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The St Lawrence Ground is a cricket ground in Canterbury, Kent. It is the home ground of Kent County Cricket Club and since 2013 has been known as The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, due to commercial sponsorship. It is one of the oldest grounds on which first-class cricket is played, having been in use since 1847, and is the venue for Canterbury Cricket Week, the oldest cricket festival in the world. It is one of the two grounds used regularly for first-class cricket that have had a tree, the St Lawrence Lime, within the boundary.

Capacity at the ground was increased to 15,000 in 2000, and four One Day International matches have been played there, one each in 1999 (part of the 1999 Cricket World Cup), 2000, 2003 and 2005. The ground was the venue for the first day/night County Championship match, played as a trial in September 2011.

The ground was first established in 1847 on farmland owned by the fourth Baron Sondes. The land was the site of the St Lawrence Hospital, a leper hospital founded in the mid-12th century, and immediately to the south of the Old Dover Road, which follows the line of the Roman road that ran from Dover to Canterbury.[1][2][3] A Tudor manor house had been built on the site after the dissolution of the hospital in the mid 16th century and this had been demolished by 1839.[3][4][5] In the 18th century the house was known as St Lawrence.[1]

The ground was laid out by Fuller Pilch, a professional cricketer who had been the groundsman at Town Malling and, from 1842, the Beverley Ground in north-east Canterbury. Kent County Cricket Club had been formed at the Beverley Ground in 1842 and the St Lawrence Ground was established to be used for their Canterbury Cricket Week in 1847.[6][7] The 1847 Cricket Week saw the first first-class cricket matches held on the ground, with Kent playing England and the Gentlemen of Kent playing the Gentlemen of England.[8]

Initially, the St Lawrence ground was used only for the annual Cricket Week, and pasture land for the rest of the each year.[4] A St Lawrence Cricket Club was formed in 1864 specifically to use the ground more regularly for cricket[9] and improvements began to be made to the ground in the 1870s after the amalgamation of the East (Beverley) and West (Maidstone) Kent Cricket Clubs, forming the current Kent County Cricket Club. The ground was purchased for £4,500 by the county club from the 2nd Earl Sondes in 1896, a purchase partly funded by public subscription, and became Kent's headquarters,[10][11][12][13] although it was only used for county cricket during the Canterbury week until well into the 20th century.[14]

Prior to the purchase of the ground there were few permanent structures on it, accommodation during Cricket Week being provided in tents.[4] The Iron Stand (now named the Les Ames Stand) is the oldest building still on the ground and was built in 1890; this was followed by the Pavilion, which was opened in 1900, and the adjacent Annexe Stand, originally built in 1907.[1][15][16]


Kent versus Lancashire in 1906, by Albert Chevallier Tayler. The painting shows the Pavilion as it stood in 1906.
Kent's first County Championship title in 1906 was marked by the commissioning of a painting of the team playing Lancashire on the ground. The painting, Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury by Albert Chevallier Tayler, depicts a view of the ground from the Nackington Road End with Colin Blythe, Kent's greatest pre-war bowler, bowling from the Pavilion End of the ground. The Pavilion can be seen clearly behind Blythe. The painting was hung in the Pavilion until 1999, when insurance payments proved too expensive and it was loaned to the MCC and hung in the Long Room at Lord's. It was permanently sold to MCC in 2006 and remains in the Lord's Pavilion, with a copy hanging in the St Lawrence Ground Pavilion. [17]

Kent won three more County Championships in the years before World War I. War was declared during Canterbury Week in 1914, although cricket continued until the end of the season and matches were moved to the ground from Dover due to wartime activity.[18] During the war, the ground was used by the military and occupied by the Field Ambulance detachment of the South Eastern Mounted Brigade. Horses were stabled along the south side of the ground, including in the Iron Stand.[19] During World War II the ground was used as an alternative civil defence control centre.[20] The Frank Woolley Stand was built adjacent to the Pavilion in the 1920s, and the Colin Cowdrey Stand added in the 1980s. Significant redevelopment was undertaken at the ground during the early 21st century, during which land was sold for housing.

Cricketing feats to have taken place on the ground include the first triple century scored in top-class cricket, by WG Grace in 1876 playing for the MCC against Kent.[21] As of 2018 it remains the only triple century to have been scored on the ground.[22] Kent leg-spinner Doug Wright took his seventh first-class hat-trick on the ground in 1949, a world record that remains to this day. Six of Wright's hat-tricks were taken while playing for Kent, although only the last was taken on the ground.[23][24][25]

Kent have played more than 950 top-class matches on the ground, including over 550 first-class games.[26] It was the venue for the first day/night County Championship match, played as a trial in September 2011, and regularly stages day/night limited-overs matches.[27] It has been used for four men's one-day international matches and for women's international cricket Test matches and one-day matches, as well as for games by England Lions and age-group sides. In 2014, the ground was the venue for the first cricket match to be played between the Vatican and the Church of England.[28]

The ground has been known as The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence since a 2013 sponsorship deal between the club and local brewery Shepherd Neame. The deal gave naming rights to the ground for a ten-year period to the company, which has been a long-term sponsor of the club and brews a beer named Spitfire.[29][30] The Supermarine Spitfire is associated with the Battle of Britain, much of which was fought in the skies above the county in 1940 and after which Kent's limited-overs team is named.[31][

FAMOUS KENT CRICKETER

Frank Edward Woolley (27 May 1887 – 18 October 1978) was an English first-class cricketer active 1906 to 1938 who played for Kent County Cricket Club and England. He was born in Tonbridge and died in Chester, Nova Scotia. His elder brother, Claude Woolley, played for Northamptonshire.[1]

A genuine all-rounder, Woolley was a left-handed batsman and a left-arm bowler who varied his style between left-arm orthodox spin and left-arm medium pace. He was an outstanding fielder close to the wicket, generally at first slip, and is the only player other than wicketkeepers to hold over 1,000 catches in a first-class career. He represented England in 64 Test matches from 1909 to 1934. Woolley is generally regarded as one of cricket's greatest-ever all-rounders. His first-class career runs total is the second highest of all time, after Jack Hobbs, and he scored the seventh highest number of career centuries. His career total of wickets taken is the 27th highest. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 1911 edition.[2][3][1]

In 2009, Woolley was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.[4]

KENT LAST TIME OUT

www.espncricinfo.com/series/county-championship-2021-1244186/kent-vs-yorkshire-group-3-1244226/full-scorecard

TABLE

www.espncricinfo.com/series/county-championship-2021-1244186/points-table-standings

Apparently Anderson available will we play two spinners

FORECAST

Decent but not overly warm

www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2653877