KENT saved their worst batting performance of the season until the last home game of the campaign to allow relegation threatened Northamptonshire to take command on the opening day of this CricInfo Championship match at St Lawrence.

The host’s woeful first innings performance of 108 all out inside 25 overs drew a visit from ECB pitch liaison officer Raman Subba Row, who could find no fault with the pitch after seeing Kent dismissed inside two hours for their worst total of the summer to date.

To reinforce Mr Subba Row’s opinion, Northamptonshire cantered into the lead within 36 overs for the loss of only two wickets and when bad light stopped play had reached 173 for three for an overall lead of 65.

"The soil samples taken by the groundsman showed evidence of dampness lower down, probably caused by the volume of rain over the past days.

"In addition the ball swung substantially during the morning’s play, but no action is being taken as a result of today’s play."

Reading between the lines of Mr Subba Row’s report makes it clear that he held the same opinion as the St Lawrence faithful, in that Kent had just batted rather badly and perhaps made the wrong decision in batting first.

There was little sign of the collapse to follow when David Fulton cover drove Paul Taylor’s second ball of the day for a sweetly timed four.

But in the second over of the day Fulton was on his way after edging into the gloves of David Ripley to give John Blain the first of his six for 58 return.

Playing his first championship match since returning from Scotland’s ICC Trophy World Cup qualifiers in Canada, Blain caused havoc with his medium-fast out-swingers and off-cutters.

Kent also added to their own downfall with a series of poorly executed or ill judged shots to allow Blain career-best figures.

Ed Smith was his next victim, wafting outside off stump with bat at 45 degrees to the body, he nicked to Ripley when leaving the ball alone would have been the better option.

Rob Key was the third of Kent’s 1000-run batsmen to go when he played all round a Taylor in-swinger to lose his leg stump and make it 15 for three inside half an hour.

Matthew Walker appeared a trifle unlucky to go leg before when pushing out to a Blair in-ducker, but Nixon only had himself to blame after another poorly executed defensive prod that gave Ripley his third catch.

All-rounders Mark Ealham and Matthew Fleming continued their poor seasons with the bat with catches to the slip cordon, while Andrew Symonds skied an attempted cover drive to cover to go for a belligerent 23.

When Martin Saggers shouldered arms to go for nought it appeared Kent would fall for their first two-figure total of the summer, but were saved the ignominy by a 10th wicket stand worth 35 between Ben Trott (11) and top-scorer Min Patel (32).

Patel was last man out, steering a catch to second slip to give Tony Penberthy his first wicket in his opening over, leaving Kent two sessions in which to save face in the field.

They hit back six overs into the reply when Ben Trott removed the championship’s leading run-scorer Michael Hussey soon after lunch, but it was to prove a false dawn.

Alec Swann and Jeff Cook both went on to post half centuries in a second wicket stand of 91 before Cook’s flailing drive against Saggers went to Nixon to end his 98-ball stay and make it 112 for two.

Kent enjoyed one more success before the close when Ealham’s nip-back ball trapped Swann flush in front, but by then Kent supporters had already begun to wend their way home.