Kent county cricket teams the concept of a Champion County was much older. Kent was duly proclaimed "Champion County" in 1837 and through most of the 1840s. Mainstays of the Kent team in those years included Alfred Mynn, Fuller Pilch, Nicholas Wanostrocht "aka" "Felix", Ned Wenman and William Hillyer. On 6 August 1842, formation of the original Kent County Cricket Club took place in Canterbury. The new club played its initial first-class match against All-England at White Hart Field in Bromley on 25–27 August 1842. On 1 March 1859 a second county club was established in Maidstone to support the Canterbury club. The two
Gillingham, Kent Gillingham, Kent Gillingham ( ) is a town in the county of Kent in South East England. For local government purposes it is also in the unitary authority of Medway. The town includes the settlements of Brompton, Hempstead, Wigmore, Parkwood, Rainham, Rainham Mark and Twydall. Gillingham means a "homestead of Gylla's family", from Old English "ham" ("village, homestead") and "ingas" ("family, followers"), and was first recorded in the 10th century as "Gyllingeham". Also referred to in old texts as "Jillyingham Water", hence the pronunciation being Gillingham (the G sounds as a "J" as in the girls' name Jill). Gillingham became