KENT'S were left ruing a handful of missed chances as their LV Championship clash with Hampshire petered out into a tame draw in Canterbury.

Set an unlikely 461 to win, Hampshire had reached 275 for five by the time the sides shook hands on draw at 5.50pm .

Having missed a run out on Friday evening, Kent went on to drop six chances inside three sessions on Saturday to allow Hampshire to wriggle off the hook and secure a draw.

The conditions suited Kent's four-pronged pace attack and, to be fair, the quartet did their job, but the home slip cordon and keeper Geraint Jones were again found wanting and parity eventually prevailed.

The visitors started the day on 18 without loss, still requiring an unlikely 443 to win from the 96 overs remaining in the match.

They had posted 58 by the time Michael Brown (24) nicked a Yasir Arafat leg-cutter to be well held by Jones low to his right, but the dismissal was far from indicative of Kent's catching for the remainder of the day.

Two chances went begging in each of the three sessions, yet the luckless Kent bowlers continued to toil and Arafat was again rewarded when he hit Jimmy Adams (31) full on the boot with an in-swinging Yorker to go leg before and make it 87 for two at the lunch break.

The hosts used up a further 22 overs to make another breakthrough, and again Arafat came up trumps by having John Crawley (28) held by Joe Denly at short leg after the former England bat struggled to keep down a lifter up near his ribs.

When former Kent batsman Michael Carberry nicked an attempted drive off Arafat low to Andrew Hall's left at first slip, Kent still fancied their chances of victory, but two more downed chances in the mid-session and another brace of blunders after tea cost them any hope of closing in for a win.

Kent gave the most lives to left-hander Michael Lumb. He benefited from three chances, twice when on seven and then again on 21, as van Jaarsveld twice and then Hall downed slip chances.

Eventually the ex-Yorkshire player's luck ran out when, to the first ball after tea, he snicked a drive against Hall to be caught by Jones, at the second time of asking, to make it 184 for five.

The game meandered on and was five overs from the scheduled close by the time the sides agreed a draw allowing Sean Ervine to finished unbeaten on 56 - his best championship score for almost 18 months - while Dimitri Mascarenhas ambled to 33 not out.

SCORECARD

Kent first innings

R W T Key lbw b Cook 0
J L Denly not out 115
M van Jaarsveld c Warne b Clark 12
M J Walker b Clark 14
D I Stevens c Brown b Mascarenhas 11
G O Jones c Burrows b Mascarenhas 0
A J Hall b Warne 1
Yasir Arafat c Burrows b Warne 7
R McLaren c Burrows b Clark 4
J C Tredwell b Warne 17
S J Cook c Warne b Tremlett 8
Extras 20

Total 199 all out after 58.9 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-1, 2-43, 3-55, 4-72, 5-74, 6-98, 7-110, 8-129, 9-182.

Bowling: Clark 14-1-48-, Mascarenhas 15-6-29-2, Tremlett 9.4-0-54-1, Ervine 6-3-14-0, Warne 14-2-42-3.

Hampshire first innings

M J Brown lbw b Arafat 0
J H K Adams c Jones b Arafat21
J P Crawley c van Jaarsveld b Cook 22
M J Lumb c Walker b Arafat 0
M A Carberry lbw b McLaren 7
S M Ervine lbw b Cook 22
A D Mascarenhas lbw b Arafat 90
T G Burrows run out 35
S K Warne lbw b McLaren 19
C T Tremlett not out 11
S R Clark c Walker b Arafat 14
Extras 37

Total 272 all out after 84.3 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-5, 2-52, 3-52, 4-52, 5-83, 6-85, 7-188, 8-224, 9-252.

Bowling: Arafat 21.3-4-63-5, Hall 15-3-49-0, Cook 19-4-56-2, McLaren 18-4-61-2, Tredwell 11-1-25-0.

Kent second innings

R W T Key lbw b Mascarenhas 120
J L Denly c Mascarenhas b Clark 0
M van Jaarsveld c Burrows b Tremlett 109
M J Walker c Ervine b Clark 46
D I Stevens b Adams 105
G O Jones b Clark 4
A J Hall c Browne b Warne 48
Yasir Arafat c Warne b Adams 19
R McLaren not out 25
J C Tredwell not out 27
Extras 30

Total 533 for eight declared after 149 overs.

Fall of wicket: 1-0, 2-223, 3-268, 4-344, 5-350, 6-433, 7-466, 8-438.

Bowling: Clark 28-5-80-3, Tremlett 30-4-76-1, Mascarenhas 20-3-76-1, Warne 37-2-142-1, Carberry 2-0-6-0, Ervine 20-3-95-0, Adams 11-1-37-2, Crawley 1-0-9-0.

Hampshire second innings

M J Brown c Jones b Arafat 24
J H K Adams lbw b Arafat 31
J P Crawley c Denly b Arafat 38
M J Lumb c Jones b Hall 48
M A Carberry c Hall b Arafat 6
S M Ervine not out 56
A D Mascarenhas not out 33
Extras39

Total 275 for five after 89 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-58, 2-77, 3-151, 4-165, 5-184.

Bowling: Arafat 22-4-90-4, Hall 16-4-47-1, Tredwell 19-3-53-0, Cook 13-7-13-0, McLaren 13-5-41-0, Denly 5-2-16-0.

Bonus points: Kent 7pts, Hampshire 9pts.