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 2011
Kent finished a very disappointing eighth of nine in Division Two of the County Championship in their first season since relegation from Division One. They won 6 and lost 6 matches in the Clydesdale Bank 40, leaving them in the middle of the final Group A standings (they did not progress to the knock-out stages). Kent did progress to the quarter-final stage of the Friends Life t20 after finishing in 3rd place in the South Group, with the side winning 9 out of 14 completed matches. They lost their quarter final at Grace Road against Leicestershire, in what was a high scoring game, by 3 wickets.