Kent toiled away in the heat on day two but had only three Lancashire wickets to show for their efforts in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury.

Josh Bohannon and Luke Wells put on a record stand of 312 for Lancashire. Bohannon was unbeaten on 182 while Wells hit exactly 150 as the visitors closed on 402-4, a first-innings lead of 158.

Lancashire batted through two full sessions without losing a wicket before Kent finally took a mini-cluster after tea. Beyers Swanepoel had their best figures with 2-61.

The crowd for the second day of the Canterbury Festival was swelled to 3,414 by around 1,600 school children from 44 schools, attending as part of a county initiative.

Lancashire resumed on 38-1 and battled without alarm in an opening session that didn’t see Matt Parkinson called upon to bowl against his former side until the final over of the morning.

In the afternoon, Bohannon reached his century first when he cut George Garrett for four through backward point while Wells reached the landmark in less satisfying fashion, swishing Parkinson through the vacant slip cordon for two.

They soon overtook the biggest stand for any wicket between these two sides, eclipsing the 229 between Rob Key and Ed Smith at Tunbridge Wells in 2004 and taking Lancashire to 305-1 at tea.

Wells swept his way to 150, steering Parkinson for two, but he finally fell in the 84th over, caught off Marcus O’Riordan at first slip by Charlie Stobo.

Stobo got his maiden championship wicket when George Bell dragged a leg-side delivery on to his off-stump off the back of his bat, and having sat on the balcony for six hours, George Lavelle got a golden duck, edging Beyers Swanepoel to O’Riordan, who took a head-high catch at second slip.

This mini-collapsed stemmed the flow of runs, but Bohannon was dropped off the luckless Jas Singh in the penultimate over and he and Matty Hurst batted through to leave Lancashire in a dominant position at the end of day two.

Stobo said: “It was a long day on an increasingly placid wicket. I thought we actually toiled pretty well on the whole.

“There were a few periods where the game could have got away from us pretty quickly but again I think we stuck at it and aside from a few loose balls there were good signs.

“Going into the game we realised they were the two (Wells and Bohannon) who are experienced and the two players who were key in the batting line-up.

“They were batted with beautiful tempo and didn’t really seem to take too many risks. Whatever we threw at them they dealt with really well so they batted beautifully.

“There was a little bit of consolation at the end of the day and hopefully it’ll give us a bit of momentum that we can bring into tomorrow. I think the first hour’s always important on a new day.”