IT IS sad to report that our hopes of winning the Championship came to a disappointing end.

The team have played some high quality four-day cricket this summer and on many occasions I have been very proud of their performances.

Unfortunately, against Nottinghamshire, we were far from our best and in the end we were outplayed and outsmarted.

Steven Fleming is a cool and wise customer and used David Fulton’s adventurous approach to his advantage and, in the end, negotiated his way into an extremely strong position.

Kent never really got into the game at all and the 420 runs in 70 overs really wasn’t a realistic option for our under-strength batting line-up.

The team felt the absence of Hall and Kemp hard, both physically and psychologically and the decision of the United Cricket Board of South Africa to force the pair to return to South Africa remains most disappointing.

The only positive to come out of the affair was that 21-year-old Neil Dexter got his chance to make his championship debut and really took the opportunity with both hands. His 79 not out in the first innings really was a classy knock, impressing everybody including the opposition and the Sky commentary team.

Niall O’Brien was another to impress, scoring a good, unbeaten half-century in the first innings and, having put in some hard work, now seems to have found some form.

Andrew Hall and Justin Kemp were frustrated followers of the match progress sending various long-distance messages of advice and disappointment.

We will never know for sure if the South African administrators cost us the trophy or not but I can’t help but feel very angry and disappointed by their actions.

There weren’t too many surprises in the England touring squad but I suppose the most talked about selection is that of Alex Loudon.

I guess he goes as a spinning all-rounder and while I am not sure he qualifies as the finished article yet, he certainly shows potential in both the bowling and batting departments.

Duncan Fletcher has a shrewd eye for young talent and obviously believes that Alex can become a quality Test cricketer.

I think he will have impressed as an off-spinner because of his variations which allow him to beat the batsman on both sides of the bat.

I am disappointed to see that Rob Key has not been selected. He really has been unlucky to miss out on international action this year.

'Keysy' has been a consistent performer for Kent scoring 1,464 runs so far in the championship and only Owais Shah and Ed Joyce have scored more and they have both played three more innings than Robert.

He has suffered from a few injury problems of late though, so not going to Pakistan will give him time to sort these niggles out.

It is also important that Rob, in fact all our players, use the quiet time of the winter months to work on their limited overs’ games as Kent really need their talents sharpened so as to improve on our one-day performances next summer.