Editing Kent (section)

==Sport==
[[File:Priestfield Stadium Medway Stand.jpg|thumb|[[Priestfield Stadium]] is the home of [[Gillingham FC]], Kent's only [[Football League]] team]]
{{more citations needed|section|date=March 2025}}

In association football, Kent's highest ranked football team is [[Gillingham FC]] (nicknamed 'The Gills') who play in [[EFL League Two|Football League Two]], having been demoted at the end of the 2021–22 season.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Report {{!}} Gillingham 0-2 Rotherham United |url=https://www.gillinghamfootballclub.com/news/2022/april/report--gills-0-2-rotherham/ |access-date=6 June 2022 |website=www.gillinghamfootballclub.com |language=en-gb}}</ref> [[Maidstone United F.C. (1897)|Maidstone United]] was a Football League side from 1989 until going bankrupt in 1992. Kent clubs in the higher levels of [[non-league football]] include [[Ebbsfleet United F.C.|Ebbsfleet United]], who were promoted in 2023. [[Tonbridge Angels F.C.|Tonbridge Angels]] and the current incarnation of Maidstone United currently play in [[National League South]], the sixth tier of the English football pyramid.

Kent is represented in [[cricket]] by [[Kent County Cricket Club]]. The club was a founder member of the [[County Championship]] in 1890 and has won the competition, the major domestic [[first-class cricket]] competition, seven times. The club is based at the [[St Lawrence Ground]] in Canterbury and also plays matches at the [[Nevill Ground]] in Royal Tunbridge Wells and the [[County Cricket Ground, Beckenham]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/18424594 We ended up with a lake – Kent CEO Jamie Clifford] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619060919/http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/18424594 |date=19 June 2012}}. BBC Sport (13 June 2012). Retrieved on 17 July 2013.</ref> The [[Kent Women cricket team]] has won the [[Women's County Championship]] seven times since it was established in 1997. Cricket has traditionally been a popular sport in the county and Kent is considered one of the locations in which the game first developed. Teams have represented the county since the early 18th century. The [[Kent Cricket League]] is the top level of club competition within Kent and features teams from throughout the county, including areas such as [[Beckenham]] and [[Bexley]] which were formerly part of the county.

[[Canterbury Hockey Club]] and [[Holcombe Hockey Club]] both play in the top division in both the [[Men's England Hockey League|men's]] and [[Women's England Hockey League|women's]] England Hockey Leagues. Sevenoaks Hockey Club's women first XI plays in the second tier of national competition.

The [[Invicta Dynamos]], based in Gillingham, are a semi-professional [[ice hockey]] team that plays in the [[National Ice Hockey League]]. They replaced the Medway Bears as the senior team in 1997. They share the home ice rink at [[Planet Ice Gillingham]] with the secondary senior team, [[Invicta Mustangs]] and the ladies ice hockey team, the [[Invicta Dynamics]].

In [[rugby union]], [[Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Football Club|Tonbridge Juddians]] and [[Canterbury RFC]] play in the fourth-tier of English rugby in the [[National League 2 South]]. [[Gravesend RFC]] play in the seventh-tier [[London 2 South East|London 2 South-East.]] [[Blackheath FC]], a club within the historic boundaries of the county, play in fourth-tier [[National League 2 South]]. Both Tonbridge Juddians and Blackheath RFC played in [[National League 1|National league 1]] (the third-tier of English rugby) up until the end of the 2021–2022 season.

In [[motorsport]], the [[Brands Hatch]] circuit near [[Swanley]] has played host to a number of national and international racing events and hosted 12 runnings of the [[British Grand Prix]] in various years between 1964 and 1986.

There have been multiple [[American football]] teams based in  Kent since the game was popularised in the UK. Currently, the [[Canterbury]] is the home of the [[East Kent Mavericks]], the 2023 [[BAFA National Leagues]] Southern Football Conference 2 Champions, as well as teams from both universities.

Kent is home to two National League netball clubs, both based in northwest Kent: Telstars (Premier Division 2) and KCNC (Premier Division 3).

In [[basketball]], the [[Kent Panthers]] participate in Division 3 of the [[National Basketball League (England)|National Basketball League]].

The 2021–2022 season has seen three Kentish clubs demoted from the third-tier of their respective sports to the fourth-tier, with rugby clubs [[Tonbridge Juddians Rugby Football Club|Tonbridge Juddians]] and [[Blackheath F.C.|Blackheath RFC]] being demoted in rugby and [[Gillingham F.C.|Gillingham FC]] being demoted in football.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}