Hadlow Cricket Club


Hadlow Cricket Club was one of the early English cricket clubs, formed in the early to mid eighteenth century. Hadlow is a village in the Medway valley near Tonbridge in Kent.

The historic club

A cricket club at Hadlow was mentioned in contemporary sources during the 1747 English cricket season and was later mentioned by F S Ashley-Cooper, to be "a famous parish for cricket". The Penny London Post of 1 July that year announced a match to be played on Dartford Breach for two guineas a man by Hadlow against Dartford Cricket Club as "the deciding match". There was no report of the outcome and no reports have been found of the previous fixtures either.
The importance of the Hadlow team was confirmed when an important match at the Artillery Ground in July 1747 between teams led by the star players Robert Colchin and William Hodsoll included on Hodsoll's side John Larkin and others from the parish of Hadlow in Kent. Later in the month, "Five of Hadlow" twice opposed "Five of Slindon", the Sussex club that was famous for Richard Newland and its challenges to the rest of England. In August the same year when a Kent side played against All-England at the Artillery Ground, its team included Larkin and a player called Jones, also of Hadlow.
The last mention of the original Hadlow club is a match against Addington Cricket Club, another of the "great little clubs" of the pre-MCC era, in 1751.

The modern club

Cricket is still played at Hadlow. The modern club was first mentioned in 1819 and the present ground is located off Common Road, to the north of the village. The pavilion dates from 1864 and cost £42.10s to build. The club fields teams in the Kent County Village League.