The Beginning of Club Cricket

The first specific mention of a Dartford club, as opposed to a parish side, came in 1756; the second in 1767 - a tied game on the Brent against the combined forces of Leigh and the Bourne club hailed as "the best play`d match that ever was seen" - and the third in 1772 when "the gentlemen of Dartford club" lost to Chatham in Louch`s cricket ground (situated not far from the present day Chatham railway station). A Newspaper of the day reported that "the heroes of the field on the side of Chatham were Carpenter Beaumont, and Brinstead; on the side of Dartford, Frame who bowled exceedingly well yet got but few runs, but Bell and Tinkler got many runs, in a word, they are looked upon to be complete gamesters on both sides"
In the 1780`s many of the cricketing gentry of West Kent used to meet to play on the Brent and organised themselves into a club called the "Dartford cricket meeting". Full scores of one of its matches v Strood are preserved, the Dartford side including, among others, George Wilmot, the Shoreham paper-maker; the Goddens from Southfleet; Richard (later to become Sir Richard) Glode from Orpington who started life as a journeyman bricklayer and rose to become a wealthy sheriff of the city of London; George Smith of Camer near Meopham; John Twisden from East Malling; and Percival Hart Dyke of Lullingstone.
The first local team to appear at Lords was the Dartford club which played there in 1811, against the St John`s Wood club - in those days just as powerful as the M.C.C
By the early 1830`s, the town could boast two clubs- Dartford Albion which, though capable of beating such opponents as Bromley and Sevenoaks, was recognised second team and Dartford cricket club, some times called the Head Eleven, which counted several prominent townsmen among its playing strength. These included a plumber, a baker, clothes dealer, music teacher, coach proprietor, butcher, miller, farmer, cheese monger, tavern keeper and even the headmaster of Dartford Grammar School.
This club seems to have folded up by about 1835 but a new club was in existence in the early 1830`s and early 40`s- in 1840, called the Dartford Albert club, a title doubtless inspired by the marriage that year between Queen Victoria and the future Prince Consort.
On August 36, 1841, yet another came into being. A meeting was called at the Bull Inn on this date "for the purpose of considering the propriety of forming a club for the promotion and encouragement of the game of cricket, and "the Dartford Cricket Club" was forthwith established. A full set of rules and regulations were published , along with a subscription list. This included the names of several of the old Head Eleven - plus such local notables as Alfred Dunkin, the printer and eccentric mediaevalising writer, author of the epic William de Eynsford, the Excommunicate published in 1842; Joseph Jardine, linen-draper, would be poet and amateur artist who exhibited at the Royal Academy; Daniel Culhane, an Irish Surgeon who resided at Bridge House; John Wilding the corn dealer and seedsman; Alfred Russell the Solicitor in Spital Street; and Clarence Pigou of the Pigou & Wilks gunpowder manufactures - probably the richest man in Dartford at the time. In addition, the Navy was represented by Captain Ellis who lived in a house near Brent Lane, the Army by Major Blakeney. The President was Thomas Colyer, a gentleman from Greenhithe; he Vise-President, John Hayward, Esq. Solicitor and partner in a bank which occupied the site of the National Westminster Bank; the Treasurer, Rowley Edward Potter (descended from the Dartford long-stop of 1759),wine merchant and sometimes proprietor of the Bull, who was killed by a runaway horse while walking on East Hill in 1876;and joint Secretary, Thomas Barton, the headmaster of Dartford Grammar School and one of the towns Keenest cricketers.
This club seems to have flourished for a few years, beating strong sides from west Kent and the London area, but seems to have been disbanded after the 1844 season. This left the Dartford junior club to keep the banner of organised cricket flying in the town. The junior club had apparently been formed at about the same time as the 1841 club- but drew its playing strength almost exclusively from the town itself. It used to meet at the Eleven Cricketers, then the One Bell Inn, whose landlord, John Booker, also acted as Club Secretary. During the 1850`s and 60`s club cricket remained a regular feature of Dartford social life, underr the auspices of such clubs as the Amateur, the Star, the Volunteer and the United.