A Half-Forgotten Triumph: The Story of Kent's County Championship Title of 1913

The Golden Age of Kent Cricket, perhaps better described as the First Golden Age of Kent Cricket (for fear of confusion with the period 1967 to 1978), ran from 1905 to 1914. During that decade, Kent won the County Championship title four times in 1906, 1909, 1910 and 1913. They were second in 1908 and 1911, and third in 1912 and 1914. This period represents the latter stages of what is broadly known as The Golden Age of Cricket (1895 to 1914), and includes many of the players ever to have graced a cricket field. By 1913, the late Victorian and Edwardian values of cricket were changing - the amateur player was finding more difficulty committing his time to the game, and the majority of sides by then were filled by professional players. The game of cricket was changing too. The development of in-swing bowling had created a fundamental move away from strokes played on the offside as batsmen learned to cope with the ball swinging into their pads, and the field set to restrict scoring opportunities in a way unseen 15 years previously. Leg theory bowling was also being practiced, although not quite at the same level that was to cause so much difficulty in Australia 20 years later. All in all, it was a time of change and uncertainty, both within cricket and the world in general. Cricket was in the same sort of financial mess as it is today and, but for the Great War, many of the county clubs may well have been obliged to close their doors during the next year or so. The Golden Age of Cricket was drawing to a close and it is perhaps fitting that the last Championship title fought for over a full season, should go to the side that many might regard as the embodiment of the spirit of the age for a decade - Kent.

About the Author :
Martin Moseling is a playing member of MCC and various other cricket clubs including Cross Arrows, Band of Brothers, Incogniti and Cryptics. He once made a hundred at Lord's but sometimes fails to mention it was on the Nursery Ground! He writes a regular cricket blog entitled acricketsortofchap. He is a member of the Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians and the Cheltenham Cricket Society. Tony has followed Kent County Cricket Club since he was a boy in the early sixties, but his dreams of playing for them were dashed when he repeatedly bowled down the leg side to Grahame Clinton in the final trial for the county under-15 schools team. After university, he played intermittent club cricket at a modest level in Kent, Yorkshire and London. He is a member of both the Association of Cricket Statisticians & Historians and the Cricket Society.