Sport
Maidstone United football team was formed in 1897, and has had mixed fortunes in recent years. The peak of the club's achievement was gaining promotion to the Football League in 1989 after many years of success in non-league football. However, the club could not bring their own London Road Ground up to Football League standards so they ground-shared at Dartford's Watling Street stadium and played their games there. The club could not keep up with the financial pressures of the Football League and folded in 1992. A new club was formed and made its way from the Kent County League Division 4 to the Isthmian (Ryman) Premier Division, and currently compete in the Ryman Division One South. The club moved into the newly built Gallagher Stadium at James Whatman Way in summer 2012.
Maidstone Hockey Club is one of the oldest field hockey clubs in the country, founded in 1878. For the 2011/12 season, the Ladies' 1st XI play in the National League East Conference, having won the East Premier League the previous season, and the Men's 1st XI play in the South Hockey League 1st XI Premier League Division 2. The Men's and Women's 1st squad were both represented in the Indoor England Hockey League Division 2 England Hockey League, with the Men having previously won the Division 2 title in 2008/09. In total, the club has 7 men's sides and 4 women's sides playing at all levels of National, regional, and County leagues.
Maidstone Rugby Football Club is one of the oldest rugby clubs in the country, founded in 1880. The club runs 6 senior men's sides and a junior section.
Kent County Cricket Club played occasional matches on pitches at Mote Park for some 150 years until 2005. Mote Park is the town's largest park and includes a number of recreational and sport facilities. The Lashings World XI exhibition cricket team is based in Maidstone and has included a number of high-profile professional cricketers.
Maidstone Sailing Club are a small club that sail on Mote Park lake. Maidstone also has a rowing club, a martial arts school, a tennis club, an athletics club, an American football team, and a basketball club.
A baseball team, the Kent Mariners, are also based in the town. They play in the BBF AA South division.
Read more about this topic: Maidstone
Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“Americans living in Latin American countries are often more snobbish than the Latins themselves. The typical American has quite a bit of money by Latin American standards, and he rarely sees a countryman who doesn’t. An American businessman who would think nothing of being seen in a sport shirt on the streets of his home town will be shocked and offended at a suggestion that he appear in Rio de Janeiro, for instance, in anything but a coat and tie.”
—Hunter S. Thompson (b. 1939)
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer’s lingering blooms delayed,
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o’er the green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)