Fleming said that participation immediately weaves you into the fabric of the county and you become part of Kent’s famous cricketing history. So the festive charm continues to this day but the eccentricities of such fixtures as Thirteen of Kent v Eleven of England did not endure and 1882 introduced a more competitive element. Kent met the Australians in the first game and Middlesex in the second. It was the first time they had played a county in the second match; it was also the Australians’ first visit to Canterbury. On the Monday all the hotels in the city were full, the streets more crowded than ever and the display of bunting more plentiful than on any previous occasion. Canterbury Week 1882 was described as the best of all, the radical changes in the programme meeting with general approval. Cricket elsewhere took note. Canterbury Week 26