.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. Sides from Town Malling first used it in 1799 and Town Malling Cricket Club was formed at the ground in 1827 by Thomas Selby and Silas Norton, partners in a law firm in the town.Silas Norton
Famous Local People, The Larkfield Society. Retrieved 2017-12-13. Originally known as the New Cricket Ground, by 1830 the ground had become known as George Field when a match between Town Malling and

Benenden Benenden is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is located on the Weald, to the west of Tenterden. In addition to the main village, Iden Green, East End, Dingleden and Standen Street set ...

attracted 8,000 spectators.Carlaw D (2005) 300 years of cricket at West Malling, ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2005'', pp.66–69. Canterbury:

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 ...

. . Selby and Norton, backed financially by William Harris, 2nd Baron Harris, recruited

Fuller Pilch Fuller Pilch (17 March 1804 – 1 May 1870) was an English first-class cricketer, active from 1820 to 1854. He was a right-handed batting (cricket), batsman who bowling (cricket), bowled at a slow pace with a Roundarm bowling, roundarm action. ...

to be the

groundsman Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor e ...

in 1835. Pilch, who was considered the greatest batsman in the country at the time, was from

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

and played cricket as a professional. He was paid £100 a year to play for the club, manage the ground and run the adjoining public house, the ''Cricketers''. Birley D (1999) ''A Social History of Cricket'', pp.79–82. London: Aurum Press. .Denison W (1846) Fuller Pilch, ''Cricket: Sketches of the Players'', pp.64–69. London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-13). Selby and Norton organised a series of matches between Town Malling sides and county teams or ones selected by MCC as England XIs. A total of 11 matches took place between 1836 and 1841, ten of which were given retrospective first-class cricket status and are considered to have been played by a Kent team.The history of Kent Cricket: Part 1 – Prehistory
Kent Cricket Heritage Trust. Retrieved 2017-12-01. The other match was played against a Kent side in 1836, attracting up to 6,000 spectators.Pardon J (1836) West Malling Parish v Kent, ''The Sportsman'', vol 1, p.104. London: Joseph Rogerson.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-13). Pilch played for Town Malling in this match but otherwise played in the Kent side, having qualified by residence, including the three against England sides. The first of these was a benefit match for Pilch and saw Kent defeat England by two runs.Top-hatted star who put Norfolk on the sporting map
''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to ...

'', 2014-06-28. Retrieved 2017-12-12. Despite Selby and Norton's ambitions, Town Malling proved to be too small to support a formally organised county club and

was formed from the Beverley club in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

during the 1842

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first he ...

. Pilch moved to the new Kent club to play as well as to manage the

Beverley Ground The Beverley Ground was a cricket ground in Canterbury in Kent. It was in use in the mid-19th century, with recorded matches taking place between 1839 and 1846. It was the home ground of Beverley Cricket Club and was where the first Kent County ...

and run the ''Saracen's Head'' inn in the city as well.Fuller Pilch
Horningtoft website. Retrieved 2017-12-13. The new Kent club was focussed on playing matches at Canterbury and first-class cricket did not return to Town Malling until 1878. Kent played four further matches on the ground between 1878 and 1890, two in 1878 and one in 1879 before the final match in 1890. Several players were critical of the ground – Francis MacKinnon complained of having to change in an

oast house An oast, oast house (or oasthouse) or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. Oast houses can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas, and are often good examples of agricultu ...

, with access via a stepladder, while William Patterson found "neither the gate nor the accommodation satisfactory". Kent's match with Sussex in 1890 was the final first-class fixture played on the ground. The ground was used for occasional Kent Second XI matches from 1903 to 1914. The ground is reputed to be the inspiration for Dickens' portrayal of a cricket match between All Muggleton and Dingley Dell in ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was the Debut novel, first novel serialised from March 1836 to November 1837 by English author Charles Dickens. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Bo ...

''. The depiction of the match that was used on the back of the series E ten pound note includes a church which is modelled on West Malling's parish church.

Records on the ground

A total of 14 first-class matches have been played on the ground, all featuring Kent sides as the home team. *Highest total: 262 by

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 ...

against

, 1878 *Lowest total: 27 by Kent against Sussex, 1836 *Highest partnership: 80, 3rd wicket by R Daft and J Selby, for

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 ...

against Kent, 1878 *Highest individual score: 81, VPFA Royle, for Lancashire against Kent, 1878 *Best bowling in an innings: 9 wickets, FW Lillywhite, for Sussex against Kent, 1836 and W Clarke, Nottinghamshire against Kent, 1840 *Best bowling in a match: 15/35, F Morley, for Nottinghamshire against Kent, 1878 The number of runs conceded by Lillywhite and White in taking nine wickets in an innings are unknown. It was not usual in the early Victorian period for the runs conceded by a bowler to not be included in the scores kept. Matches contested before 1842 were contested by a team representing Kent before the formation of the first Kent Cricket Club at Canterbury in August 1842. Matches held between 1878 and 1890 were contested by the formal Kent County Cricket Club which was constituted in 1870.

Current ground

The ground was put up for sale in 1926 along with of land in the same estate.Old County 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 ...

'', issue 44349, 1926-08-13, p.13. At the time scores were shown in the window of an oast house on the side of the ground and it was used for other outdoor events in the town. It was described by ''

'':

It is a fine old ground in delightful surroundings and is blessed with excellent natural turf such as is rarely to be found on cricket grounds – ''The Times'', 13 August 1926

The ground was bought by an anonymous benefactor at auction in August 1926A Famous Cricket Ground, ''

'', issue 44362, 1926-08-28, p.7. and later purchased by

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...

in 1929. It is still in use by Town Malling Cricket Club, who negotiated a 35-year lease with the council in 1987, with the option of purchasing the ground should the council wish to sell it. A new pavilion was opened by Kent cricketer Richard Ellison in 1992 and the lease was extended for another 100 years in 2016 after the ground had been purchased by West Malling Parish Council in 1994.Town Malling Cricket Club's all-star celebration of new 100 year lease
''Downs Mail'', 2016-09-04. Retrieved 2017-12-12. Other than its continued use by Town Malling Cricket Club, it is also used regularly as the home ground of Town Malling United football club.

References

{{Kent CCC Cricket grounds in Kent West Malling