Mote Park (cricket ground)
 Mote Park | |||||||||
| Ground information | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Maidstone, Kent | ||||||||
| Coordinates | 51°16′05″N 0°32′10″E / 51.268°N 0.536°E | ||||||||
| Home club | The Mote Cricket Club | ||||||||
| Establishment | 1854 {first recorded match) | ||||||||
| Owner | The Mote Cricket Club | ||||||||
| End names | |||||||||
| Mote Avenue End West Park Road End | |||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||
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| As of 1 March 2018 Source: CricketArchive | |||||||||
Mote Park, also known as The Mote, is a cricket ground in Maidstone in the English county of Kent. It is inside the grounds of the Mote Park and is owned by The Mote Cricket Club.[1] The ground is also used by the Mote Squash Club and Maidstone rugby club.[2] Until 2005, it was used annually by Kent County Cricket Club as one of their out-grounds for county cricket matches. The club played over 200 first-class matches on the ground, with the first match played in 1859 against MCC.[3]
Establishment
The ground was established in the mid-19th century inside Mote Park, at the time a 558 acres (226 ha) country estate to the west of Maidstone.[4] It had been emparked in the 14th century and by the end of the 17th century was owned by the Marsham family. Charles Marsham, 1st Earl of Romney built a new mansion in the grounds of the park in the 1790s and the grounds were redeveloped during the mid-19th century by both the 2nd and 3rd Earls.[5][6]
Cricket was first played on a ground in the park in 1854 and the ground was established fully by 1857.[6] The park was sold to Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted in 1895 and the ground developed extensively under his ownership to allow it to be used regularly for county cricket.[4][6] The ground was levelled and the pitch turned through 90 degrees in 1907. The cricket pavilion and The Tabernacle, built as Viscount Bearsted's private pavilion, were built between 1909 and 1910.[4][7]
Cricket history
The first Kent match at The Mote was in 1859, two years after the founding of The Mote Cricket Club. However, visits by Kent to The Mote were limited until the intervention of Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908, Viscount Bearsted oversaw the levelling of the original playing area to form the middle of three terraces (the upper and lower levels became rugby pitches) and the wicket was moved to its current position, perpendicular to the original orientation.
In 1910, two permanent buildings were opened: the pavilion, which contains the players' dressing rooms and covered seating and the Tabernacle, originally the private pavilion of Viscount Bearsted and used for spectating and entertaining in luxury. More recently the structure was used as a committee room for both the Mote and Kent County Cricket Clubs. Apart from some restoration work, the ground otherwise still resembles the facility constructed in the early 20th century.[4]
The ground continued to be used by the county side for an annual cricket week until the end of the 2005 season. After 140 consecutive years of play, Mote Park was taken off the list of county grounds used by Kent when an over-watered 'green' wicket, prepared for the County Championship match against Gloucestershire, led to a low scoring game which ended after less than two days and a subsequent eight point points deduction for Kent.[8] Redevelopment of the facilities at the ground had been approved during 2005 as part of a larger scheme to increase the profile of cricket in the county town.[9]
Since 2005 The Mote Cricket Club have relaid a number of wickets at a cost of £14,000 with the help of grants and technical assistance from the County Cricket Club and Maidstone Borough Council. Kent have expressed a wish to return to the ground at some point, although as of April 2016 the quality of the wicket and the pavilion were still seen as issues that needed to be addressed.[10][11][12]
Records on the ground
A total of 218 first-class matches were held on the ground between 1859 and 2005, all of them featuring Kent as the home side. Kent also played List A matches regularly on the ground, with 53 fixtures being played between 1969 and 2005. The Kent Cricket Board played another five List A matches on the ground in the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy between 1999 and 2002. Two of Kent's T20 matches were hosted at the ground in 2004.
First-class cricket
- Highest total: 580/6 declared by Kent against Essex, 1947 and 580/9 declared by Kent against Yorkshire in 1998
- Lowest total: 31 by Hampshire against Kent, 1967
- Highest partnership: 368, 4th wicket by PA de Silva and GR Cowdrey, for Kent against Derbyshire, 1995
- Highest individual score: 260, APF Chapman for Kent against Lancashire, 1927
- Best bowling in an innings: 10/131, AP Freeman for Kent against Lancashire, 1929
- Best bowling in a match: 15/114, Mohammad Sami for Kent against Nottinghamshire, 2003
The partnership between de Silva and Cowdrey set a new record as the highest partnership for any wicket for Kent.[4] It remained Kent's highest partnership in first-class cricket until 2017 when it was surpassed by Sean Dickson and Joe Denly who made 382 runs for the 2nd wicket against Northants at County Cricket Ground, Beckenham.[13][14]
In 1910, Colin Blythe and Frank Woolley bowled unchanged throughout both innings of a fixture with Yorkshire repeating a performance from 1889, also against Yorkshire, by bowlers Walter Wright and Fred Martin.[4]
List A cricket
- Highest total: 338/6 by Kent against Somerset, 1996 (50 over match)
- Lowest total: 65 by Warwickshire against Kent, 1979
- Highest partnership: 172, 2nd wicket by D Byas and DS Lehmann, for Yorkshire against Kent, 1998
- Highest individual score: 122, ET Smith for Kent against Glamorgan, 2003
- Best bowling: 5/19, DL Underwood for Kent against Gloucestershire, 1972
In 1995 Mark Ealham made the fastest century in the history of the 40-over game. In 44 balls, Ealham scored a hundred, with nine sixes and nine fours.[4]
Twenty20 Cricket
Two Twenty20 matches were played on the ground in 2004. Kent made the highest T20 score on the ground, scoring 157/3 against Middlesex who made 155/7 in reply. The match was reduced by rain to 18 overs per side. Middlesex batted first and Kent reached their target in only 13.1 overs.[15][16] Andrew Symonds scored 112 runs in the match, the only T20 century scored on the ground. Symonds scored his century in 34 balls, at the time a record for the fastest century in T20 cricket. As of March 2018 it remains the third quickest century scored in top-level T20 matches worldwide and the fastest scored in the UK.[17][18]
The best bowling figures in a T20 match on the ground were 4 wickets for 20 runs from 3.2 overs by Scott Brant for Essex in the grounds other T20 match.
References
- ^ The Mote CC - About Us Archived 2012-07-24 at archive.today, The Mote Cricket Club. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
- ^ Maidstone Rugby Club Archived 2010-01-27 at the Wayback Machine, Maidstone Rugby Club. Retrieved 2011-04-09
- ^ First-class matches played on Mote Park, Maidstone, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g A brief history of the Mote, CricInfo. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
- ^ Mote Park - List entry summary, Historic England, 2000-11-13. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ^ a b c History of Mote Park, Mote Park Fellowship. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ^ Mote Park Cricket Ground, (also known as The Mote), England, Parks and Gardens Trust. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ^ Kent end 140-year Maidstone deal, BBC Sport, 2005-09-30. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- ^ Major changes for cricket ground, BBC Sport, 2005-06-02. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- ^ Redevelopment may lead to Kent's Mote return, Kent Messenger, 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2011-03-23
- ^ Kent County Cricket Club say they want to play at grounds around the county, Kent Online, 2011-12-02. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- ^ Kent Cricket chief executive Jamie Clifford says the county would love to return to Maidstone but that there are too many hurdles at the moment, Kent Online, 2016-04-05. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
- ^ Milton H (2016) 'Team Records' in Reid J (ed) 2016 Kent County Cricket Club Annual, pp.199–202, Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club
- ^ Dickson's 318 tops day of Kent records, CricInfo, 2017-07-04. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
- ^ Symonds batters Middlesex, BBC Sport, 2004-07-02. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ^ Symonds powers Kent to Twenty20 win, Kent Online, 2004-07-02. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ^ Dutton J (2013) Chris Gayle and the story of the fastest centuries in cricket, The Independent, 2013-04-24. Retrieved 2018-03-02.
- ^ Fastest 100s, CricInfo. Retrieved 2018-03-02.