KENT County Cricket Club’s unique natural icon – the world-famous St Lawrence lime tree – is no longer.

The 1987 hurricane had little effect on the magnificent lime, but the weekend's strong winds in the south east finally put paid to nigh-on 200 years of Kent cricket history in Canterbury.

Head groundsman Mike Grantham made the shock discovery on his early morning rounds on Saturday, finding the lime, snapped off seven-feet from ground level, prostrate and pointing toward the Old Dover Road turnstiles.

When last surveyed five years ago the tree was given a maximum life expectancy of 10 years, and though sad to see the demise of the county’s oldest supporter, Kent chief executive Paul Millman is pleased Mother Nature has taken its course.

“There were public liability issues surrounding the lime and we knew it to be in poor shape, but I feel it far better for it to go this way than by way of the chain saw.”

The lime was already semi-mature when Kent first played cricket at the venue in 1847 and thoroughly established when the county cricket club was founded in 1870.

Though often well within the boundary ropes, only three batsmen have ‘officially’ cleared the lime in first-class play – though many others have laid claim to achieving the feat.

West Indies’ all-rounder Sir Learie Constantine first cleared the lime from a delivery by Kent leg-spinner C S ‘Father’ Mariott in 1928.

Constantine’s countryman and former Kent overseas professional, Carl Hooper, did likewise in 1992, while Middlesex batsman Jim Smith also cleared the tree for six in 1939.

Kent have already received ECB permission to replace the lime within the boundary, indeed the club purchased a semi-mature, 12th man replacement five years ago – which was planted by the cricket writer and broadcaster, the late E W ‘Jim’ Swanton.