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.
Surrey county cricket teams
The present Surrey County Cricket Club was formed at a meeting which took place at the new Kennington Oval during a match between two local teams on 21 & 22 August 1845. The earliest important match at The Oval was Surrey Club v Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) on 25 & 26 May 1846. Only 194 runs were scored in the match with a top score of 13. W. R. Hillyer took 14 wickets to help MCC win by 48 runs. Surrey County Cricket Club played its first important match v Kent at The Oval on 25 & 26 June 1846, winning by 10 wickets.