More than just a tree

Canterbury. What does it remind you of? For me it was always about the Tree. The Lime Tree. The St Lawrence Lime Tree. It is marked in capitals because it was a special one, one that went on to occupy its own space in cricket’s history.

On the turbulent night of January 9, 2005, gale force winds felled this iconic Tree, bringing to an end its nearly 200-year vigil at Kent’s home ground in Canterbury. “There it lay, trunk snapped at a point some seven feet from its base, at rest just outside the playing area. It looked like a giant, hungry crocodile with jaws wide open waiting to swallow its quarry,” David Robertson, Kent’s honorary curator, wrote in A Legend Dies – The Story of a Tree with Cricketing History, a tribute to the Tree’s significance and standing in the club’s history.

Mourners from all around England, and letters and telephone calls from the rest of the cricketing world, poured in. It was a Tree that had seen a lot, and survived the two World Wars, including the Blitz. All the while it had stood there strong and tall, urging the batsman to hit over it, acting as a blanket to the fans during the cold and shade when it was hot.

It is unclear if the Tree was always part of the playing field, but its position certainly invited batsmen from every generation to clear it. Standing at wide long-on or third man, it was a spot ripe for a right-hand batsman to go for the pull or a southpaw to play the lofted drive. Yet, to date, only three men have hit over the top of the Tree from the time sixes started being recorded in 1909.

The first one came at the hands of Colonel AC Watson, in 1925, off AP “Tich” Freeman. The ball landed out of the ground. Three years later Learie Constantine, touring with West Indies, hit two sixes, the second one, a soaring on-drive, probably the “biggest hit ever seen at the ground” according to the Times’ reporter, Gerald Brodribb. The next came more than half a century later when Carl Hooper made a stunning debut for Kent, scoring a hundred against Durham.

Sadly for the big hitters of today, the challenge is no more there. The Tree was inflicted with wood fungus in 1998 and it was given a maximum life expectancy of 10 years. A replacement was immediately planted, which now stands about 15 yards to the left of where the original did. And unlike its predecessor the present lime tree is outside the ropes, so there can be no more controversy over whether it is a four or a six if the ball hits the tree on the full.

The Tree may be being missed but luckily the anecdotes remain. A favourite, noted in Robertson’s books is by Tony Pawson, who played for Kent between 1946 and 1953. “I was often positioned under the tree. I remember against the Australians in 1948, Bryan Valentine, the captain, told Fred Ridgway, our fast bowler, to give Don Bradman some bouncers. His first three were all pulled to the tree.”