Kent County Cricket Club in 1906
After dominating county cricket in the early years of Queen Victoria's reign, the players who made up Kent's great side of the 1840s had retired and by the 1850s the county had been reduced to often having to amalgamate with other sides to produce a challenging team. The formation of a County Club in Maidstone in 1859 and the amalgamation of this with the original Kent Cricket Club in 1870 to create the modern Kent County Cricket Club, provided the basis for re-emergence, although the club suffered from financial instability and Lord Harris's view was that Kent could not hope to compete at the level it once had throughout the 1870s and 1880s. When the County Championship was formerly established in 1890 Kent were initially able to finish only in mid table.
Alan Dixon (cricketer)
Dixon made his first-class cricket debut for Kent in 1950 in a County Championship match against Essex at Clacton in August 1960. Dixon was aged 16 years and 248 days old on his debut. At the time he was the second youngest player to play for the county after Wally Hardinge and, as of 2016, is one of only five 16 year olds to have played for Kent. He played just one match for the First XI in 1950 and once in 1954 before becoming a more regular member of the side in the 1955 season. During this period he appeared regularly for the county Second XI in the Minor Counties Championship and was awarded his Second XI cap in 1951. He was awarded his county cap in 1960 and played until the 1970 season, making a total of 378 first-class appearances for Kent as an all-rounder. Dixon also appeared twice for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and once for an AER Gilligan XI as well as making 23 List A cricket for Kent during his career. Despite a relatively limited number of List A appearances he led the country in List A wickets taken in the 1967 season as Kent won the 1967 Gillette Cup.