Kent County Cricket Club
As the team built around Pilch retired from cricket the fortunes of the club declined, the county sometimes forced to field teams of up to 16 or to combine with other clubs in order to compete. Financial difficulties followed and on 1 March 1859 a second county club was formed in Maidstone to support the Canterbury-based club. The two clubs, the Canterbury club known as East Kent, the Maidstone club as West Kent, co-operated to an extent, although the relationship was later described as "anything but satisfactory". The standard of cricket played by the county side, generally organised by the West Kent club, remained poor and the county found it difficult to attract either the best amateur players or professionals to appear, many amateurs only willing to appear during Canterbury Cricket Week. Financial difficulties also caused problems producing competitive sides. An 1870 meeting chaired by the 3rd Lord Harris at the Bull Inn at Rochester saw the two clubs merge to form the present day Kent County Cricket Club.
Kent County Cricket Club in 1910
Punter Humphreys led the county in run scoring with a total of 1,618 runs, including 1,483 in the County Championship. James Seymour, Kenneth Hutchings and Frank Woolley each scored over 1,000 runs for Kent, with Ted Dillon adding 919. Hutchings scored four centuries for Kent, with Humphreys, Seymour and Woolley each scoring three. Humphreys' score of 200 not out against Lancashire at Tunbridge Wells was the highest score for Kent during the season and was his second double century for the county. At the time it was the third highest score in Kent history, beaten only by the 208 he had scored in 1909 and James Seymour's 204 from the 1907 season. Seymour made a top score of 193 against Middlesex at Canterbury in 1910, Kent's second highest score of the year.