The Vine Cricket Ground, also known as Sevenoaks Vine, is one of the oldest

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 ...

venues in England. It was given to the town of

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506, situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lo ...

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 ...

in 1773 by John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745–1799) and owner of nearby Knole House.A Brief History of SVCC and Cricket on Sevenoaks Vine
Sevenoaks Vine Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-12-16. The land is thought to have possibly been used as a vineyard for the

Archbishops of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop was Augustine ...

.Williamson
Sevenoaks Vine

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 2017-12-17.''The Vine Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan'', Sevenoaks District Council, 2009. Seven oak trees were planted on the northern edge of the ground in 1902 to mark the coronation of

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

.Under An Oak On The Vine, ''

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 53293, 1955-08-08, p.3. Six were blown down in the Great Storm of 1987. In December 1987, seven new oaks were planted to replace those lost in the storm.The Oaks of Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks Society. Retrieved 2017-12-16.

The ground

Sevenoaks Vine Cricket Club and Sevenoaks Hockey Club, both sections of the Sevenoaks Vine Club, play on the ground which is owned by Sevenoaks Town Council. It is located to the north of Sevenoaks town centre alongside the A225 Dartford Road.Explorer Map 147 – Sevenoaks & Tonbridge (Royal Tunbridge Wells & Westerham),

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. Sevenoaks Vine Cricket Club pay a rent of 1 peppercorn per year for the use of the ground, the archetypal peppercorn rent, but pay for the upkeep of The Vine even though it is common ground. 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 ...

, which is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

built in 1850, is rented separately by the Sevenoaks Vine Club. In keeping with tradition, the club pay Lord Sackville one

cricket ball A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. A cricket ball consists of a cork (material), cork core wound with String (structure), string then a leather cover stitched on, and manufacture is regulated by cricket law at first-clas ...

on 21 July each year. In practice this ceremony happens every year on the Wednesday of cricket week, which is the second week in July.Not to be Sneezed at - a peppercorn paid from Savills sponsored cricket club
Savills. Retrieved 2017-12-17.Rowlet S (2017
Around the wicket
Sevenoaks Sports, 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2017-12-17. A bandstand was built next to the pavilion in 1894 and the ground is overlooked by a number of residential properties, one of which, Vine Cottage, is contemporary with the establishment of the ground. The pavilion was renovated in 1934.The Vine Cricket Club, ''

'', issue 47661, 1937-04-17, p.5.

Cricket history

The Vine is one of the oldest cricket venues in the world. Its earliest known use was for a match between a Kent team organised by

Lord John Sackville Lord John Philip Sackville (22 June 1713 – 3 December 1765) was the second son of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset. He was a keen cricketer who was closely connected with the sport in Kent. He was member of parliament (MP) for Tamworth ...

against one from Sussex on Friday 6 September 1734, a game which Kent won. Waghorn HT, ''Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730-1773)'', Blackwood, 1899 A fixture was played to mark the bicentenary of the occasion in 1934.Sevenoaks Vine Festival, ''

'', issue 46813, 1934-07-23, p.6. Sevenoaks Vine was a venue for top class cricket matches in the 18th century and is notable for being the first place in England where cricket was played with three stumps rather than two. A total of 24 matches which were given retrospective first-class cricket status were played on the ground between 1773 and 1829. These include nine matches between Hampshire sides and England and 11 matches featuring Kent sides as the home team.First-class matches played on The Vine, Sevenoaks
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-16. The first recorded century in any form of cricket was scored on the ground in 1769, John Minshull scoring 107 runs for a Duke of Dorset's XI against Wrotham.Liverman D, Griffiths P (2004
From Minshull to Collins

, 2004-05-12. Retrieved 2017-12-16.Williamson M (2009
Cricket's first centurion

, 2009-04-12. Retrieved 2017-12-16. Minshull, a professional employed as a gardener by John Sackville, went on to be the first player known to be given out

hit wicket Hit wicket is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. This method of dismissal is governed by Law 35 of the Laws of Cricket. The striker is out "hit wicket" if, after the bowler has entered his delivery stride and while the ball is in pla ...

, again at The Vine, in 1773. The world record for the highest known individual score in a top-class match was twice established at the Vine. First Joseph Miller, playing for a Kent team against one from Hampshire in August 1774, made 95 runs out of 240 and enabled Kent to win by an innings and 35 runs. Haygarth A, ''Scores & Biographies'', Volume 1 (1744-1826, Lillywhite, 1862 Then, in June 1777, came one of the most significant innings of cricket's early history when James Aylward scored a record 167 for a Hampshire side against an England XI. In a contemporary report, it is stated that: "Aylward went in at 5 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, and was not out till after three on Friday".Quoted by Haygarth from a notice concerning the match, noted a
England v Hampshire
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2018-04-29. Hampshire won by an innings and 168 runs in one of the first matches to use three stumps rather than two. Aylward's score was not surpassed until 1820. The last use of the Vine for a top-class match was in 1829. The Vine 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 ...

's Second XI for three

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship or National County Championship is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national counties (previously ca ...

matches between 1952 and 1958 and by Kent Women between 1949 and 1973.Minor Counties Championship matches played on The Vine, Sevenoaks
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-16. The ground was not used for county matches by

as it could not be enclosed due to its status as common land. The ground is the home venue of Sevenoaks Vine who play in the Kent Cricket League.The Vine, Sevenoaks
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-16.

References

{{English cricket venues to 1770 1734 establishments in England Cricket grounds in Kent English cricket venues in the 18th century History of Kent Sevenoaks Sports venues completed in 1734