The perfect farewell? Denly leaves on the highest of notes
01.08.26, 10:17 Updated 01.08.26, 10:28
Fred Atkins
Diary of a Cricket Season: Friday 31st July 2026.
Somerset 313, Kent 314-8. Kent win by two wickets.
It was a stupid question. "Would you rather have made a hundred and lost the game?" It was so stupid that I didn't ask it. I'm sure he'd have answered it politely, he always does, but he looked tired. The mystery of why Joe Denly had chosen this game as his last was less of a mystery at the end of his pitchside press conference.
No, he isn't going to be playing any cricket for a while. A return to the red-ball side was never on the agenda, but one last white-ball game, in Canterbury, was a chance for Denly to take a trip to cricket's Hatton Garden.
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Fred Atkins Fred Atkins is a former Kent Messenger sports editor and has written several books, including The Spitfire Diaries, an account of Kent's 2021 season and Monty Panesar's "The Full Monty". He has followed KCCC since 1993 and has covered them for the ECB and Wisden since 2021.