Hesketh Park 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 ...

ground in

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

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 is the home of

Dartford Cricket Club Dartford Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs in England with origins which date from the early 18th century, perhaps earlier. The earliest known match involving a team from Dartford took place in 1722, against London, but the club's ...

, one of the oldest cricket clubs in the United Kingdom. The ground was established at the beginning of the 20th century and has been 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 ...

. The ground is located around south-east of Dartford town centre and is one f the few open spaces which remain on what was once the

Dartford Brent Dartford Brent was an extensive area of common land on the outskirts of Dartford in Kent. Historically, it was the scene of a confrontation between King Henry VI and Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York in 1452 and in 1555 thousands of spectat ...

. The A296 road runs along the western side of the ground with the

A225 road List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the ...

to the south and the A282 Dartford Crossing approach road running east 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.

Establishment

Cricket has been played at Dartford since at least the early 18th century and Dartford Cricket Club is one of the oldest established cricket clubs in England.Our history: Cricket in Dartford
,

. Retrieved 2017-11-28. Cricket was first played on

, an area of common land to the east of the town on which the modern Hesketh Park ground is situated. The earliest known match between two county sides took place on the Brent in 1709 with a Kent team playing one from Surrey. After the end of the 18th century matches moved to

Bowman's Lodge Bowman's Lodge is a house in Dartford, Kent, England and the location of Bowmans, an area in the north west of Dartford Heath. The historian John Dunkin wrote in 1844 that: A poem presented to E.M. Potts at Bowman's Lodge, in around 1834, ran ...

Dartford Heath Dartford Heath Common is an area of open heathland situated to the south-west of Dartford, Kent, England, covering around of open space. Dartford Heath is classified as lowland heath and is one of only two substantial heathland blocks remaining i ...

before Hesketh Park was established at the start of the 20th century.Our history: Dartford Brent

. Retrieved 2017-11-28. An area of municipal park land was established at Hesketh Park in 1904 as a result of a donation by local businessman Everand Hesketh. The site was expanded in 1905 when Hesketh purchased land adjacent to the park to build a sports ground which includes the cricket ground. The first match on the ground was held in 1905, with Hesketh bowling the first over.Our history: Hesketh Park

. Retrieved 2017-11-28. The ground is owned by

Dartford Borough Council Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in E ...

and operated by the council and Dartford Cricket Club.Hesketh Park Pavilion project

. Retrieved 2017-11-28.Dartford Cricket Club set to move to new pavilion in Hesketh Park ahead of new season
''

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 ...

'', 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2017-11-28.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no.28, December 1979, pp.2–10.

Cricket history

used Hesketh Park for First XI fixtures between 1956 and 1990. The first

match on the ground took place in May 1956 and saw Kent play

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 ...

. A total of 33 first-class matches were held on the ground, with Kent playing a

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 ...

fixture at Dartford in most seasons from 1956 until 1990.Grounds Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

. In 1963 the county played twice at the ground, a Championship match 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 ...

followed by a match against the

Pakistan Eaglets Pakistan Eaglets were a team of young cricketers from Pakistan, founded by Justice A.R. Cornelius. They toured England and Wales every year from 1952 to 1959, Malaya and Ceylon in 1960-61, and England again in 1963. Most of their matches were no ...

– a touring side of younger Pakistani cricketers. The final first-class match on the ground was held in August 1990 with

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 ...

as the opposition.First-class Matches played on Hesketh Park, Dartford
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-28. Kent have also played two

List-A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches on the ground, both against Essex. The first match took place in the

1978 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1978 Benson & Hedges Cup was the seventh edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. The competition was won by Kent County Cricket Club. Fixtures and results Group stage Group A Group B Group C Group D ...

and the second in the 1981 tournament.List-A Matches played on Hesketh Park, Dartford
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-28. The Kent Second XI also used the ground 40 times between 1947, when they played

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

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 1995 when it was used in the

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 ...

.Hesketh Park, Dartford
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-28. During the

1973 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup was the inaugural Women's Cricket World Cup, held in England between 20 June and 28 July 1973. It was the first tournament of its kind, held two years before the first limited overs World Cup for men in 1975. T ...

the ground was used for a single

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

. Australia women beat New Zealand women on the ground with Australian opening batsman

Bev Wilson Beverley Wilson (born 1 January 1949 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian former cricket player. Wilson played two tests and six one day internationals for the Australia national women's cricket team. Wilson was the captain Captain i ...

scoring a half-century.Australia Women vs New-Zealand Women – scorecard

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 ...

. Retrieved 2017-11-28. In local domestic cricket the ground has been the home venue of

since it was established in 1905. The club plays 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, Dart ...

. The

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

on the ground was replaced in 2015, the new building replacing one which had been built in the 1980s to replace the original pavilion which had been built when the ground was established but was later destroyed by fire. The pavilion project was part funded by

with a grant of £1 million. A new area of cricket nets was built on the ground as part of the project.Council to approve £1m funding for new pavilion at Dartford Cricket Club
''

'', 2014-06-11. Retrieved 2017-11-28. The ground has also hosted fixtures involving

Lashings World XI The Lashings World XI is a cricket team captained by the former England and Surrey fast bowler Martin Bicknell. It was formed in 1984 as a pub team but evolved into an international XI after signing Richie Richardson in 1996. Now a corporate ente ...

.Students face legendary Tendulker
''

'', 2008-07-03. Retrieved 2017-11-28.Monty Panesar and Shivnarine Chanderpaul playing for Lashings All-Stars at Dartford CC
''

'', 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2017-11-28.

Records on the ground

A total of 33 first-class and two List A matches were held on the ground, all with Kent as the home team. *Highest total: 476 by

against

, 1985 *Lowest total: 65 by

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 ...

against Kent, 1988 *Highest partnership: 231, 3rd wicket by H Pilling and CH Lloyd, for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

against Kent, 1970 *Highest individual score: 204

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

, JA Ormrod, for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

against Kent, 1973 *Best bowling in an innings: 8/39, F Ridgway, for Kent against Nottinghamshire, 1960 *Best bowling in a match: 12/101, F Ridgway, for Kent against Nottinghamshire, 1960 In the two List A matches on the ground the highest team score was 226/4 scored by Kent chasing an Essex score of 222 in 1978. The highest individual score was 79 not out, scored by

Bob Woolmer Robert Andrew Woolmer (14 May 1948 – 18 March 2007) was an English cricket coach, cricketer, and a commentator. He played in 19 Test matches and six One Day Internationals for the England cricket team and later coached South Africa, Warwick ...

for Kent in 1981 in another successful run chase against Essex. The highest women's individual score on the ground was 50 runs scored by

Other sports

Hesketh Park is the home of Dartford

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 ...

club. Grass and hard

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 ...

courts are also available in the wider park.Hesketh Park

. Retrieved 2017-11-28.

References

External links

Hesketh Park
at

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 ...

Dartford Cricket Club
{{Kent CCC Cricket grounds in Kent Dartford Sports venues completed in 1943