Sussex Sharks won by 61 runs

SPITFIRES finished their home totesport League campaign with another miserable performance in sliding to their ninth defeat of the season, this time by 61 runs at the hands of title-chasing Sussex Sharks.

Despite an excellent crowd of over 4,000 for Kent’s last home game of 2005, St Lawrence remained subdued and almost dumbfounded by yet another disappointing limited overs’ display.

On a sporting pitch that gave the seam bowlers assistance with occasional extra bounce Kent were unable to create much pressure on the experienced Sharks batting line up and ended up facing a 45-over victory target of 231.

Even though the fielders backed up the attack with some excellent catches, their groundwork was found wanting and the seamers never quite found line or length to consistently test the Sharks batsmen.

After the early loss of Matt Prior to a tumbling leg-side catch by Niall O’Brien, Sussex laid sound foundations with a second wicket stand of 115 in 24 overs between Chris Adams (43) and top-scorer Richard Montgomerie who finished with 72 from 82 balls.

Though it was never crash, bang, wallop entertainment the wily pair ran well between the wickets, stole singles at every opportunity and generally put away the bad balls whenever Spitfires served one up.

It took another stunning catch from James Tredwell to account for Adams when the former England bat found a leading edge for Tredwell to dive well to his right and claim a low, one-handed return chance.

Montgomerie went in the very next over to another athletic catch, this time as Matthew Walker at cover point held on to a firm cut shot off the bowling of Saggers.

The Sharks still had enough firepower to take their score beyond 200 with 20-plus scores from Michael Yardy, Tom Ambrose and Carl Hopkinson.

A late flurry of boundaries, including 27 off the last two overs from Martin Saggers helped the visitors post 230 for nine and a target always likely to be too much for Kent.

Shorn of the injured Rob Key and both their overseas players Andrew Hall and Justin Kemp, Spitfires batted like a side in disarray with players unsure of their roles and accordingly they made a dreadful start to their reply.

Young South African Neil Dexter marked his league debut with a fifth ball duck when he dragged on against James Kirtley then England Under-19 bat Joe Denly shouldered arms to Rana Naved only to lose his off stump.

Walker’s poor run of form continued when he miscued a pull high to mid-on, then Darren Stevens wafted at the next ball to edge behind and give Robin Martin-Jenkins two in two.

Half the side had gone within 15 overs after Martin van Jaarsveld holed out to deep mid-wicket then Tredwell edged another to potential England tourist Prior to make it 75 for six.

Michael Carberry, understandably discontented at Kent after being left out of Kent’s four-day side in recent weeks, showed spirit and style with a 65-ball 50 but support proved few and far between.

Fellow left-hander O’Brien (28) teamed up with Carberry to put on 49 before Kirtley returned to land the final blow, trapping the latter leg before with a quick yorker for 51.

It was Carberry who hit the biggest six of the day with a pull off Martin-Jenkins that bounced off the boot bonnet of a blue Rover parked on the players’ bank.

But, after a team performance like this one, it was Kentish pride that again suffered the biggest dent.

Kent: Dexter, Denly, van Jaarsveld, Walker, Stevens, Carberry, Tredwell, O’Brien, Cook, Saggers, Joseph.