Kent sports review of 2023: Stars and stripes at Gillingham, Zak Crawley takes on the Aussies, Kent end their rugby drought and Ramsgate and Sheppey enjoy stellar FA Cup runs

It was the year the American Dream was realised at Gillingham, there were brilliant FA Cup runs for two of our clubs and plenty of runs for Kent cricketers Daniel Bell-Drummond and Tammy Beaumont. The county shone at Twickenham, boxer Cheavon Clarke proved a big hit, there was a touring cars title to lap up and much, much more...

January

No one means business like the Americans do, so when new Gillingham owner Brad Galinson flew in from Florida fresh from his promise of a “lucrative” transfer window, anticipation among the fanbase was high.

Mr Galinson was as good as his word. Striker Tom Nichols had already agreed to join at the end of December from League 2 rivals Crawley and by the end of the month Gills had signed 10 players, including Exeter midfielder Timothee Dieng and forward Oli Hawkins from Mansfield.

Off the pitch, Kenny Jackett arrived as director of football and club legend Andy Hessenthaler was back again - this time as head of recruitment after quitting as Dover boss.

Once the new signings hit their stride, Gillingham’s first defeat of 2023, against Stevenage, and then an FA Cup Third-Round exit, 1-0 at home to Leicester, were forgotten and they took seven points out of a possible nine - Nichols scoring in his first three games - to lift Gills off the bottom.

The first win of the Galinson era was a 2-0 home success against Hartlepool, a match where the crowd reception for the new owner reached fever pitch. It was then he realised his decision to invest in a team bottom of the Football League was the right one.

“Investment banking friends of mine said there are better ways to get a return on your investment,” Mr Galinson said.

“They said ‘are you crazy - do you know anything about football and by the