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.
List of Kent County Cricket Club first-class cricket records
Five men have made more than 500 appearances for Kent in first-class cricket.Frank Woolley holds the records for most runs scored for Kent as well as most runs in a season and most centuries in a career with 122, the only player with more than 100 centuries for the county. He made 10 centuries for the county in both the 1928 and 1934 seasons. Arthur Fagg scored two double centuries in a match against Essex at Colchester in 1938, a feat unique in first-class cricket as of March 2017.