Kent's Golden Era — The Strongest County of the Late 1830s

County cricket in the 1830s was not yet a structured competition — there was no County Championship, and matches were arranged ad hoc. A county's strength was measured by which leading professionals it had engaged and by its results in marquee fixtures. Kent's combination of resources was unmatched.

Kent had been a serious cricketing county since the eighteenth century — its 1744 match against an All-England side at the Artillery Ground was the first recorded match for which a full scorecard survives — but its modern golden era began in 1836 with the engagement of Pilch as a paid professional. Pilch joined a side that already had Mynn (the most feared bowler in the country), Wenman (the best wicketkeeper), and Felix (an amateur batsman of the first rank). The Kent attack also included the steady roundarmers Tom Adams and Tom Hills. Through the seasons of 1836-39 Kent beat all comers in their county fixtures and supplied the bulk of the South side in the new North vs South matches. The Town Malling ground served as the team's home through the late 1830s, with the patron T.A. Anson hosting marquee fixtures. By 1840 the centre of Kent cricket was shifting to the St Lawrence ground at Canterbury, which would host the first Canterbury Cricket Week in 1842 — a ten-day festival of matches and theatricals that became the centrepiece of the Kentish cricketing year. Kent's dominance continued through the 1840s and only faded with Mynn's decline in the late 1840s and Pilch's retirement in 1854.

“Kent, with Pilch, Mynn, Wenman and Felix, were the strongest county in England, and all the cricketing world acknowledged it.”

Kent's dominance lasted into the late 1840s, when Mynn's deteriorating health and Pilch's age began to tell. The 1850s saw Surrey rise as the leading county. But Canterbury Cricket Week continued every year (it is still played, the longest-running cricket festival in the world), and Kent's late-1830s eleven entered cricket folklore as the first great county side of the modern era.