St Lawrence & Highland Court's first-team captain Matt Hammond on club's success as 1sts and 2nds win Kent Cricket League titles

First-team skipper Matt Hammond reckons champions St Lawrence & Highland Court’s success this year has been a long time coming.

They secured promotion to the Kent League Premier Division last Saturday, beating Canterbury, while the 2nds - captained by Kit Sims - won their Division 1 title, too, despite a 105-run loss to Canterbury 2nds.

Darren Stevens scored a century against Canterbury while fellow Kent player Harry Podmore was also involved.

But Hammond pointed out, apart from those two and Australian overseas Mickey Edwards, much of their first-team squad have played together for a number of years.

“It’s been quite an honour to be involved with,” said Hammond.

“When you write down our team on paper, it’s not changed too much. Obviously, having an overseas like Mickey helped. That was an amazing achievement for him to get 50-odd wickets.

"But the rest of the team, we have been working on for three or four years. This has been a long time coming.

“The likes of Giles [Hilton] and Will [Hilton, former captain] have worked incredibly hard to create the club that we have got.

“Four years ago, we were scraping the barrel. Now, we have 30 or 40 people available on a Saturday and a Sunday as well as the women’s and girls’ set-up.

“But it’s the hard work of the people before me that have got the club where it is.”

Hammond took over as captain from Will Hilton but it’s the latter who ended as the club’s top run-scorer in 2022, more than 100 runs ahead of Sathish Kurusamy.

Edwards, who has played in the Big Bash for the Sydney Sixers, took more than 50 wickets - but he has been well supported with the ball.

“Will, with the bat, has been absolutely incredible. He got us over the line in some pretty tight games,” said Hammond.

“Wit