Kent v Somerset

Captain Rob Key was a shock late casualty as Kent finished the opening day of their Tunbridge Wells Festival championship match against Somerset on 85-3.

An action-packed day that saw 13 wickets fall ended with Kent trailing by 123 runs after losing their skipper five minutes before the close.

The home reply started dreadfully when Joe Denly allowed Charl Willoughby’s first ball of the innings to squeeze between bat and pad and clip his off stump.

James Tredwell (9) then went leg before to a Trego in-swinger, as did Key for a 118-ball stay worth 48 two overs from the close as Trego bagged 2-13 against his old side.

Earlier, Ryan McLaren bagged 5-31 and Robbie Joseph 4-67 as Somerset were skittled out for 208 inside 58 overs.

No Somerset batsman reached a half-century as Kent’s all-seam attack got the ball to swing around profusely in sunny conditions at The Nevill.

Five wickets went in each of the first two sessions as Kent rammed home their early advantage after lunch.

In the over after the interval James Hildreth (22) worked across the line of a in-swinging ball to go leg before, bringing together ex-Kent all-rounder Peter Trego (49) and Craig Kieswetter (20) for an attractive partnership that added 50 in seven overs until Kieswetter, in trying to shoulder arms to McLaren, steered a catch to the slip cordon.

Trego rode his luck to clatter nine boundaries before he nicked a ball from Joseph to the tumbling Geraint Jones then another former St Lawrence favourite, Ben Phillips (20) had his off stump pegged back by Joseph.

McLaren polished the job off when he had last man Charl Willoughby well caught at second slip on the stroke of tea.

The hosts had also taken five wickets in the first session, though there were no signs of anything untoward early on as the newly promoted visitors, batting first after winning the toss, cantered on to 31 without loss after 10 overs.

Left-handed openers Marcus Trescothick and Neil Edwards hardly played a false shot on a sublime white pitch as Kent’s new ball attack of Martin Saggers and Yasir Arafat struggled to get the ball past the bat.

But all that changed when skipper Rob Key introduced his first change bowlers McLaren and Joseph.

With his fifth ball of the match McLaren extracted some extra lift to have Edwards (15) caught behind off an edged back-foot force then, with his next ball, McLaren plucked out the off stump of former Aussie Test legend Justin Langer to send him packing for a golden duck with a superb in-swinger.

Trescothick survived the hat-trick ball in McLaren’s next over before Joseph got in on the act.

Having had Hildreth dropped by Justin Kemp at sip when on two, Joseph hit back by taking two wickets with his next two deliveries.

Trescothick (23), cutting hard, got a toe-end to be well caught by Martin van Jaarsveld at second slip then, half-forward in defence to his first ball, Zander de Bruyn, missed an off-cutter to go leg before and make it 41-4.

Ian Blackwell, the fourth left-hander in the top six, came in to post the Somerset 50 by hooking a Joseph bouncer over long leg for six, but Blackwell perished soon after.

Arafat, who replaced Joseph at the Railway End for his second stint of the morning, ducked the ball in off the seam to thud Blackwell on the front pad as he attempted to clip through wide mid-on. Umpire Rob Bailey upheld the leg before appeal and Blackwell departed making a point to inspect the inside edge of his bat.