A Brief History Of Tonbridge Cricket Club
Founded in 1801, Tonbridge CC has a long and proud history. There’s many a story to be told and here you can start to find out more of what has taken place in the club since those early days
Tonbridge Cricket Club was founded in 1801. As early as 1890 a Cricket Week took place in Tonbridge, the visitors being Middlesex. In the 1980s Tonbridge C.C. have entertained County Cricket teams, against Hampshire in 1982, and Kent in 1984 and again in 1986.
Early records show that the Club purchased the ‘Angel’ ground, situated just off the High Street, in 1904. During the wars, the Kent County Cricket Club nursery was located at the Angel and many legendary figures, including Frank Woolley, Colin Blythe and Arthur Fielder learnt their cricket in Tonbridge.
The last game played on the Angel ground was in 1942 and was abandoned when German aircraft, returning from a raid in the London area, started to jettison their bombs over Tonbridge.
The ground was subsequently requisitioned by the Military authorities and used as an Army vehicle park. At the end of the war, the ground was left in a terrible state and, despite receiving compensation payment of £4,500. the Trustees decided that the Club’s finances were not sufficient to return the ground to its previous condition. Therefore, they felt forced to sell the ground, and did so in 1947 for £7,500. The buyers intended to promote Greyhound racing in Tonbridge, but this proved abortive and one year later the ground was sold to the Council for £8,500. and leased to Tonbridge Football Club. The Town has profited enormously from this series of events with the eventual sale of the land (with planning permission) to property developers.
Fortunately for the Club, it has always enjoyed a close relationship with Tonbridge School. Indeed, the annual fixture with the school dates back to the latter days of the nineteenth century. It was the School that came to the rescue in 1947 by arranging for the Club to rent the Bath Fields from a local farmer, Mr. Streeten, who held the grazing rights at that time.
Bath Fields was home to the Club until 1984 when the School, in order to rationalise its own playing field requirements, exchanged the land, and once again the Club survived to play cricket only through the kindness of the new owner. This event prompted renewed efforts to lease or buy a new piece of land to give the necessary long-term security for the development of a new cricket ground.
Yet again the School came to the rescue with both material and moral support. With the active involvement of the Council’s Recreation and Amenities department, a suitable site was identified. This involved redrawing boundaries at the Southern end of Tonbridge Farm and the School and the Council ending up with the same acreage as previously, but in a much more usable shape. The decision to proceed with this proposal was approved by the Council in August 1984 and the Club moved to Poplar Meadow at the end of Welland Road in north Tonbridge.
In order to create a strong and effective organisation to develop the facilities required, and to make sensible all year round use of the land, the Recreation and Amenities department encouraged a merger with a club playing a winter sport. A natural choice was the Town’s Hockey Club, since the two Clubs had been loosely associated over a number of years, and at one stage shared pavilion facilities at Bath Fields.
Recognising the logic of a merger, the two Clubs were merged in 1985 to form the Tonbridge Cricket and Hockey Club and a good relationship lasted until 2003. Sadly the Hockey Section found it impossible to find enough people to run the section at this time and combined with the increased use of Astroturf pitches they merged with Tunbridge Wells and we again became Tonbridge Cricket Club.
During their time together a great new Clubhouse was developed at the ground due to the tremendous efforts of Club Members and various grants and loans. The Cricket Club continue to run the Clubhouse and ground and continue to develop its playing strength.
In September 2002 disaster struck when an arson attack completely destroyed the Clubhouse and the Club had to endure a complete season in 2003 under canvas whilst it was being rebuilt. It was a real testing time for the Club but in many ways it drew the members closer together in the fight against adversity The new building was completed and ready for use for the 2004 season and has gradually been improved since that time into some of the best cricket facilities in the area.
The club established a junior section in 2013 which has gone from strength to strength, becoming one of the fastest-growing and successful setups in the area, with many graduating on to the club’s senior teams.
