Kent suffered their first LV= Insurance County Championship Division 1 defeat of the season despite late resistance at Warwickshire on Sunday.

The hosts completed an innings victory with six overs - and just enough light - to spare at Edgbaston after being held up for long periods by opener Ben Compton and Joey Evison.

Indeed, all-rounder Evison was the last wicket to fall, edging Hassan Ali behind on 99, having taken Kent agonisingly close to salvaging a draw which seemed most unlikely after they collapsed to 51-5 and 99-7.

"We definitely didn't deserve much from this game at all but when people fight hard like the way the guys did and they get you close to the line, and then you fall just short, they are the gut-wrenchers," said Kent head coach Matt Walker.

"What it does is it gives you some positives to take out of the game and the character shown by Ben Compton early on and then Joey Evison, with great support from Conor McKerr, sends a real message to the group that with concentration and determination and hard work and good decision-making, things can be done.

"It was a good challenge against one of the best bowling attacks in the country. They showed us how to bowl on that wicket.

"When you get bowled out cheaply then everybody looks at the batting, but we made it too easy for them with the ball as well. We were way off our game and they punished us the way good teams do.

"Matt Quinn's injury is not too bad. I think he caught it early so we have been able to have a look at it. Great credit to him for going back out there and bowling again.

"That's two weeks in a row we have lost a bowler during the game and, obviously, that's not ideal, but that was no excuse here.

"Playing on Test-match wickets is very different to Canterbury, you have to be so disciplined with your areas, just smash a zone all day long just as they did. We leaked both sides of the wicket and our lengths weren't particularly good and they took full advantage.

"We were outclassed a bit overall but the gutsy performance in the last few hours of the game sends out a good message to the group that we need to step up and show some character as a batting unit."

Kent resumed at 27-1 on the final morning but soon found themselves in trouble. Nightwatchman Matt Quinn (2) had his off-stump flattened by a Chris Woakes (3-59) in-swinger before four wickets fell to smart work by the slips.

Rob Yates took two superb low catches to remove Daniel Bell-Drummond (3) and Jack Leaning (1), Rhodes made no mistake to oust Joe Denly (0) and Jordan Cox, having defied for just over an hour for 29, edged to Sam Hain. When skipper Sam Billings decided too late to leave a ball from Olly Hannon-Dalby and deflected it on to his middle stump, the writing was on the wall.

But Compton and Evison dug in deep, the former enhancing his remarkable first-class batting average of 58 with a knock of 88.

But, having put on 100 in 25 overs, they were parted in the first over after tea when Compton edged Chris Rushworth (3-58) and Yates took yet another excellent slip catch, this time fast and high and particularly impressive as he saw the ball very late with wicketkeeper Michael Burgess standing up to the stumps.

That left Kent’s last two wickets with 36 overs to survive, and they came gallantly close to achieving it before the depth and quality of Warwickshire’s refurbished seam attack had the final say.

With the light fading fast, Hannon-Dalby returned to have Conor McKerr brilliantly caught by Will Rhodes at fourth slip and end a stand of 74 in 27 overs.

Then, Ali sealed the win with an outswinger to lure Evison - denying him a deserved century and Kent what would have been an unlikely draw.