The Bat & Ball Ground is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and sports ground in

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. The ground was used as a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

venue by

Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

between 1849 and 1971. It remains in use by Gravesend Cricket Club who have used the ground as their home since their formation in 1881. The site also has

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

facilities and is the home of Gravesend Bowls Club.Planning application

Gravesham Borough Council Gravesham ( ) is a local government district with borough status in north-west Kent, England. Its administrative centre and largest town is Gravesend, which was known as ''Gravesham'' in ancient times. Gravesham was formed on 1 April 1974 by ...

, July 2007. Retrieved 2017-11-25. The ground is situated south of Gravesend town centre on the western side of the A227 Wrotham Road. The Bat and Ball Inn, which was named after the ground, is on the eastern side of the ground.Explorer Map 162 – Greenwich & Gravesend,

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

, 2015-09-16.

Cricketing history

The first recorded cricket match on the site of the ground was in 1840 when a Gravesend team played Penenden Heath.Other matches played on Bat and Ball Ground
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-25. It is believed by local historians that a new wicket was laid down at the ground in 1845 by Tom Adams who had played for Kent sides before and after the formation the County Club in 1842. Adams operated the ground in its early days, possibly along with another Gravesend cricketer William Smith. The cricket ground was laid out in the grounds of Ruckland House, described as a "large mansion",1838–1852
Discover Gravesham, Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 2017-11-25. and used as the private cricket ground for the house.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no. 28, December 1979, pp.2–10. It was later owned by the Darnley family from

Cobham Hall Cobham Hall is an English country house in the county of Kent, England. The grade I listed building is one of the largest and most important houses in Kent, re-built as an Elizabethan prodigy house by William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham (1527� ...

to the south of Gravesend, and by the Billings family.

first used the ground in 1849 for a match against an All-England Eleven in the grounds first

match. From 1849 to 1971 the ground was the venue for 142 first-class matches for Kent,Grounds records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

. the last of which saw them play the touring Pakistan team in 1971.First-Class Matches played on Bat and Ball Ground
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-25. The ground was used regularly for

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

matches by Kent between the start of the Championship in 1890 and 1970 with one or two matches scheduled by the county at the ground in almost every season. Kent played the touring Australian side on the ground in 1893 and two matches were played by the

South of England cricket team The South of England appeared in first-class cricket between 1836 and 1961, most often in the showcase North v. South matches against the North of England although there were also games against touring teams, MCC and others. Thinaugural North ...

against Australian tourists in

1884 Events January–March * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's ''Princess Ida'' premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 18 – Dr. William Price atte ...

and 1886. Non-first class matches held on the ground include one of the first matches played by the Australian Aboriginal team which toured England in 1868 – the first tour by any Australian side. The team had arrived at Gravesend and were taken to lunch at the Bat and Ball inn next to the ground.Ricketts O (2013
Aboriginal cricket: The first Australian tour of England, 1868

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, 2013-07-09. Retrieved 2017-11-25.1853 - 1872
Discover Gravesham,

. Retrieved 2017-11-25. The first matches on the tours of England by the West Indies in 1933 and Indian team in 1936 were at the ground, both against teams organised by Kent great

Tich Freeman Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman (17 May 1888 – 28 January 1965) was an English first-class cricketer. A leg spin bowler for Kent County Cricket Club and England, he is the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season, and is the second most p ...

, and the West Indian tourists of 1939 played against a team organised by

Les Ames Leslie Ethelbert George Ames (3 December 1905 – 27 February 1990) was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. In his obituary, ''Wisden'' described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of a ...

at the Bat and Ball Ground. In 1963 the West Indies returned again to play the Club Cricket Conference. The ground has also played host to 24 matches involving the Kent Second XI in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

and

Second XI Championship The Second XI Championship is a season-long cricket competition in England that is competed for by the reserve teams of those county cricket clubs that have first-class status. The competition started in 1959 and has been contested annually ever ...

.Minor Counties Championship Matches played on Bat and Ball Ground
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-25.
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-25. In local cricket, the ground is the home venue of Gravesend Cricket Club who play in the

Kent Cricket League The Kent Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Kent, England. The league was founded in 1970 and the first season of play was 1971. The twelve founding clubs were Ashford, Aylesford Paper Mills, Dartf ...

.Welcome to Gravesend Cricket Club
, Gravesend Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-11-25.Olympic cash boost for Gravesend Cricket Club
''

Kent Online KM Media Group is a multimedia company in the county of Kent, England which originated as the publisher of the Kent Messenger. The Group now produces local newspapers, radio stations and websites throughout the county. Iliffe Media acquired KM ...

'', 2011-12-30. Retrieved 2017-11-25.The Gravesend Project
JGC Sports Turf. Retrieved 2017-11-25.

Records on the ground

A total of 145 games classified by sources as first-class cricket matches were played on the ground. All except two matches featured Kent as the home side. The

played two first-class matches on the ground in the 1880s. *Highest total: 561 by

against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, 1908 *Lowest total: 18 by Kent against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, 1867 *Highest partnership: 296, 4th wicket by KL Hutchings and FE Woolley, for Kent against

Northants Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is kn ...

, 1908 *Highest individual score: 257,

WG Grace William Gilbert Grace (18 July 1848 – 23 October 1915) was an English amateur cricketer who was important in the development of the sport and is widely considered one of its greatest players. He played first-class cricket for a record-equal ...

for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

against Kent, 1895 *Best bowling in an innings: 8/40, AP Freeman for Kent against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, 1935 *Best bowling in a match: 15/142, AP Freeman for Kent against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, 1931

Other uses

The ground has been used for a number of sports and was used during the winter by Gravesend and Old Gravesendians Hockey Clubs for a number of years for

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

matches. It has also been used for school sports,

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

and was flooded and used as an ice skating rink during the harsh winter of 1895.

Notes

References

External links

Bat and Ball Ground
on

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

{{Kent CCC Cricket grounds in Kent Gravesend, Kent Sports venues completed in 1848 1848 establishments in England