IT SEEMED appropriate that just a few hundred yards from the Trent Bridge dressing rooms where Mark Ealham sat down to be interviewed the muddy waters of the River Trent slid unerringly under the old London Road Bridge.

Though the names of Alan Ealham and his son Mark will be inextricably linked to Kent, and while Mark spent 14 summers with the county of his birth and played 173 first-class games for the club, even he now concedes that time has marched on, water has passed under the bridge.

He said: "It was nice to come to a new club, to have a good time and for me to personally play as well last year proved a point to me.

"It showed that maybe in my last three years at Kent I’d got too mixed up with the politics going on and coming here freed me up from that and I started enjoying the game again.

"With different focuses and fitting into a specific role in a new side gave me little more zest and I have got over the disappointing end to my time at Kent.

"I wasn’t going to let things get me down though and after the first two months playing for Notts my wife Kirsty pointed out to me that not once had I come home moaning about the team or selection.

"I suppose I’d found myself at Kent for a long time and had become part of the furniture, I felt like I should have a say in selection and tactical issues but never really did, so that was a frustrating time for me.

"Part off me felt I had to come to Nottinghamshire and do well so that Kent were left feeling that maybe they’d made the wrong decision.

"But I haven’t got a chip on my shoulder over it and I’ve never looked back and said I wish I was still there."

Ealham carried a knee injury throughout Kent’s memorable four-day win at Trent Bridge and failed to impress with either bat or ball.

But the St Lawrence crowd favourite and winner of eight Test caps has set his sights on an emotional return to Canterbury to try and turn the tables in September’s corresponding fixture.

"I’d been looking forward to this first game against Kent for 18 months and I guess it was on the cards that I’d get nought or a hundred," added Ealham after his first innings duck.

"But, to be fair to Simon Cook, it was a good ball, certainly good enough to get me and especially when I’m on nought."

As for the future, Ealham added: "I’m hoping for a one year roll on to my existing contract here and I think two more seasons after this will be just about it in terms of my body coping with first-class cricket.

"I’ll know when my time is up and unless I’m helping out youngsters 2nd XI cricket wouldn’t inspire me at all, so I think the end of the 2007 may be the time to call time.

"Ironically, the freshen-up my career received in coming to Trent Bridge may have prolonged my career. So maybe it was the right thing to do in terms of extending my career.

"Sure I was disappointed at the time in terms of the way things were handled at Kent and the offer on the table, but in a way maybe Kent were right, and maybe it was meant to be.

"You only have to look at the Kent side now, it’s moved forward amazingly and there are only three of four lads in the side that I played with.

"Yes, time’s moved on for us all."