KCSMBA First years
The Kent County Short Mat Bowling Association was formed following talks held in Blackpool in April 1988 between Ted Messer, Tony Mulcuck, and Andrea and John Rycraft. Several independent short mat associations and leagues were in existence within Kent at that time and the co-founders of the Association were mainly playing in the Maidstone and District Short Mat Triples League. The Maidstone league had been founded in 1987/88 and consisted of one division of six clubs. Those clubs being; Detling, Langley, Rochester, Sutton Valence, Tovil & YMCA.
The Association held their first AGM in February 1989 and the following committee was formed:
President: Des Butters, Vice-Presidents: Tony Mulcuck and Glynne Hibbert, Chairman: Ted Messer, Vice-Chairman: Ray Owen, Treasurer: John Rycraft, Secretary: Andrea Rycraft, Competition Secretaries: Ray Owen and Ted Pocklington.
Following disagreements with the English Short Mat Bowling Association it was decided to resign from the Association in 1990 but the County re-affiliated in 1992.
The first County team was formed in 1989 and played its first game at home against the South West England Zone at Margate on 23rd September 1989. The return match was played at Huish Episcopi, Somerset on 29th September 1990, with Kent again losing, this time by 15pts - 33pts, 210 shots - 266 shots. Kent entered a team into the ESMBA Inter County Championships for the first time in 1992/93 season. In that season Kent were entered into South East Region and played against Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. Then from the 1993/94 season the County entered teams into the National Premier and "A" team competitions. Success in these competitions soon followed with Kent Premier team winning the national title in 1994/95, 1997/98, 1998/99, 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2004/05. With these successes Kent became the first county to win the national title three times in succession. The Premier team were also National runners up in 1996/97, 2003/04, 2005/06 and 2008/09. The County "A" team have won their national competition in 2001/02, 2005/06 and 2006/07 having been runners-up in 1995, 1996, 1999 and again in 2008. The County "B" team was reformed in 1993 and then following a four year break until 1997, have played a full fixture list of friendly inter-county games.