Kenneth Marley was a talented sportsman who played once for Glamorgan in their Minor County Friendly with Wiltshire in 1894. He also won honours at lawn tennis, being the men’s champion at Penarth Lawn Tennis Club for twelve successive seasons between 1889 and 1900, besides being runner-up in the Welsh Lawn Tennis Championships of 1892, which coincidently was held on his home turf in Penarth.    

1892 proved to be a hectic summer for the amateur sportsman as during August he also accepted an invitation to open the batting for the Gentlemen of Durham against the Fettesian Lorettonians at the schools’ annual cricket festival.

The son of a well-to-do mining engineer in Darlington, Kenneth was educated at Marlborough School where he shone as a hard-hitting batter and a lively right-arm seam bowler. He subsequently moved to South Wales to set up his own coal exporting business and, using his father’s contacts, he soon had a thriving business.    

Kenneth also joined Cardiff CC and, after some useful performance, was called up by the county selectors in 1894 for the match against Wiltshire at the Arms Park. He impressed with scores of 33 and 49, but his commitments at Cardiff Docks, meant that it proved to be his sole appearance at county level .

MARLEY, Kenneth Ramsden.

Born – Thornfield House, Darlington, 11 February 1865.
Died – Brentford, 18 December 1915.

Batting and Fielding Record  

	M	I	NO	RUNS	AV	100	50	CT	ST
MC Friendly	1	2	0	82	41.00	–	–	–	–

Career-best performance  

Minor County Friendlies – 49 v Wiltshire at Cardiff Arms Park, 1894.