Surrey (cricket)

The earliest known reference to cricket worldwide is in the records of a court case at Guildford in Surrey. A team called Surrey played against one called Kent at Dartford Brent on Wednesday, 29 June 1709. Ostensibly the earliest known inter-county match, it is more probably the earliest known match between teams bearing the names of counties. It is generally believed that the teams were Dartford and another parish XI from Surrey. Teams representing Surrey were raised by many patrons through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries until the foundation of Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) in 1845. The club's home base is The Oval, at Kennington in south London, which has staged Test matches from 1882 when it was the scene of the famous Ashes match.