139-614: Christopher Stuart Cowdrey (born 20 October 1957) is a former English cricketer. Cowdrey played for Kent , Glamorgan and England as an all-rounder . He is the eldest son of the cricketer and life peer , Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge . He was educated at Tonbridge School . After a good season for Kent in County cricket in 1984, Cowdrey was selected for England's 1984–85 tour of India , led by his friend David Gower , ostensibly taking Ian Botham 's place after Botham had opted out of
278-556: A women's team . Kent Women won the Women's County Championship a record eight times, most recently in 2019, and the Women's T20 title three times, most recently in 2016. It has traditionally played matches at the Polo Farm in Canterbury, but since 2016 has moved to be based mainly at Beckenham. Cricket is generally believed to have originated out of children's bat-and-ball games in the areas of
417-496: A "legends' walkway" at the entrance to the ground. A public vote was held to select 12 former players of the club to honour in the walkway. The 12 players were named in June 2011. They included Alfred Mynn , who played for the county in the 19th century, Les Ames , Colin Blythe , Tich Freeman and Frank Woolley from the first half of the 20th century, Godfrey Evans and Doug Wright from
556-616: A close match for them. After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire superseded the Hurricane as the principal aircraft of RAF Fighter Command , and it was used in the European , Mediterranean , Pacific , and South-East Asian theatres. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire operated in several roles, including interceptor, photo-reconnaissance, fighter-bomber, and trainer, and it continued to do so until
695-575: A core of talented professionals to provide the team with a solid foundation. The 4th Lord Harris was elected to the General Committee in 1870 and became captain and secretary in 1875. He set about reforming the club with an "energetic administration", although performances improved only slowly at first and when the County Championship was formerly established in 1890 Kent were initially able to finish only in mid table. The establishment of
834-434: A few aerobatic tests to determine how good or bad she was. The production test was usually quite a brisk affair; the initial circuit lasted less than 10 minutes and the main flight took between 20 and 30 minutes. Then, the aircraft received a final once-over by our ground mechanics, any faults were rectified, and the Spitfire was ready for collection. I loved the Spitfire in all of her many versions, but I have to admit that
973-442: A group of "gifted" amateurs to produce strong batting lineups. This Kent side was the first since the 1840s to enjoy a period of real success, winning the County Championship four times in the years between 1906 and 1914. The first title, in 1906 , came under the captaincy of Cloudesley Marsham and was won on the last day of the season. Sides captained by Ted Dillon won three further Championships in 1909 , 1910 and 1913 and
1112-498: A jig and the eight horizontal tail formers were riveted to them. A combination of 14 longitudinal stringers and four main longerons attached to the frames helped form a light but rigid structure to which sheets of alclad stressed skinning were attached. The fuselage plating was 24, 20, and 18 gauge , decreasing in order of thickness towards the tail, while the fin structure was completed using short longerons from frames 20 to 23, before being covered in 22 gauge plating. The skin of
1251-479: A large penalty for their fuel injection. When the fuel is fed before the supercharger, as on the Merlin, it evaporates and cools the air by 25°C. This cooling enhances the performance of the supercharger, and increases the power of the engine, with a corresponding increase in aircraft speed, particularly at high altitude." However, the early Merlin engine's lack of fuel injection meant that Spitfires and Hurricanes, unlike
1390-499: A maximum rate of 320 per month, making CBAF the largest Spitfire factory in the UK and the largest and most successful plant of its type during the 1939–45 conflict. During the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe made concerted efforts to destroy the main manufacturing plants at Woolston and Itchen , near Southampton. The first bombing raid, which missed the factories, came on 23 August 1940. Over
1529-473: A number of other top class wicket-keepers . Fred Huish , who never played for England, is considered as the "first of a line of exceptional Kent wicket-keepers" which have included Godfrey Evans , who played 91 Tests for England, Geraint Jones , with 34 Test and 49 ODI appearances, as well as Edward Tylecote , George Wood and Hopper Levett all of whom were capped by the country. Paul Downton started his career at Kent as part of this line of players and
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#17328593568391668-578: A piecemeal basis. The British public first saw the Spitfire at the RAF Hendon air display on Saturday 27 June 1936. Although full-scale production was supposed to begin immediately, numerous problems could not be overcome for some time, and the first production Spitfire, K9787 , did not roll off the Woolston , Southampton assembly line until mid-1938. In February 1936, the director of Vickers-Armstrongs, Sir Robert MacLean guaranteed production of five aircraft
1807-527: A poem by James Love . Under the patronage of Sackville's son, John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset , and Sir Horatio Mann , Kent continued to field strong teams throughout the last quarter of the 18th century, and were, along with Surrey, the main challengers to the Hampshire teams organised primarily by the Hambledon Club . The first inter-county match now considered to have first-class status
1946-615: A potential top speed greater than that of several contemporary fighter aircraft, including the Hawker Hurricane . Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as chief designer. Smith oversaw the Spitfire's development through many variants , from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griffon-engined Mk 24, using several wing configurations and guns. The original airframe
2085-602: A second county club was formed at Maidstone to support the Canterbury-based club. The two clubs, the Canterbury club known as East Kent, the Maidstone club as West Kent, co-operated to an extent, although the relationship was later described as "anything but satisfactory". The standard of cricket played by the county side, generally organised by the West Kent club, remained poor and the county found it difficult to attract either
2224-446: A similar fashion to a leaf spring ; two of these booms were linked together by an alloy web, creating a lightweight and very strong main spar. The undercarriage legs were attached to pivot points built into the inner, rear section of the main spar, and retracted outwards and slightly backwards into wells in the non-load-carrying wing structure. The resultant narrow undercarriage track was considered an acceptable compromise as this reduced
2363-419: A total of 2,360 Spitfires and Seafires, more than 10% of total production. Henshaw wrote about flight testing Spitfires: After a thorough preflight check, I would take off, and once at circuit height, I would trim the aircraft and try to get her to fly straight and level with hands off the stick ... Once the trim was satisfactory, I would take the Spitfire up in a full-throttle climb at 2,850 rpm to
2502-543: A volume of autobiography, appropriately titled Good Enough , taken from his usual response to comments that he was not as good as his father. Cricket writer Colin Bateman stated, "Cowdrey was fortunate to play Test cricket at all, but he did not deserve the shabby treatment which ended his brief England career". Cowdrey's son Fabian Cowdrey was awarded a first-team contract at Kent in October 2011, before his May 2012 debut, becoming
2641-552: A week, beginning 15 months after an order was placed. On 3 June 1936, the Air Ministry placed an order for 310 aircraft. Full-scale production of the Spitfire began at Supermarine's facility in Woolston, but the order clearly could not be completed in the 15 months promised. Supermarine was a small company, already busy building Walrus and Stranraer flying boats, and Vickers was busy building Wellington bombers. The initial solution
2780-409: A wing shape from an aircraft designed for an entirely different purpose." The elliptical wing was decided upon quite early on. Aerodynamically it was the best for our purpose because the induced drag caused in producing lift, was lowest when this shape was used: the ellipse was ... theoretically a perfection ... To reduce drag we wanted the lowest possible thickness-to-chord, consistent with
2919-403: Is a part-time coach with the club, also spending time coaching at The King's School, Canterbury . Frank Woolley , who played for Kent between 1906 and 1938, holds the record for the most appearances, most career runs and most runs in a season for the county. He is the only man to score more than 100 centuries for Kent with 122 and is the county's fifth leading wicket taker. Bill Ashdown holds
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#17328593568393058-474: Is awarded the John Aitken Gray trophy each year. Past winners have included county First XI players Daniel Bell-Drummond , Alex Blake and Ollie Robinson . The academy was established by former wicket-keeper Simon Willis . Paul Farbrace and Philip Relf held lead coaching roles within the scheme until Willis was appointed as high performance director in 2011, serving in the role until May 2016 when he
3197-499: Is compromise, and an improvement at one end of the performance envelope is rarely achieved without a deterioration somewhere else. When the last Spitfire rolled out in February 1948, a total of 20,351 examples of all variants had been built, including two-seat trainers , with some Spitfires remaining in service well into the 1950s. The Spitfire was the only British fighter aircraft to be in continuous production before, during, and after
3336-549: Is the most recent head coach of the side, having been appointed in January 2017 following former coach Jimmy Adams ' decision to return to the Caribbean. Walker played for Kent for 16 seasons and was previously batting coach at Essex . The team was promoted to Division One of the County Championship in his first season as head coach, and won the 2021 Vitality Blast and 2022 One-Day Cup under his leadership. He resigned as coach as of
3475-402: Is the only bowler to take more than 300 wickets in an English season, a feat he achieved in 1928, and the only man to have taken all ten wickets in an innings three times. Fast bowler Graham Dilley represented England in 41 Test matches in the 1980s, whilst all-rounder Mark Ealham played in 64 one-day internationals in the 1990s and early 2000s. Other than Ames and Knott, Kent has produced
3614-511: Is what is now required", said England's chairman of selectors Peter May , who was also Cowdrey's godfather, amid charges of favouritism. England lost heavily by ten wickets, and his chance to prove his detractors wrong in the final Test never came, as he was injured after the one appearance. Kent would also be pipped to the 1988 County Championship by Worcestershire by one point. He was never chosen to captain or play for England again. A newspaper article penned by Cowdrey landed him in trouble in
3753-513: The Blackburn F.3 and Westland F.7/30 and privately funded designs from Gloster. The 224 was an open-cockpit monoplane with bulky gull wings and a large, fixed, spatted undercarriage powered by the 600-horsepower (450 kW), evaporatively cooled Rolls-Royce Goshawk engine. It made its first flight in February 1934. Of the seven designs tendered to F7/30, the Gloster Gladiator biplane
3892-588: The Kent Spitfires after the Supermarine Spitfire . The county has won the County Championship seven times, including one shared victory. Four wins came in the period between 1906 and 1913 with the other three coming during the 1970s when Kent also dominated one-day cricket cup competitions. A total of 13 one-day cricket cup victories include eight between 1967 and 1978, with the last trophy won by
4031-482: The NACA 2200 series , which had been adapted to create a thickness-to-chord ratio of 13% at the root, reducing to 9.4% at the tip. A dihedral of 6° was adopted to give increased lateral stability. A wing feature that contributed greatly to its success was an innovative spar boom design, made up of five square tubes that fitted into each other. As the wing thinned out along its span, the tubes were progressively cut away in
4170-664: The T20 Blast final . The following season they were victorious in the domestic List A competition, beating Lancashire to win the 2022 One-Day Cup . Kent's main ground is the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury . This ground has been used by the club since 1847 and Kent have played over 500 first-class matches at the ground. It is famous for having a tree, the St Lawrence Lime , on the playing field. The original tree, around which
4309-535: The Tonbridge Nursery in 1897 as a player development centre for young professionals was one of the key developments that lay the foundations for the successes of the pre-war period. The Nursery, which was run by Captain William McCanlis and set up and overseen by Tom Pawley who became the club's general manager in 1898, identified and provided organised coaching and match practise for young professionals for
Chris Cowdrey - Misplaced Pages Continue
4448-641: The Weald and North and South Downs of Kent and Sussex , and these counties and Surrey were the first centres of the game. There are records of the sport being played in Kent during the 17th century, although a match in 1705, probably at Town Malling , is the first that is definitely recorded as taking place within the county. The first inter-county match took place between a Kent side and one from Surrey on Dartford Brent in 1709, although three matches between Kent and Sussex in 1728 are more likely to have been
4587-412: The aerodrome , and the installation of the most modern machine tools then available began two months after work started on the site. Although Morris Motors, under Lord Nuffield (an expert in mass motor-vehicle construction), managed and equipped the factory, it was funded by the government. By the beginning of 1939, the factory's original estimated cost of £2,000,000 had more than doubled, and even as
4726-408: The angle of incidence decreasing from +2° at its root to -½° at its tip. This caused the wing roots to stall before the tips, reducing tip-stall that could otherwise have resulted in a wing drop, often leading to a spin. As the wing roots started to stall, the separating air stream started to buffet (vibrate) the aircraft, warning the pilot, allowing even relatively inexperienced pilots to fly it to
4865-773: The historic county . One outground remains in regular use, the redeveloped County Cricket Ground, Beckenham . The Nevill Ground in Royal Tunbridge Wells was last used by the club in 2019 and hosted Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week which saw over 200 Kent home matches played on it. Former venues include Mote Park in Maidstone , which was used until 2005 and has been the venue for over 200 Kent first-class matches, as well as grounds in Gravesend , Tonbridge , Dover and Folkestone , all of which have had more than 100 home matches played on them. The county's main offices are based at
5004-561: The shadow factory plan , to boost British aircraft production capacity under the leadership of Herbert Austin . He was given the task of building nine new factories, and to supplement the British car-manufacturing industry by either adding to overall capacity or increasing the potential for reorganisation to produce aircraft and their engines. In 1938, construction began on the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory (CBAF), next to
5143-649: The touring Australian aboriginal side in 1868 . Sides named the Gentlemen of Kent had played cricket matches during the 18th century. The earliest known featuring a side using the name was a 1734 match against a Gentlemen of Sussex side at Sevenoaks Vine . The side was closely associated with the county side and had strong links to other amateur sides, including I Zingari and Band of Brothers, both of which would host tents during Canterbury Week, as well as to Old Stagers , an amateur drama group which performed during Canterbury Week. Kent established an academy in 2003 with
5282-513: The 1842 cricket festival is considered the first Canterbury Cricket Week . The new Kent club played its initial first-class match against an England side at White Hart Field in Bromley on 25–27 August 1842, and initially the success of the club continued, with Kent considered the leading county side in 1843, 1847 and 1849. The club moved to the St Lawrence Ground on the eastern side of Canterbury in 1847, with Pilch once again moving to manage
5421-576: The 1930s–50s era, and Colin Cowdrey , Alan Knott , Brian Luckhurst , John Shepherd and Derek Underwood from the teams of the 1960s and 70s. The first bricks were produced for the walkway in April 2012 although they were removed during development of the ground in 2017–18 and moved adjacent to the Nackington Road entrance. Daniel Bell-Drummond is the current club captain. He was appointed in October 2023, replacing Sam Billings who resigned following
5560-591: The 1950s. The Seafire was an aircraft carrier–based adaptation of the Spitfire, used in the Fleet Air Arm from 1942 until the mid-1950s. In 1931, the Air Ministry released specification F7/30 , calling for a modern fighter capable of a flying speed of 250 mph (400 km/h) to replace the Gloster Gauntlet biplane. R. J. Mitchell designed the Supermarine Type 224 to fill this role in competition with
5699-605: The 1970s to win their other Championship titles, winning outright in 1970 and 1978 and sharing the title with Middlesex in 1977. Kent have finished as runner-up in the Championship on 12 occasions, most recently in 2004. The County Championship Second Division title was won by the county in 2009. The county First XI has also won a number of limited overs competition trophies. Eight trophies were won between 1967 and 1978, six times by teams led by Mike Denness . Three more trophies have followed in 1995, 2001 and 2007 and, most recently,
Chris Cowdrey - Misplaced Pages Continue
5838-549: The 1980s, Kent won the 1995 Axa Equity & Law League and the 2001 Norwich Union League . In August 2007, the side won the Twenty20 Cup for the first time, defeating Sussex in the semi-finals, with captain Rob Key scoring 68 not out. In the final they defeated Gloucestershire in a see-saw game where in the final over, chasing 148, they required 13 runs, winning with three balls to spare. Matthew Walker top scored for Kent in
5977-456: The Air Ministry put forward a plan that its production be stopped after the initial order for 310, after which Supermarine would build Bristol Beaufighters . The managements of Supermarine and Vickers were able to convince the Air Ministry that production problems could be overcome, and a further order was placed for 200 Spitfires on 24 March 1938. The two orders covered the K, L, and N prefix serial numbers. The first production Spitfire came off
6116-706: The Castle Bromwich plant to his ministry. Beaverbrook immediately sent in experienced management staff and workers from Supermarine, and gave control of the factory to Vickers-Armstrongs. Although resolving the problems took time, in June 1940, 10 Mk IIs were built; 23 rolled out in July, 37 in August, and 56 in September. By the time production ended at Castle Bromwich in June 1945, a total of 12,129 Spitfires (921 Mk IIs, 4,489 Mk Vs, 5,665 Mk IXs, and 1,054 Mk XVIs ) had been built, at
6255-496: The County Championship a record eight times during its existence, including the final tournament in 2019, and have won the Women's Twenty20 Cup three times, most recently in 2016. The team play the majority of their home matches at the County Cricket Ground, Beckenham . The Women's team is sponsored by Canterbury Christ Church University . The Gentlemen of Kent side, generally made up of amateur "gentlemen" cricketers from
6394-535: The Goshawk led to the adoption of a cooling system which used 100% glycol . The radiators were housed in a new radiator-duct designed by Fredrick Meredith of the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) at Farnborough, Hampshire . This used the cooling air to generate thrust , greatly reducing the net drag produced by the radiators. In turn, the leading-edge structure lost its function as a condenser, but it
6533-513: The Kent XI was strong throughout the pre-war period. Blythe was the team's leading bowler throughout the period, taking over 100 wickets each season between 1902 and 1914, including 17 in one day against Northants in 1907. Blythe died at Paschendaele in 1917, although it is unlikely he would have played county cricket once the war was over. The Kent side, once the makeshift 1919 season had been played, continued to be consistently strong throughout
6672-463: The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine at £2,000, followed by the wings at £1,800 a pair, guns and undercarriage, both at £800 each, and the propeller at £350. In 1935, the Air Ministry approached Morris Motors Limited to ask how quickly their Cowley plant could be turned to aircraft production. In 1936, this informal request for major manufacturing facilities was replaced by a formal scheme, known as
6811-712: The Second World War. In the mid-1930s, aviation design teams worldwide began developing a new generation of fighter aircraft. The French Dewoitine D.520 and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 , for example, were designed to take advantage of new techniques of monocoque construction, and the availability of new, high-powered, liquid-cooled, in-line aero engines. They also had refinements such as retractable undercarriages, fully enclosed cockpits, and low-drag, all-metal wings. These advances had been introduced on civil airliners years before, but were slow to be adopted by
6950-543: The Southampton area. To this end, the British government requisitioned the likes of Vincent's Garage in Station Square, Reading , which later specialised in manufacturing Spitfire fuselages, and Anna Valley Motors, Salisbury , which was to become the sole producer of the wing leading-edge fuel tanks for photo-reconnaissance Spitfires. A purpose-built works, specialising in manufacturing fuselages and installing engines,
7089-532: The St Lawrence Ground. Indoor cricket schools are in place at both this ground and at Beckenham which acts as a centre of excellence for player development in the west of the county. Kent's most notable former players include Colin Cowdrey , the first man to play 100 Test matches , Frank Woolley , Derek Underwood and wicket-keepers Les Ames and Alan Knott . All five men played Test cricket for England , making at least 40 Test match appearances. They are
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#17328593568397228-689: The St Stephen's district of the city before moving to the Beverley Ground in 1839. After the failure of the Town Malling club, the Bakers stepped in to organise Kent teams, with Pilch managing the ground. The Beverley club became the Kent Cricket Club on 6 August 1842, when it reconstituted itself during its annual cricket festival. The club was the first formal incarnation of Kent County Cricket Club, and
7367-604: The Twenty20 Championship three times, in 2011, 2013 and 2016. Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II . It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the war. The Spitfire remains popular among enthusiasts. Around 70 remain airworthy , and many more are static exhibits in aviation museums throughout
7506-478: The Type 300. On 1 December 1934, the Air Ministry issued contract AM 361140/34, providing £10,000 for the construction of Mitchell's improved Type 300 design. In April 1935 Ralph Sorley spoke to Mitchell about the new specification F10/35 which called for armament of at least six and preferably eight guns while at the same time removing bomb carry requirement and reducing fuel capacity. Mitchell foresaw no problem adding
7645-554: The UK over the North Sea , and Germany did not have any single-engine fighters with the range to accompany them. To carry out the mission of home defence, the design was intended to allow the Spitfire to climb quickly to intercept enemy bombers. The Spitfire's airframe was complex. The streamlined, semi-monocoque , duralumin-skinned fuselage had a number of compound curves built up over a skeleton of 19 formers , also known as frames. These started from frame number one, immediately behind
7784-585: The aim of developing future first-class cricketers. The academy is based at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury and makes use of the Ames-Levett Sports Centre at the ground. It has produced over 25 first-term players for the county, including former club captain Sam Northeast and senior England internationals Tammy Beaumont , Sam Billings , Zak Crawley , Joe Denly , Natasha Farrant , Lydia Greenway and Jo Watts . The leading academy scholar
7923-536: The altered aerodynamics, culminating in those of the Mk 22/24 series, which were 25% larger in area than those of the Mk I. As the Spitfire gained more power and was able to manoeuvre at higher speeds, the possibility that pilots would encounter aileron reversal increased, and the Supermarine design team set about redesigning the wings to counter this. The original wing design had a theoretical aileron reversal speed of 580 mph (500 kn; 930 km/h), which
8062-423: The assembly line in mid-1938 and was flown by Jeffrey Quill on 15 May 1938, almost 24 months after the initial order. The final cost of the first 310 aircraft, after delays and increased programme costs, came to £1,870,242 or £1,533 more per aircraft than originally estimated. A production aircraft cost about £9,500. The most expensive components were the hand-fabricated and finished fuselage at roughly £2,500, then
8201-450: The bending loads on the main-spar during landing. Ahead of the spar, the thick-skinned leading edge of the wing formed a strong and rigid, D-shaped box, which took most of the wing loads. At the time the wing was designed, this D-shaped leading edge was intended to house steam condensers for the evaporative cooling system intended for the PV-XII. Constant problems with the evaporative system in
8340-463: The best amateur players or professionals to play, many amateurs only willing to appear during Canterbury Week. An 1870 meeting chaired by the 3rd Lord Harris at the Bull Inn at Rochester saw the two clubs merge to form the present day Kent County Cricket Club. Initially the amalgamation of the clubs failed to improve performances on the pitch. The best amateurs still rarely appeared and Kent lacked
8479-511: The club coming in the 2022 Royal London One-Day Cup . The club plays most of its home matches at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury , which hosts Canterbury Cricket Week , the oldest cricket festival in England. It also plays some home matches at the County Cricket Ground, Beckenham and the Nevill Ground , Royal Tunbridge Wells which hosts Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week . Kent also field
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#17328593568398618-400: The club in 2019, Patel took over the role, becoming the club's Head of Talent Pathway and working alongside former women's coach Mark Dekker . Kent have won the County Championship seven times, including one shared title. Four of their wins came in the years before World War I between 1906 and 1913, Ted Dillon captaining the side to three of their titles. The county had to wait until
8757-506: The club's batting coach, replacing Alex Gidman who had left after a single season, moving to become an assistant coach with the England women's cricket team . The Head of Talent Pathway in charge of the development of young cricketers at the club is former Second XI coach and player Min Patel . Patel works alongside Mark Dekker who had previously coached Kent Women. Former player Mark Ealham
8896-402: The company in the Southampton area. Quill devised the standard testing procedures, which with variations for specific aircraft designs operated from 1938. Alex Henshaw , chief test pilot at Castle Bromwich from 1940, was placed in charge of testing all Spitfires built at that factory. He co-ordinated a team of 25 pilots and assessed all Spitfire developments. Between 1940 and 1946, Henshaw flew
9035-457: The corridors at Lord's and, in 1990, he joined a rebel tour to South Africa . Colin and Chris Cowdrey were only the second father and son combination to have both captained England, emulating Frank and George Mann . He was captain of Kent from 1986 until 1990. He retired in 1992 after a single season at Glamorgan, and has since been a broadcaster for TalkSport , as well as the occasional project with Sky Sports . In 1986, Cowdrey produced
9174-420: The county 14 times and holds the record for the most wickets in a season. Fellow spin bowler Colin Blythe has the best bowling figures in Kent's history taking 10/30 against Northamptonshire in 1907, with 17/48 in the match. Freeman took ten wickets in a match 128 times with Blythe achieving the same feat 64 times. Along with Woolley and Freeman, Wally Hardinge , James Seymour and Derek Underwood are
9313-488: The county at a batting average of 59.06. He retired in 1938 after making 764 appearances for the county side, with 47,868 runs, 122 centuries and 773 catches for Kent―all county records. Gerry Chalk had captained the side in 1939 when they had, once again, finished in the top five of the Championship, but he was killed during World War II and the post-war period saw Kent struggle to compete consistently. After two promising seasons under Bryan Valentine in 1946 and 1947,
9452-498: The county only finished in the top nine teams twice between 1948 and 1963. The rebuilding of the side continued under David Clark 's captaincy―Clark would later become chairman of the club. Colin Cowdrey , the first man to play 100 Test matches , made his Kent debut in 1950 and was appointed captain in 1957, following Doug Wright who was the first professional to captain the side. Wright took over 2,000 wickets with his brisk leg breaks and googlies between 1932 and 1957 and became
9591-559: The county won their first Championship since 1913 in 1970. Ten trophies were won during the 1970s, including a second Championship title 1978 and a shared title in 1977. The Sunday League was won in 1972, 1973 and 1976, the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1973, 1976 and 1978 and the Gillette Cup again in 1974 – six of the trophies between 1972 and 1976 under the captaincy of Mike Denness who had succeeded Cowdrey in 1972. After no trophies during
9730-560: The county, played 48 first-class matches between 1830 and 1880. These matches were played almost exclusively against MCC and Gentlemen of England sides and an annual first-class fixture took place during the Canterbury Cricket Week between 1842 and 1866. The Gentlemen would also regularly play a one-day match against I Zingari , an amateur wandering side, during the Week and other matches were played on occasion, including against
9869-533: The county. A second attempt to form a County Club was made during the 1830s at Town Malling, backed by lawyers Thomas Selby and Silas Norton, alongside George Harris, 3rd Baron Harris . Selby and Norton recruited Fuller Pilch from Norfolk , considered the best batsman in England, to play at Town Malling and maintain the cricket ground . Pilch played in Kent teams alongside players such as Alfred Mynn , Nicholas Felix , Ned Wenman and William Hillyer which dominated English cricket, winning 98 matches during
10008-520: The division until 2018, with a best finish of second in 2016 , failing to be promoted only due to a restructuring of the divisional system. In November 2016, Kent accepted an invitation from the West Indies Cricket Board to compete in the 2016–17 Regional Super50 domestic List A tournament in January and February 2017. This was the first time that any English county side had competed in an overseas domestic competition. The invitation
10147-405: The early 18th century, and the club has always held first-class status. The current Kent County Cricket Club was formed on 6 December 1870 following the merger of two representative teams. Kent have competed in the County Championship since the official start of the competition in 1890 and have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England. The club's limited overs team is called
10286-539: The early 1970s won six one-day titles in his five years as captain. Of the players in the current squad Sam Billings , Joe Denly , Zak Crawley , and Matt Parkinson have appeared in Test matches and limited overs cricket for the England cricket team . Fred Klaassen has played One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket for the Netherlands and Grant Stewart T20 Internationals for Italy . Matt Walker
10425-405: The end of each main wing assembly. When the Spitfire took on a role as a high-altitude fighter (Marks VI and VII and some early Mk VIIIs), the standard wing tips were replaced by extended, "pointed" tips which increased the wingspan from 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m) to 40 ft 2 in (12.24 m). The other wing-tip variation, used by several Spitfire variants, was the "clipped" wing;
10564-407: The end of the 2023 season. In total 34 men have been appointed as club captain, beginning with Lord Harris in 1875. Colin Cowdrey captained the side for the longest span in the County Championship era, serving between 1957 and 1971. Ted Dillon led the county to the County Championship title three times, the only man to captain Kent to more than one championship title. Mike Denness ' side of
10703-407: The end of the 2024 season. The team's bowling coach until September 2023 was Simon Cook , another past player who was appointed as the club's Directors of Cricket, replacing Paul Downton . He was replaced by Robbie Joseph , a former fast bowler who took 230 wickets for the county and had previously worked as the bowling coach at Gloucestershire . At the same time, Toby Radford was appointed as
10842-513: The fabric covering of the ailerons "ballooned" at high speeds, adversely affecting the aerodynamics. Replacing the fabric covering with light alloy dramatically improved the ailerons at high speed. During the Battle of Britain, pilots found the Spitfire's ailerons were far too heavy at high speeds, severely restricting lateral manoeuvres such as rolls and high-speed turns, which were still a feature of air-to-air combat. The Spitfire had detachable wing tips which were secured by two mounting points at
10981-567: The final approach and for landing, and the pilot was to retract them before taxiing. The ellipse also served as the design basis for the Spitfire's fin and tailplane assembly, once again exploiting the shape's favourable aerodynamic characteristics. Both the elevators and rudder were shaped so that their centre of mass was shifted forward, reducing control-surface flutter. The longer noses and greater propeller-wash resulting from larger engines in later models necessitated increasingly larger vertical, and later, horizontal tail surfaces to compensate for
11120-509: The final with 45 runs while Darren Stevens scored 30 not out from 21 balls, including hitting the winning runs. Earlier in the final, Ryan McLaren took a hat-trick . In 2008, the county were relegated from to the Second Division of the County Championship for the first time. They won the Division in the 2009 season , but were relegated again at the end of the 2010 season and played in
11259-434: The first Spitfires were being built in June 1940, the factory was still incomplete, and suffering from personnel problems. The Spitfire's stressed-skin construction required precision engineering skills and techniques that were beyond the capabilities of the local labour force, and some time was required to retrain them. Difficulties arose with management, who ignored Supermarine's tooling and drawings in favour of their own, and
11398-415: The first day alone and remains, as of 2022, Kent's highest score in first-class cricket, Ashdown's 332 runs remaining the highest individual score made for Kent. Arthur Fagg scored a unique two double centuries in the same match for Kent against Essex at Colchester in 1938, while Woolley scored over 1,000 runs for Kent in each season between 1920 and his retirement in 1938. In 1928 he made 2,894 runs for
11537-577: The first properly representative county matches. Teams under the patronage of landowners such as Edwin Stead of Dartford and Lord John Sackville , who established the Sevenoaks Vine ground on his Knole Park estate, increasingly became more representative of Kent as a county, and in 1744 a Kent team organised by Sackville played England at the Artillery Ground , a match which was commemorated in
11676-506: The first time. Players flourished and became the basis of the Kent team, gradually taking the place of the amateurs who had dominated the Kent teams of the 1870s and 80s. By 1906 around 60% of all appearances were by professionals, with bowlers such as Colin Blythe and Arthur Fielder forming the core of the Kent attack. Professional batsmen such as Punter Humphreys and James Seymour and all-rounders such as Frank Woolley became an increasing part of Kent's success, coming together with
11815-515: The focal points for these workshops: Southampton's Eastleigh Airport; Salisbury and the High Post and Chattis Hill aerodromes; Trowbridge and RAF Keevil ; and Reading's Henley and Aldermaston aerodromes. Completed Spitfires were delivered to the airfields on Commer " Queen Mary " low-loader trailers, there to be fully assembled, tested, then passed on to the RAF. An experimental factory at Newbury
11954-428: The four main fuselage longerons to the rest of the airframe. Behind the bulkhead were five U-shaped half-frames which accommodated the fuel tanks and cockpit. The rear fuselage started at the 11th frame, to which the pilot's seat and (later) armour plating were attached, and ended at the 19th, which was mounted at a slight forward angle just forward of the fin. Each of these nine frames was oval, reducing in size towards
12093-456: The fourth Cowdrey to play for the county side and the third generation of the same family to feature on a Kent team sheet. Kent County Cricket Club Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent . A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Kent teams have played top-class cricket since
12232-477: The fuselage, wings, and tailplane was secured by dome-headed rivets, and in critical areas such as the wing forward of the main spar where an uninterrupted airflow was required, with flush rivets. From February 1943 flush riveting was used on the fuselage, affecting all Spitfire variants. In some areas, such as at the rear of the wing and the lower tailplane skins, the top was riveted and the bottom fixed by brass screws which tapped into strips of spruce bolted to
12371-472: The ground was built, was broken in two by high winds in January 2005 and replaced by a smaller replacement lime tree later in the same year. The ground hosts the annual Canterbury Cricket Week , the oldest cricket festival in the world. This dates from 1842 and has been held at the ground since the club moved there. Kent played their first official match at White Hart Field in Bromley in August 1842 and since then have used 29 different grounds within
12510-522: The ground. This was later established as the county's formal headquarters, although Kent continued to play matches on a variety of grounds around the county until well into the 20th century, rarely using the St Lawrence Ground for more than two or three matches a year. As the team built around Pilch retired from cricket, the fortunes of the club declined, the county sometimes forced to field teams of up to 16 or to combine with other clubs in order to compete. Financial difficulties followed and on 1 March 1859
12649-487: The guns and welcomed the reduction which would reduce weight. A specification for an eight gun fighter, F5/34 had come from a recommendation by Squadron Leader Ralph Sorley of the Operational Requirements section at the Air Ministry. In the redesign the change was made from Vickers machine guns to .303 in (7.7 mm) Brownings) , and the fuel tankage dropped to 75 gallons from 94. On 5 March 1936,
12788-639: The inter-war period, finishing in the top five of the County Championship table in all but one season between 1919 and 1934. Players such as Woolley, Wally Hardinge and Les Ames all played at the peak of their careers, whilst Blythe's bowling was replaced by Tich Freeman 's. Freeman took 102 wickets for Kent in 1920 and then took at least 100 each season until 1936, taking 262 in 1933. He leads all Kent bowlers in wickets taken. Kent scored 803 for 4 declared against Essex at Brentwood in 1934, with Bill Ashdown scoring 332, Ames 202 not out and Woolley 172. The total took just seven hours, with 623 runs scored on
12927-632: The later marks, although they were faster than the earlier ones, were also much heavier, so did not handle so well. You did not have such positive control over them. One test of manoeuvrability was to throw her into a flick-roll and see how many times she rolled. With the Mark II or the Mark V one got two-and-a-half flick-rolls, but the Mark IX was heavier and you got only one-and-a-half. With the later and still heavier versions, one got even less. The essence of aircraft design
13066-571: The limits of its performance. This washout was first featured in the wing of the Type 224, and became a consistent feature in subsequent designs leading to the Spitfire. The complex wing design, especially the precision required to manufacture the vital spar and leading-edge structures, caused some major delays in the production of the Spitfire at first. The problems increased when the work was put out to subcontractors, most of whom had never dealt with metal-structured, high-speed aircraft. By June 1939, most of these problems had been resolved, and production
13205-466: The lower ribs. The removable wing tips were made up of duralumin-skinned spruce formers. At first, the ailerons, elevators, and rudder were fabric-covered, but once combat experience showed that fabric-covered ailerons were impossible to use at high speeds a light alloy replaced the fabric, enhancing control throughout the speed range. In 1934, Mitchell and the design staff decided to use a semi-elliptical wing shape to solve two conflicting requirements;
13344-527: The main spar, preventing the wings from twisting. Mitchell has sometimes been accused of copying the wing shape of the Günter brothers -designed Heinkel He 70 , which first flew in 1932, but as Beverley Shenstone , the aerodynamicist on Mitchell's team, explained: "Our wing was much thinner and had quite a different section to that of the Heinkel. In any case, it would have been simply asking for trouble to have copied
13483-457: The military, who favoured the biplane's simplicity and manoeuvrability. Mitchell's design aims were to create a well-balanced, high-performance fighter aircraft capable of fully exploiting the power of the Merlin engine, while being relatively easy to fly. At the time, with France as an ally , and Germany thought to be the most likely future opponent, no enemy fighters were expected to appear over Great Britain. German bombers would have to fly to
13622-561: The more numerous Hurricane flew more sorties resisting the Luftwaffe , but the Spitfire captured the public's imagination as the main RAF fighter, in part because the Spitfire was generally a better fighter aircraft than the Hurricane. Spitfire units had a lower attrition rate and a higher victory-to-loss ratio than Hurricanes, most likely due to the Spitfire's higher performance. During the battle, Spitfires generally engaged Luftwaffe fighters—mainly Messerschmitt Bf 109E –series aircraft, which were
13761-551: The most recent in 2012. The Second XI Trophy one-day competition was won in 2002 and 2019 and the county won the Minor Counties Championship twice in the 1950s when first-class Second XI's entered the competition. Kent's women have won the Women's County Championship a record eight times, most recently in 2019, and have been runners-up five times since the competition was established in 1997. The women's side has also won
13900-403: The necessary strength. But near the root the wing had to be thick enough to accommodate the retracted undercarriages and the guns ... Mitchell was an intensely practical man ... The ellipse was simply the shape that allowed us the thinnest possible wing with room inside to carry the necessary structure and the things we wanted to cram in. And it looked nice. The wing section used was from
14039-597: The new wing could give an increase in speed of 55 mph (48 kn; 89 km/h) over the Spitfire Mk 21. The new wing was initially fitted to a Spitfire Mk XIV. Later, a new fuselage was designed, with the new fighter becoming the Supermarine Spiteful . The Rolls Royce engine's designers deliberately chose a carburettor for the Merlin engine: Sir Stanley Hooker explained in his autobiography that "the Germans paid
14178-439: The next month, other raids were mounted, until, on 26 September 1940, both factories were destroyed, with 92 people killed and a large number injured. Most of the casualties were experienced aircraft-production workers. Fortunately for the future of the Spitfire, many of the production jigs and machine tools had already been relocated by 20 September, and steps were being taken to disperse production to small facilities throughout
14317-531: The only men with more than 500 first-class appearances for Kent. The Kent Women cricket team plays in the London Championship and Women's Twenty20 Cup. The first recorded match by a Kent Women's team was in May 1935, with the team first appearing in the Women's Area Championship in 1980. The side features a number of international players and is captained by England international Tammy Beaumont . They won
14456-511: The only player to take seven hat-tricks – six of them taken for Kent. An improvement in performances began in the mid-1960s under the captaincy of Cowdrey and the management of former wicket-keeper Les Ames . A seventh-placed finish in 1964 was followed by fifth-place in 1965 and fourth-place in 1966 before the county finished as runners-up in 1967, winning the Gillette Cup in the same season. Another second-place finish in 1968 followed before
14595-507: The only players to have stands named after them at the St Lawrence Ground , Kent's home ground in Canterbury . A total of 30 Kent players have been named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year , most recently Zak Crawley and Darren Stevens in 2021 and Tammy Beaumont in 2019. Other particularly notable former players include spin bowlers Colin Blythe and Tich Freeman . Blythe
14734-519: The period, and the team is considered to have been the leading county side for six seasons out of the seven between 1837 and 1843. The expense of running county games meant that Town Malling proved too small to support a county club, and the club was wound up in 1841, Pilch moving to the Beverley club at Canterbury . The Beverley Cricket Club was formed in 1835 at the Canterbury estate of brothers John and William de Chair Baker , initially playing in
14873-399: The propeller unit, to the tail unit attachment frame. The first four frames supported the glycol header tank and engine cowlings. Frame five, to which the engine bearers were secured, supported the weight of the engine and its accessories. This was a strengthened double frame which also incorporated the fireproof bulkhead, and in later versions of the Spitfire, the oil tank. This frame also tied
15012-481: The prototype ( K5054 ) , fitted with a fine-pitch propeller to give more power for takeoff, took off on its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome (later Southampton Airport). At the controls was Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers , chief test pilot for Vickers, who is quoted as saying, "don't touch anything" on landing. This eight-minute flight came four months after the maiden flight of the contemporary Hurricane. K5054
15151-510: The prototype for the RAF. He had been given orders to fly the aircraft and then to make his report to the Air Ministry on landing. Edwardes-Jones' report was positive; his only request was that the Spitfire be equipped with an undercarriage position indicator. A week later, on 3 June 1936, the Air Ministry placed an order for 310 Spitfires, at a cost of £ 1,395,000. before the A&;AEE had issued any formal report. Interim reports were later issued on
15290-404: The radiator under the starboard wing was halved in size and the intercooler radiator housed alongside. Under the port wing, a new radiator fairing housed a square oil cooler alongside of the other half-radiator unit. The two radiator flaps were now operated automatically by a thermostat . Another wing feature was its washout . The trailing edge of the wing twisted slightly upward along its span,
15429-432: The rated altitude of one or both supercharger blowers. Then I would make a careful check of the power output from the engine, calibrated for height and temperature ... If all appeared satisfactory, I would then put her into a dive at full power and 3,000 rpm, and trim her to fly hands and feet off at 460 mph (740 km/h) IAS (Indicated Air Speed). Personally, I never cleared a Spitfire unless I had carried out
15568-457: The record for the highest score for the county with 332 runs against Essex in 1934. He is one of only three men to have scored a triple-century for Kent, with two to his name, the others being Sean Dickson , who scored 318 against Northants in 2017 , and Daniel Bell-Drummond who scored 300 not out against the same side in 2023 . Tich Freeman is the county's leading wicket taker with 3,340 wickets. Freeman took more than 150 wickets for
15707-452: The same, as has Australian Andrew Symonds . Other great world cricketers to have played for the county for single seasons include Sri Lankans Aravinda de Silva and Muttiah Muralitharan , India's Rahul Dravid and Australia's former Test captain Steve Waugh . As part of the redevelopment of Kent's home ground, the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury , the county planned to develop
15846-488: The standard wing tips were replaced by wooden fairings which reduced the span by 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m). The wing tips used spruce formers for most of the internal structure with a light alloy skin attached using brass screws. The light alloy split flaps at the trailing edge of the wing were also pneumatically operated via a finger lever on the instrument panel. Only two positions were available; fully up or fully down (85°). Flaps were normally lowered only during
15985-430: The tail, and incorporated several lightening holes to reduce their weight as much as possible without weakening them. The U-shaped frame 20 was the last frame of the fuselage proper and the frame to which the tail unit was attached. Frames 21, 22 and 23 formed the fin; frame 22 incorporated the tailwheel opening and frame 23 was the rudder post. Before being attached to the main fuselage, the tail unit frames were held in
16124-416: The team won the 2021 T20 Blast . Kent finished runners-up in the 2008 T20 competition , the 2008 Friends Provident Trophy and the 2018 Royal London One-Day Cup . The Second XI Championship title has been won nine times by the county, including one shared win in 1987. As of 2019 this represents a record number of victories in the competition. Four of the victories have occurred in the 21st century, with
16263-550: The teams' current player, Sam Billings , has made Test and one-day appearances for England as a wicket-keeper. Overseas players who have made a significant contribution to Kent cricket include West Indians John Shepherd , Eldine Baptiste , Bernard Julien and Carl Hooper and Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal all of whom played multiple seasons for the county. South Africans Martin van Jaarsveld , Justin Kemp and Andrew Hall have done
16402-452: The theoretical aileron reversal speed was increased to 825 mph (717 kn; 1,328 km/h). Alongside the redesigned wing, Supermarine also experimented with the original wing, raising the leading edge by 1 inch (25 mm), with the hope of improving pilot view and reducing drag. This wing was tested on a modified F Mk 21, also called the F Mk 23, (sometimes referred to as "Valiant" rather than "Spitfire"). The increase in performance
16541-551: The top speed was just 330 mph (528 km/h), little faster than Sydney Camm 's new Merlin-powered Hurricane. A new and better-shaped, two-bladed, wooden propeller allowed the Spitfire to reach 348 mph (557 km/h) in level flight in mid-May, when Summers flew K5054 to RAF Martlesham Heath and handed the aircraft over to Squadron Leader Anderson of the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE). Here, Flight Lieutenant Humphrey Edwardes-Jones took over
16680-558: The tour. In the First Test in Bombay he was fielding at short leg when Gower asked him to bowl. Although he forgot to take off his shin pads he bowled Kapil Dev with his fourth ball, the 19th England bowler to take a wicket in his first over. His father was listening to Test Match Special in his car and was so surprised that he drove the wrong way down a one-way street. Following the tour, where he had scored 96 runs and taken four wickets Cowdrey
16819-405: The wing needed to be thin to avoid creating too much drag , but it had to be thick enough to house the retractable undercarriage, armament, and ammunition. An elliptical planform is the most efficient aerodynamic shape for an untwisted wing, leading to the lowest amount of induced drag . The ellipse was skewed so that the centre of pressure, which occurs at the quarter- chord position, aligned with
16958-402: The workforce continually threatened strikes or "slow downs" until their demands for higher wages were met. In spite of promises that the factory would be producing 60 per week starting in April, by May 1940, Castle Bromwich had not yet built its first Spitfire. On 17 May, Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook telephoned Lord Nuffield and manoeuvred him into handing over control of
17097-415: The world. The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell , chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works, which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong from 1928. Mitchell developed the Spitfire's distinctive elliptical wing (designed by Beverley Shenstone ) with innovative sunken rivets to have the thinnest possible cross-section, achieving
17236-399: Was a major force in the four County Championship wins in the years leading up to World War I and took 100 wickets in every season from 1902 to 1914. He played 17 Tests for England but was killed in action during World War I. A memorial at the St Lawrence Ground is dedicated to him. Freeman played during the period after World War I and took over 150 wickets in a season for Kent 14 times. He
17375-473: Was accepted for service. The Type 224 was a big disappointment to Mitchell and his design team, who immediately embarked on a series of "cleaned-up" designs, using their experience with the Schneider Trophy seaplanes as a starting point. This led to the Type 300, with retractable undercarriage and a wingspan reduced by 6 ft (1.8 m). This design was submitted to the Air Ministry in July 1934, but
17514-420: Was appointed the high performance manager of Sri Lanka Cricket . Former Kent and England spin bowler Min Patel took over the running of the academy on an interim basis following Willis' departure before becoming Second XI coach in January 2017, with former Shropshire wicket-keeper Jason Weaver taking over the role as high performance director, the two jobs replacing Willis' former role. When Weaver left
17653-461: Was built at Star Road, Caversham in Reading. The drawing office in which all Spitfire designs were drafted was moved to Hursley Park , near Winchester . This site also had an aircraft assembly hangar where many prototype and experimental Spitfires were assembled, but since it had no associated aerodrome, no Spitfires ever flew from Hursley. Four towns and their satellite airfields were chosen to be
17792-482: Was designed to be powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine producing 1,030 hp (768 kW). It was strong enough and adaptable enough to use increasingly powerful Merlins, and in later marks, Rolls-Royce Griffon engines producing up to 2,340 hp (1,745 kW). As a result, the Spitfire's performance and capabilities improved over the course of its service life. During the Battle of Britain (July–October 1940),
17931-414: Was fitted with a new propeller, and Summers flew the aircraft on 10 March 1936; during this flight, the undercarriage was retracted for the first time. After the fourth flight, a new engine was fitted, and Summers left the test flying to his assistants, Jeffrey Quill and George Pickering. They soon discovered that the Spitfire was a very capable aircraft, but not perfect. The rudder was oversensitive, and
18070-519: Was later adapted to house integral fuel tanks of various sizes — a feature patented by Vickers-Supermarine in 1938. The airflow through the main radiator was controlled by pneumatic exit flaps. In early marks of the Spitfire (Mk I to Mk VI), the single flap was operated manually using a lever to the left of the pilot's seat. When the two-stage Merlin was introduced in the Spitfire Mk IX , the radiators were split to make room for an intercooler radiator;
18209-533: Was minimal and this experiment was abandoned. Supermarine developed a new laminar-flow wing based on new aerofoil profiles developed by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in the United States, with the objective of reducing drag and improving performance. These laminar-flow airfoils were the Supermarine 371-I used at the root and the 371-II used at the tip. Supermarine estimated that
18348-484: Was no longer held up by a lack of wings. All the main flight controls were originally metal structures with fabric covering. Designers and pilots felt that having ailerons which required a degree of effort to move at high speed would avoid unintended aileron reversal, throwing the aircraft around and potentially pulling the wings off. Air combat was also felt to take place at relatively low speeds and high-speed manoeuvring would be physically impossible. Flight tests showed
18487-422: Was not accepted. It then went through a series of changes, including the incorporation of an enclosed cockpit, oxygen-breathing apparatus, smaller and thinner wings, and the newly developed, more powerful Rolls-Royce PV XII V-12 engine , which was later named the "Merlin". In November 1934, Mitchell, with the backing of Supermarine's owner Vickers-Armstrong , started detailed design work on this refined version of
18626-539: Was not selected by England until 1988, and the infamous " summer of four captains ". In that year Cowdrey, who had taken Kent to the top of the County Championship table, was given the job to lead the Test side in the fourth Test of a five match series against the West Indies . The West Indies by that point were 2–0 up, claiming a convincing innings and 156 run victory in the previous test. "We believe Cowdrey's style of leadership
18765-502: Was partly due to the influence of former West Indian captain Jimmy Adams who had, until September 2016, been Kent's Head Coach and was followed by an invitation to take part in the competition again in 2018 . Kent were promoted to Division 1 at the end of the 2018 season, having finished second in Division 2 and retained their place in the top division in 2019. In 2021 the team won their first trophy for 14 years, beating Somerset in
18904-571: Was played between Kent and Surrey in 1773, and in 1787 a failed attempt to form a Kent County Club, with Dorset and Mann involved, was made at Coxheath . Inter-county matches declined towards the end of the 18th century, possibly as a result of a lack of investment during the Napoleonic Wars , although Kent teams continued to play matches. The resumption of matches between county sides in 1825, when Kent met Sussex at Brighton's Royal New Ground , saw matches organised by clubs in different parts of
19043-451: Was somewhat lower than that of some contemporary fighters. The Royal Aircraft Establishment noted that, at 400 mph (350 kn; 640 km/h) indicated airspeed , roughly 65% of aileron effectiveness was lost due to wing twist. The new wing of the Spitfire F Mk 21 and its successors was designed to help alleviate this problem. Its stiffness was increased by 47%, and a new aileron design using piano hinges and geared trim tabs meant
19182-445: Was the subject of a Luftwaffe daylight raid, but the bombs missed their target and hit a nearby school. All production aircraft were flight tested before delivery. During the Second World War, Jeffrey Quill was Vickers Supermarine's chief test pilot, in charge of flight testing all aircraft types built by Vickers Supermarine. He oversaw a group of 10 to 12 pilots responsible for testing all developmental and production Spitfires built by
19321-419: Was to subcontract the work. Although outside contractors were supposed to be involved in manufacturing many important Spitfire components, especially the wings, Vickers-Armstrongs (the parent company) was reluctant to see the Spitfire being manufactured by outside concerns, and was slow to release the necessary blueprints and subcomponents. As a result of the delays in getting the Spitfire into full production,
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