BURNT gravy stopped play for five surreal minutes at Old Trafford on the final afternoon, but Kent then suffered a mad-cap hour in which they lost their last seven wickets to fall to a hapless eight-wicket LV Championship defeat to Lancashire.

The visitors, following on 179 in arrears, were doing their best to churn out a draw when a fourth-wicket stand between Darren Stevens and Martin van Jaarsveld was briefly interrupted when burning gravy in the kitchens of the old red-brick Victorian pavilion set off fire alarms and led to an evacuation of supporters.

The Kent innings resumed and both partners reached half-centuries before a silly run out sparked a dramatic collapse that concluded with Kent losing their last four wickets for one run in the space of 21 balls.

The turning point came when van Jaarsveld worked a ball from Muthiah Muralitharan to square-leg and called Stevens through for a chancy single. The gamble backfired when Tom Smith picked up and threw down the stumps at the strikers' end to send Stevens packing for 55 and end their 100 stand after 24 overs.

In gloomy conditions and with rain threatening, Kent were still 24 behind and needed to bat out time if they were to draw, but that proved beyond them in this weary batting display.

Three overs later Geraint Jones (2) played outside an in-swinger from James Anderson then James Tredwell (1) pushed tentatively at Muralitharan to be caught at slip with the visitors still seven in arrears.

Van Jaarsveld and Andrew Hall, playing in his final game before international duty in Ireland, took Kent into credit but then Hall (6) edged a push-drive in Gary Keedy's first over of the day to be held at slip.

Without addition to the score, van Jaarsveld, after a stoic 85 from 168-balls, clipped firmly to short mid-wicket to be superbly caught low down and to his left by Paul Horton then, in the next over, Yasir Arafat, inexplicably danced down the pitch to Keedy to hole out to long-off for nought.

Muralitharan then bamboozled Ryan McLaren (0) and pegged back the left-hander's leg stump to finish with four for 72 and polish the innings off.

The hosts were left with 35 overs to score the 12 runs they needed for victory. They lost both openers in pursuit of the win, both to catches off Simon Cook, but they achieved their goal inside 17 balls to bank 22 first division points while Kent reaped only three.

In reality, it was all Rob Key's men deserved from such a poor performance over four rain-affected days in the north west.

Their bowling attack looked tired and lacked any cutting edge, their fielding was again slipshod and their batting generally lacked discipline and application.

Jones, Joe Denly, Key, Stevens and van Jaarsveld all made half-centuries, but no one dug in to play the size of innings that might have saved a game that lost 113 overs to rain. In effect, this game was completed in just over two-and-a-half days.

SCORECARD

Lancashire first innings

I J Sutcliffe c Jones b McLaren 57
P J Horton lbw b Cook 29
M B Loye c Jones b Hall 75
B J Hodge not out 156
S G Law c &b Denly 58
T C Smith st Jones b Tredwell 8
D G Cork not out 40
Extras 28

Total 451 for five declared after 112 overs.

Fall of wicket: 1-71, 2-165, 3-217, 4-354, 5-377.

Bowling: Arafat 18-3-65-0, Hall 18-0-100-1, Cook 16-1-46-1, McLaren 15-1-61-1, Tredwell 31-4-103-1, Stevens 6-0-32-0, Denly 8-0-34-1.

Kent first innings

J L Denly b Cork 77
R W T Key lbw b Anderson 28
M van Jaarsveld b Cork 7
M J Walker c Sutton b Cork 1
D I Stevens c Horton b Muralitharan 14
J C Tredwell c Law b Muralitharan 10
A J Hall c Sutton b Muralitharan 4
Yasir Arafat c Smith b Muralitharan 18
R McLaren not out 14
S J Cook lbw b Anderson 13
Extras 26

Total 272 all out after 88.4 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-83, 2-105, 3-117, 4-120, 5-160, 6-182, 7-194, 8-210, 9-244

Bowling: Anderson 22.4-7-64-3, Cork 11.1-4-30-2, Muralitharan 34-7-73-4, Smith 6.5-3-37-0, Keedy 14-2-44-1.

Kent second innings (following on 179-runs behind)

J L Denly c&b Smith 9
R W T Key c Hodge b Anderson 17
M van Jaarsveld c Horton b Muralitharan 85
M J Walker lbw b Muralitharan 7
D I Stevens run out 55
G O Jones b Anderson 2
J C Tredwell c Law b Muralitharan 1
A J Hall c Law b Keedy 6
Yasir Arafat c Anderson b Keedy 0
R McLaren b Muralitharan 0
S J Cook not out 1
Extras 7

Total 190 all out after 63.2 overs.

Fall of wicket: 1-17, 2-39, 3-58, 4-158, 5-165. 6-172, 7-189, 8-189. 9-189.

Bowling: Anderson 22-6-48-2, Smith 10-0-44-1, Muralitharan 25-1-72-4, Keedy 5-1-17-2, Hodge 1-0-4-0.

Lancashire second innings

I J Sutcliffe c Jones b Cook 0
P J Horton c Arafat b Cook 3
M B Loye not out 8
B J Hodge not out 0
Extras 1

Total 12 for two after 2.5 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-1, 2-8.

Bowling: Cook 1.5-0-9-2, Hall 1-0-3-0.

Bonus points: Lancashire 22pts Kent 3pts.