Kings Hill - Kings Hill Sports Park

Kings Hill FC

Kings Hill Sports Park 

200 Beacon Avenue

Kings Hill

West Malling

Kent

ME19 4QP

Official Website

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Ground Number: 1498

Saturday 8th November 2025

Kings Hill 4-2 Canterbury City

Kent County Premier

KINGS HILL FC - A BRIEF HISTORY

The club was established in 2003 and has come a long way since then. They are one of the leading local grassroots clubs and were named Kent FA Grassroots Club of the Year twice, in 2023 and 2025. For the 2025/26 season, Kings Hill FC will cater for over 900 players across 74 teams, offering football opportunities in male, female and disability sections. Their first team joined the Maidstone & District League in 2011 and spent three seasons in Division 1 before moving to the Kent County League. They won Division 3 East and Division 2 East in consecutive seasons before finishing 3rd in Division 1 Central & East in 2017. They won the title the following year and spent five seasons in the Premier Division. Kings Hill generally struggled, though and despite a best finish of 9th in 2022, they were relegated the following season. The club spent two seasons back in Division 1 Central & East before winning promotion back to the Premier Division last season after finishing as runners-up to Aylesford.

Kings Hill is a civil parish in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling in Kent.  Development started in 1989 near West Malling, on land previously occupied by RAF West Malling, which was operational during both world wars. The plan was for a multi-purpose site of both residential and office/business space. Many of the roads in Kings Hill are named after varieties of apple, a fruit which has been grown in Kent for centuries, including Bovarde Avenue, Braeburn Way, Discovery Drive, Melrose Avenue, Pippin Way, Winston Avenue and Worcester Avenue. Others pay homage to the site's past use as an RAF WWII aerodrome, with names such as Typhoon Road, Mosquito Road, Hurricane Road, Spitfire Road, Beaufighter Road, Javelin Road, Lancaster Way, Lysander Road, Meteor Road and Mustang Road. The population is just under 8,000. Parts of the 2007 Channel 4 drama series Cape Wrath were shot in the village.

MY VISIT

Back on the 1st September, the Kent League announced that they would be staging their first groundhop event, or in their words, 'Kent County League Day'. It was scheduled for 8th November, a few weeks after the hop season normally ended. It was a slight risk with the weather; that said, summer and spring events had been washed and frozen out due to the kamikaze nature of the British weather. It didn't take long for the games to be announced, and it was good news for me. A revisit to Snodland Town, then games at new grounds in Kings Hill and Aylesford. This was a real bonus as I'd done the majority of the grounds and don't usually get such luck with groundhops. I wanted to save Canterbury City for a day out and a proper deep dive into their history after the terrible way their council treated them, but I was glad they were an away team. Sadly, Snodland Town Reserves had to pull out due to their first team having a game at home to Guernsey. With set flight times, there was no way that the ground could host both games. A replacement had been found in the Arthurian League, so I'd still get three games in the day. 

From our game at Tonbridge School, it was a decent journey over to King's Hill. Usually, I'd be cursing a long stretch of roadworks and temporary traffic lights but on this occasion, it allowed me to spot Haywards Farm shop, which advertised local ciders. There wasn't a huge range, but I managed to get a new one - Balfour Jake's Estate Cider and some lamb crisps. From there, we drove to the ground, arriving half an hour before kickoff. No entry fee was charged, so I purchased a drawstring bag for £3 that will do for light use. I then went up to the bar and saw that they advertised loaded chips, but didn't actually sell them. The drinks range was not great so I headed back pitch side and had my earlier purchase, which was a cracking drop. I would have liked to get my first blog up, but time and extremely slow data prevented me. Good news came through from Wycombe, with us 3-1 up at home to Leyton Orient. It was an easy and correct decision to come on this hop with Wycombe being a poxy 12:30 kickoff. Kickoff soon came, the sun behind one goal not helping with the view.

 

Kings Hill were 6th in the league, having made a solid start to the season. They had won seven, drawn three and lost five of their games so far. They'd not won in four games, losing 3-1 at New Romney last time out. Canterbury City were having a tough old time of it. Shafted by their useless council for years, the team of the county city of Kent were forced to take voluntary relegation last season despite a 6th place finish in SCEFL Division 1. They had not played in the city for 24 years, having been evicted from their ground by the council to make way for fancy regeneration plans. They had to fold and take a six-year hiatus from football, but despite reforming in 2007 and spending twelve years at step 6 and groundsharing, the council failed to deliver on their promise of a new ground. Unable to find suitable lodgings, they were forced to drop down to the Kent League and move to the Thanington Recreation Ground, just outside of Canterbury. The turmoil had a detrimental effect, resulting in the loss of all their players. The new squad are struggling at the wrong end of the table, sitting in 18th, only winless Fleetdown United keeping them off the bottom of the table. They'd not won in four games, losing their last outing 3-0 at Long Lane.

The hosts were the better side, hitting the woodwork twice. Despite this, it was Canterbury that took the lead on 22 minutes, a ball through found Daniel Ikem, who calmly finished from close range. On the half hour, the same player headed home from point-blank range at the back post to double the visitors' lead. On 38 minutes, Seage pulled one back, a right-wing ball found him, and he finished from a few yards out. Just before the hour, Kings Hill equalised, a shot on the turn and a finish from ten yards. They went ahead on 70 minutes, a free kick from distance was diverted in from close range. A minute later, it was 4-2 with a dink over the keeper. Canterbury spurned an easy opportunity when the keeper miskicked close to full time, scuffing wide when clear through. There were no further goals as Kings Hill saw the game out comfortably.

THE GROUND

KINGS HILL SPORTS PARK is a tidy venue with plenty of potential to be a step 6 ground. The pitch is fully railed, but doesn't have any hard standing or cover. It's quite out of the way, but there is plenty of parking. The bar is OK and does a range of hot food. An excellent range of merchandise is also available.