AN OUTSTANDING season’s best opening stand of 283 between Rob Key and his skipper David Fulton gave Kent hopes of taking nine points and at least a draw from their rain-ruined clash with Middlesex.

Kent will go into the final day of this crucial Frizzell Division 1 clash on 290 for two, still trailing Middlesex on first innings by 110 runs.

On a sluggish and even-tempered pitch Middlesex took their rain-interrupted first innings onto 400 for eight before skipper Ben Huttton declared just after 12.30pm on the third day.

Then Kent batted though drizzle and poor light to post their record opening stand against Middlesex as David Fulton with 110 from 210 balls and Rob Key who hit 142 from 214 balls.

The opening pair beat Kent’s previous best against Middlesex of 219 by Leslie Todd and Jack Davies at Lord’s in 1927 and neither gave a chance before getting to three figures.

Fulton scored his first century of the summer from 190 balls and with 13 fours, soon after Key reached the milestone from 156 balls and with 17 boundaries for his fourth ton of the summer.

The pair were just 17 short of equalling Kent’s best ever first wicket stand when Key called for a suicidal single to be run out for 142 by Hutton’s under-arm lob running in from mid-wicket to the non-striker’s end.

Soon after Fulton was offered bad light by umpires Allan Jones and Barry Duddleston, but he declined their offer to go off and the home captain fenced the very next ball from Stuart Clark to offer a simple gully catch.

The players went off after that, leaving Kent with a quandary of whether to bat on beyond 400 or declare on maximum batting bon us points in a bid to bowl Middlesex out rapidly.

SCORECARD

Middlesex first innings

E T Smith b Khan 40
B L Hutton b Khan 10
O A Shah c O’Brien b Patel 105
E C Joyce c Key b Khan 12
J W M Dalrymple lbw b Hall 4
P N Weekes not out 128
D C Nash lbw b Khan 12
P D Trego c Fulton b Patel 51
A Richardson c Kemp b Patel 5
S R Clark not out 4
N Hayward did not bat
Extras 29

Total 400 for eight declared after 109 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-31, 2-92, 3-120, 4-136, 5-274, 6-314, 7-385, 8-391,

Bowling: Khan 20-6-83-4, Cook 18-4-60-0, Hall 22-3-98-1, Kemp 12-1-32-0, Patel 27-6-90-3, Stevens 10-0-27-0.

Kent first innings

D P Fulton c Joyce b Clark 110
R W T Key run out (Hutton) 142
M van Jaarsveld not out 5
Extras 33

Total 290 for two after 72.1 overs (bad light stopped play)

Fall of wicket: 1-283, 2-290

Bowling: Clark 13.1-3-31-1, Richardson 14-4-25-0, Trego 10-0-49-0, Hayward 11-049-0, Dalrymple 17-0-76-0, Weekes 5-1-15-0, Hutton 2-0-16-0.