AUSTRALIA
050S UK TOUR 2017
GAME
10 AUSTRALIA 050S VS KENT 050S
AT
BAT AND BALL GRAVESEND CC KENT
MONDAY
31st
JULY
2017
The
weather today was fine and sunny after a weekend of rain. We had
arrived in Canterbury after a 4 hour uneventful drive from the Angel
Hotel at Leamington to begin our southern cricket adventure with
similar minded 050 English cricketers .
Our
first game was at Gravesend CC against Kent 050s who had missed the
cut in the 050 Championships but wished to play some 49 years old to
blood for next season
Apparently
Gravesend obtains it name being the furthest site of a grave for a
deceased being brought from London by barge down the Thames due to
the great plague in 1666. As we were playing there today it was hoped
that the place didn’t live up to its name for our team in the
present game v Kent 050s.
Gravesend
CC previously known as the “Bat and Ball Cricket Ground” dates
from 1845when turf from nearby Cobham Hall was used to lay out the
ground. Cobham Hall is the famous home of Ivo Francis Walter Bligh
the 8th
Earl of Danley who was the English Captain who returned from
Australia in 1884 with the famous ashes urn from a farm north of
Melbourne. The urn remained on his mantle piece from 1884 until his
death in 1927 when it was lent in perpetuity to Lords where it now
stands.
The
first overseas tourists to Gravesend CC were the Australian
Aboriginals who landed in 1868 and spent their first night at the
“Bat and Ball” Inn adjacent to the ground which was the first
ground the team saw. They returned to play a match later there
showing their cricket and boomerang throwing skills. Two other
Australian teams played there in 1886 and 1893.
In
1895 W G Grace aged 47 yrs hit 257 for Gloucestershire against Kent
and remained on the field for the 3 days of the match. Later in 1937
the first Australian Women’s team played at Gravesend CC in their
first oversea’s tour game v Kent. In 1945 the Australian services
Team captained by Lindsay Hassett and including Keith Miller played
there whilst Colin Cowdrey who made 6 Ashes tours to Australia scored
his first first class 50 in 1951. So
it was fitting that this inaugural Australian 050s cricket team got
into this historical queue.