SPITFIRES enjoyed a good day over at Sophia Gardens on Sunday where our one-day cricket again showed pleasing signs of improvement.

The lads backed up some excellent batting with good basic out cricket and a couple of brilliant catches.

Added to which, our control with ball was much improved and we fielded with plenty of enthusiasm – all promising signs of improvement on last season.

Looking ahead, several pundits have mentioned Darren Stevens as a possible for next year’s England World Cup squad and the way he destroyed Glamorgan’s new ball attack in Cardiff suggests he would not be out place at the international level.

He is one of the sweetest timers of a of a cricket ball I’ve seen and does not need to lose his correct technical shape in order to generate his hitting power.

His innings of 82 from 65 balls set the tone for our innings and young Neil Dexter took it on to score a maiden one-day century that again showed that Kent have signed a gem of a player.

Andrew Hall was the other star, blazing 100 from 90 balls, but also as the senior player showed his value to the side by talking regularly to Dexter about the best scoring options and the pace of his innings.

This Sunday’s C&G Trophy clash against Essex will be another stern test for our evolving one-day skills as they have been successful in this format against us in recent seasons.

I have to say though, that the format for this year’s Trophy competition just doesn’t add up.

Several sides go into their last couple of games with nothing to play for so I feel they should think about the possible addition of quarter and semi-finals next year.

Not only would that keep more clubs interested longer, but those quarter finals and semis will be important pay days for some clubs, Kent included.