Kent county cricket teams matches at Town Malling between 1836 and 1841. The expense of running county games meant that Town Malling proved too small to support a county club, despite the large attendances that games attracted, and in 1842 Pilch moved to the Beverley club at Canterbury. Kent struggled against the prominence of Sussex in the early roundarm years but then enjoyed a glorious period in the middle of the century. Rowland Bowen has recorded that a Maidstone newspaper in 1837 described a match between Kent and Nottinghamshire as for the County Championship. This is the earliest known use of the term although
Kent County Show amalgamation of the Mid Kent and East Kent Show Societies. The Society’s primary objective was to host an annual agricultural show. This led to the very first Kent County Show being held that year at Wombwell Park in Gravesend. The show was declared by Gravesend's mayor of the time as "the greatest advertisement the town had been privileged to enjoy." The official programme listed details of a band and smoking concerts with a sports gala and carnival as a Saturday night grand finale. There were 833 livestock entries and 15,000 people turned out to watch the prize cattle, sheep, pigs,