The St Lawrence Ground is a cricket ground in Canterbury, Kent. It is the home ground of Kent County Cricket Club and since 2013 has been known as The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, due to commercial sponsorship. It is one of the oldest grounds on which first-class cricket is played, having been in use since 1847, and is the venue for Canterbury Cricket Week, the oldest cricket festival in the world. It is one of the two grounds used regularly for first-class cricket that have had a tree within the boundary, in this case the St Lawrence Lime.
Capacity at the ground was increased to 15,000 in 2000, and four One-Day International matches have been played there, one each in 1999 (part of the 1999 Cricket World Cup), 2000, 2003 and 2005. The ground was the venue for the first day/night County Championship match, played as a trial in September 2011.
History The ground was first established in 1847 on farmland owned by the fourth Baron Sondes. The land was the site of the St Lawrence Hospital, a leper hospital founded in the mid-12th century, and immediately to the south of the Old Dover Road, which follows the line of the Roman road that ran from Dover to Canterbury.Character area 8.iii, Old Dover Road and St Lawrence in Canterbury Conservation Area Appraisal, Canterbury City Council, 2011, pp.190–194. Canterbury: Canterbury City Council. Retrieved 28 March 2018.St Lawrence Cricket Ground, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1 December 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2018.St Lawrence Cricket Ground, Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 11 April 2011. Retrieved 24 March 2018. A Tudor manor house had been built on the site after the dissolution of the hospital in the mid 16th century and this had been demolished by 1839.Sweetinburgh S (2015) Kent Cricket and a Tudor Mansion, Canterbury Christchurch University, 6 August 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2018.The Hospital of St Laurence, Canterbury (sic), in Page W (ed) (1926) A History of the County of Kent: Volume 2, pp.209–216. London: Victoria County History. (Available online. Retrieved 24 March 2018. In the 18th century the house was known as St Lawrence.
The ground was laid out by Fuller Pilch, a professional cricketer who had been the groundsman at Town Malling and, from 1842, the Beverley Ground in north-east Canterbury. Kent County Cricket Club had been formed at the Beverley Ground in 1842 and the St Lawrence Ground was established to be used for their Canterbury Cricket Week in 1847.Cricket – Kent v England, The Times, 1847-08-04, p.7.Birley D (1999) A Social History of Cricket, pp.79–82. London: Aurum Press. . The 1847 Cricket Week saw the first important matches played on the ground (it became a first-class venue in 1864), with Kent playing England and the Gentlemen of Kent playing the Gentlemen of England.Robertson D (2009) Read about the origins of Canterbury Week, Kent County Cricket Club, 4 August 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
Initially, the St Lawrence ground was used for cricket only during the annual Cricket Week, being pasture land for the rest of the each year. A St Lawrence Cricket Club was formed in 1864 specifically to use the ground more frequently for cricket.Milton, Howard (1979). Kent cricket grounds, in The Cricket Statistician, no. 28, December 1979, pp.2–10. Improvements began to be made to the ground in the 1870s after the amalgamation of the East (Beverley) and West (Maidstone) Kent Cricket Clubs, forming the current Kent County Cricket Club. The ground was purchased for £4,500 by the county club from the 2nd Earl Sondes in 1896, a purchase partly funded by public subscription, and became Kent's headquarters,The Kent County Club and the St Lawrence Ground, The Times, 1896-03-14, p.13.Kent County Cricket Club, The Times, 1897-03-25, p.11.Hignell A (2002) Rain Stops Play: Cricketing Climates, pp. 65–66. London: Abingdon. .Moseling M, Quarrington T (2013) A Half-Forgotten Triumph: The story of Kent's County Championship title of 1913, p.35. Cheltenham: SportsBooks. . although it was only used for county cricket during the Canterbury week until well into the 20th century.Hignell, op. cit. pp. 67–112.
Prior to the purchase of the ground there were few permanent structures on it, accommodation during Cricket Week being provided in tents. The Iron Stand (now named the Les Ames Stand), built in 1890, is the oldest extant building on the ground; this was followed by the Pavilion, which was opened in 1900, and the adjacent Annexe Stand, originally built in 1907.St Lawrence Cricket Ground, Canterbury: Cricketers at War, World War One at Home, BBC Radio, 6 November 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2018.Pennell M (2010) ‘Bob The Builder’ arrives at St Lawrence, Kent County Cricket Club, 26 September 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
Kent's first County Championship title in 1906 was marked by the commissioning of a painting of the team playing Lancashire on the ground. The painting, Kent vs Lancashire at Canterbury by Albert Chevallier Tayler, depicts a view of the ground from the Nackington Road End with Colin Blythe, Kent's greatest pre-war bowler, bowling from the Pavilion End of the ground. The Pavilion can be seen clearly behind Blythe. The painting was hung in the Pavilion until 1999, when insurance payments proved too expensive. It was loaned to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and hung in the Long Room at Lord's. It was permanently sold to MCC in 2006 and remains in the Lord's Pavilion, with a copy hanging in the St Lawrence Ground Pavilion. Auction feat for cricket painting, BBC News, 27 June 2006. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
Kent won three more County Championships in the years before World War I. War was declared during Canterbury Week in 1914, although cricket continued until the end of the season and matches were moved to the ground from Dover due to wartime activity.Lewis, Paul (2013). For Kent and Country, p.21. Brighton: Reveille Press. . During the war, the ground was used by the military and occupied by the Field Ambulance detachment of the South Eastern Mounted Brigade. Horses were stabled along the south team of the ground, including in the Iron Stand.Lewis op. cit., p.97. During World War II the ground was used as an alternative civil defence control centre.Smith VTC, Seary P (2012) Kent’s Twentieth-Century Military and Civil Defences. Part 3 – Canterbury, Archaeologia Cantiana vol.132, pp.153–188. The Frank Woolley Stand was built adjacent to the Pavilion in the 1920s, and the Colin Cowdrey Stand added in the 1980s. Significant redevelopment was undertaken at the ground during the early 21st century, during which land was sold for housing.
Cricketing feats to have taken place on the ground include the first triple century scored in top-class cricket, by WG Grace in 1876 playing for the MCC against Kent.Rajesh S (2010) An early pioneer, ESPNcricinfo, 2 August 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2018. As of 2018 it remains the only triple century to have been scored on the ground.Batting records, Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017, p.183–196. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club. Kent leg-spinner Doug Wright took his seventh first-class hat-trick on the ground in 1949, a world record that remains to this day. Six of Wright's hat-tricks were taken while playing for Kent, although only the last was taken on the ground.Easterbrook B (1969) The heritage of our cricket grounds, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, 1969. Retrieved 19 May 2017.Robertson D (2014) A Special Centenary – Doug Wright, Kent County Cricket Club, 18 August 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2018.Hat-tricks, Bowling Records, Kent County Cricket Annual 2017, p.199. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club.
Kent have played more than 950 top-class matches on the ground, including over 550 first-class games.Grounds Records, Kent County Cricket Annual 2017, p.210–211. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club. It was the venue for the first day/night County Championship match, played as a trial in September 2011, and regularly stages day/night limited-overs matches.Kent get mixed reaction to floodlit Glamorgan game, BBC Sport, 9 September 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2018. It has been used for four men's one-day international matches and for women's international cricket Test matches and one-day matches, as well as for games by England Lions and age-group teams. In 2014, the ground was the venue for the first cricket match to be played between the Vatican and the Church of England.Dray W (2014) C of E wins with five balls to spare, Church Times, 26 September 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
The ground has been known as The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence since a 2013 sponsorship deal between the club and local brewery Shepherd Neame. The deal gave naming rights to the ground for a ten-year period to the company, which has been a long-term sponsor of the club and brews a beer named Spitfire.Kent County Cricket Club rename ground The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Kent Online, 21 May 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2018.McPherson I (2013) Kent to play at The Spitfire Ground in ten-year deal, SportsPro Media Limited, 22 May 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2018. The Supermarine Spitfire is associated with the Battle of Britain, much of which was fought in the skies above the county in 1940 and after which Kent's limited-overs team is named.Spitfire fans now know what the name means, Battle of Britain Memorial. Retrieved 7 April 2018.Kent & the Spitfire, The Kent Spitfire. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
Lime tree
The playing surface of most cricket grounds are devoid of any trees or shrubs. The St Lawrence Ground was an exception: when the ground opened in 1847 it was laid out around a pre-existing lime tree, which was then about 40 years old. The presence of a tree within the playing area required special local rules. Shots that touched the tree were counted as a four, even if they ricocheted and cleared the boundary rope, and no batsman could be out caught off a rebound.Kent to replace the lime tree, ESPNcricinfo, 8 March 2005. Retrieved 6 April 2018.Sapsted D, Fenton B (2005) Cricket's famous lime tree stumped after 200 years, The Daily Telegraph, 11 January 2005. Retrieved 6 April 2018. Only four cricketers are known to have hit the ball over the tree to score a six: Arthur 'Jacko' Watson of Sussex in 1925, the West Indies' Learie Constantine in 1928, Middlesex's Jim Smith in 1939, and Kent's Carl Hooper in 1992.The Lime Tree’s demise: ten years on, Kent County Cricket Club, 8 January 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
The tree was diagnosed with fungal heart rot in the 1990s, so it was pollarded to encourage new growth. This reduced the height from over to around . On 7 January 2005, high winds caused the trunk to snap in two, killing the 200-year-old tree and leaving a stump. Wood from the dead tree was made into mementos and sold to supporters.
A new lime tree was planted outside the playing area in 1999 by EW Swanton, with plans to use it as a replacement. The club moved it within the playing area on 8 March 2005, though it was then less than in height.Cricket club reveal new lime tree, BBC News, 8 March 2005. Retrieved 6 January 2011. Redevelopment of the north side of the ground in 2017 forced the boundary to be brought forward, so it is no longer possible for the tree to be part of the playing area.
Stands and structures
The ground includes five stands, four of which are named after famous Kent cricketers. These provide seating for over 2,500 spectators.Matchday Information – The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, Kent County Cricket Club. Retrieved 24 March 2018.Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence (old website), Kent County Cricket Club. Retrieved 25 March 2018.Henderson M (2014) Canterbury’s tale still has ability to charm during times of change, The Times, 14 June 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2018. Outdoor, uncovered seating provides another 3,400 seats.