DURING his boyhood days in the dorms at Tonbridge School, Ed Smith may well have dreamt about leading Kent onto the field in Championship play.

Indeed, captaining the county of his birth into first-class battle may well have been one of young Smith’s motivating factors.

But even he cannot have imagined his debut day of Frizzell Division 1 leadership would turn out like this as newly promoted Worcestershire cantered to 356 for seven come Wednesday’s close.

Thrust into the limelight when David Fulton failed a late fitness test on a bruised hand – the legacy of Steve Crook’s accidental beamer at The Nevill last week – Smith suffered something of a nightmare.

He lost the toss and took the field with an inexperienced attack shorn of its pace spearheads Martin Saggers on Test duty at Trent Bridge and Mohammad Sami, with an inured knee.

Added to that Kent were without their two most threatening spin bowlers in Min Patel and Rob Ferley, with groin and knuckle injuries respectively, ensuring Smith’s tactical awareness was always likely to be tested to the full.

Unsurprisingly, Smith lost the opening gambits and Worcestershire bossed the opening two sessions courtesy of a painstaking and instantly forgettable century from former Essex seamer Stephen Peters.

The visitors seemed strangely quiet, subdued even as Smith scratched his head in search of inspiration.

Even Andrew Symonds, the archetypal ‘Aussie sledger’ and Kent’s prime motivator, appeared happy to wish the batsmen a cheery ‘gooday’ on a sunny New Road morning.

Things improved somewhat when Smith threw the ball to Symonds to come on first change and claim two wickets in the space of four balls.

Stephen Moore (5) played across a full-length in-swinger to have off stump trimmed then, in the 20th over, the prized scalp of in-form Graeme Hick after only 17 balls and for a paltry two runs.

Pushing at a leg-cutter Hick nicked to slip where James Tredwell pocketed the first of three comfortable catches.

Peters, who continued to grind away at the other end, was then joined by his skipper Ben Smith for a third-wicket stand worth 119 in 39 overs.

It was hardly thrill-a-minute entertainment, but on a pitch already showing signs of variable bounce, it was Worcestershire’s answer to manna from heaven.

Tredwell struggled to turn it, Ben Trott lacked a cutting edge on his season’s debut and former Worcestershire swing bowler Alamgir Sheriyar lacked control, yet it was the latter who made the breakthrough to temporarily lift Kent spirits.

Sheriyar suffered a few taunts from his former supporters for a series of earlier wides, but the left-armer silenced his crowd critics by having Smith caught at slip with one that ran across the right-hander.

With cloud cover approaching, Ed Smith might have thought things might just be starting to turn his way, but so the elegant Vikram Solanki sidled to the crease for the innings of the day.

Fleet of foot and with impeccable timing, Solanki set about Kent’s makeshift attack like a starving lad in a cake shop on pocket-money day.

He moved down the wicket to loft Tredwell for a six into the New Road hospitality boxes then, when Tredwell changed ends, he danced to the pitch to dispatch two sublime cover drives.

He and Peters, who hardly scored a run in front of the wicket, added 93, before Peters’ vigil ended.

Ironically, the steer to third man that bought him so many runs and took him to his first century of the summer, proved his undoing when he edged a low catch to understudy wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien to go for 123 after a shade over five hours.

The fifth wicket of the day was deserved reward for another Kent rookie, Simon Cusden, who was handed a championship debut in place of Sami.

The 19-year-old, who plays Kent League cricket for Canterbury-based St Lawrence and Highland Court, opened up with a maiden and, unlike many, bowled with real gusto and purpose all day.

He waited until the 86th over of the day for his prize, the wicket of South African Test all-rounder Andrew Hall, knocking back middle and leg stumps with that swung through the gate.

Despite the arrival of the new ball, Solanki upped the tempo with a second six off Symonds on his was to a superb 124-ball century that included 16 fours.

But with drizzle in the air and heavier cloud on the horizon, things suddenly brightened for Kent and Smith.

Solanki played his first rash shot against Trott to be caught behind by the tumbling O’Brien then Andy Bickel edged Sheriyar’s last ball of the day to Tredwell to put a little gloss onto Kent’s dull day.

Smith, looking shattered and strangely dishevelled, put his feet up with a glass of water at the close to hear the welcome news.

Fulton hopes to be fit to lead on Sunday and, according to the latest scans, Sami’s knee injury appears less serious than first feared and he too hopes to play at the Brit Oval.