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.
Hesketh Park (cricket ground)
Cricket has been played at Dartford since at least the early 18th century and Dartford Cricket Club is one of the oldest established cricket clubs in England. Cricket was first played on Dartford Brent, an area of common land to the east of the town on which the modern Hesketh Park ground is situated. The earliest known match between two county sides took place on the Brent in 1709 with a Kent team playing one from Surrey. After the end of the 18th century matches moved to Bowman's Lodge on Dartford Heath before Hesketh Park was established at the start of the 20th century.