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.
Private Banks Sports Ground
The ground was established in 1872 and the first recorded match on the ground was in 1874 between Private Banks Cricket Club and MCC. The ground's first first-class cricket match followed in 1875 when Kent County Cricket Club played Sussex in a county match. The county played a further three matches on the ground in 1875, their only home county matches of the season, and the possibility of making the ground the headquarters for the county was discussed, the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury not being established in this role at this point. When the ground was established former Middlesex cricketer George Hearne was appointed as groundsman. Three of his sons went on to play for Kent and England, with one, George Gibbons Hearne, making his home debut for the county during the 1875 season at the ground.