SINNER on the rain-ruined opening day, Joe Denly made amends for Wednesday morning's blunder of dropping Mark Ramprakash, by helping to bat Kent into a position of supremacy by stumps come Thursday evening.

Fresh from scoring his maiden championship century against Hampshire last week, Denly scored an excellent 85 for his part in a second wicket stand worth 161 in 38 overs with Martin van Jaarsveld, who went on to reach 126 not out by the close and take Kent through to 269 for three - a lead of 103 runs.

After the sixth over loss of Rob Key, caught behind off Matt Nicholson for six, Kent's second-wicket pairing took their side past the Surrey first innings of 166 before they suffered another loss.

Though dropped on 21(a skier at mid-wicket downed by an embarrassed Scott Newman) and then on 48 (a diving chance by keeper Jonathan Batty), Denly was only 15 short of a second century when he lost his off stump after driving over the top of a Rikki Clarke Yorker.

Clarke limped off two balls later having seemingly picked up a hamstring strain and his over was completed by skipper Mark Butcher.

Kent were then forced to send in James Tredwell at No4 in place of Matt Walker, who seems highly unlikely to play any further part in the game. The left-hander split his left thumb when trying to take a slip catch earlier in the day and received nine stitches in a wound that could keep him out for up to 10 days.

After returning from hospital Walker said: "The seam of the ball hit the end of my thumb and it just split open like a sausage. There's no fracture or ligament damage, but the doctor said to be careful with it because the split was so deep he could see the bone through it."

As it was, Tredwell hung around without ever looking fluent as he and van Jaarsveld added another 39 but, with his score on 17, Tredwell was drawn down the pitch by Nayan Doshi to be stumped leg-side having been soundly beaten in the flight.

Van Jaarsveld, elegant and controlled on the whole, should have gone with his score on 89 when his top-edged pull shot against Butcher looped to mid-wicket where Newman again fumbled.

The escape allowed van Jaarsveld to post his second century in as many games, this one from 140 balls and with two sixes and 15 fours.

Together with Stevens (32 not out) the South African made it through to the close unbeaten, and with power to add to Kent's strong position come day three.

Though Kent had dropped another three catches earlier in the day their pace attack of Andrew Hall, Yasir Arafat and Ryan McLaren proved too good for Surrey who were shot out for 166 inside 44 overs.

Plying their trade on a Whitgift School pitch that had sweated under the covers for six hours on Wednesday and then overnight, Kent's pace triumvirate proved nigh-on unplayable as they got the ball to swing and seam around.

Indeed, having reduced the hosts to 88 for seven, Kent might have hoped to dismiss Surrey a little sooner, but a battling, unbeaten 48 from Australian Nicholson at least took them beyond 150.

The collapse started in the 10th over of the day when Batty (9), on the back foot to Hall, edged for Geraint Jones to dive in front of slip and take a magnificent catch in one glove.

Butcher (4) fenced a lifting leg-cutter from Hall to van Jaarsveld at second slip then Ramprakash, having been dropped by Hall on 10, drove airily at Arafat to be caught by Jones off an inside edge and go for 35.

Clarke (1) drove down the wrong line to lose his off stump to Arafat and Ali Brown (18) followed suit to have his stumps re-arranged by Hall.

Ian Salisbury contributed six before he flicked leg-side against Arafat to give Jones another good catch and make it 88 for seven.

Neil Saker (6) and Nayan Doshi (13) gave Nicholson valuable support for a while, but McLaren had the former caught in the gully then Stevens enticed Doshi to clip into the hands of Tredwell at cover point.

The innings finished soon after lunch when Tredwell caught his third catch, low down at slip to account for Mohammad Akram and give Hall figures of five for 59.

Incredibly, they were Hall's best championship figures for Kent and this was his first five-wicket haul in 35 championship matches, 18 for Kent and 17 for Worcestershire.

SCORECARD

Surrey first innings

S A Newman lbw b Hall 9
J N Batty c Jones b Hall 9
M R Ramprakash c Jones b Arafat 35
M A Butcher c van Jaarsveld b Hall 4
A D Brown b Hall 18
R Clarke b Arafat 1
I D K Salisbury c Jones b Arafat 6
M J Nicholson not out 48
N C Saker c Tredwell b McLaren 6
N D Doshi c Tredwell b Stevens 13
Mohammad Akram c Tredwell b Hall 4
Extras 13

Total 166 all out after 44 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-13, 2-82, 3-62, 4-76, 5-82, 6-86, 7-88, 8-118, 9-149

Bowling: Arafat 16-4-49-3, Hall 17-4-59-5, Cook 3-0-19-0, McLaren 6-0-26-1, Stevens 2-1-5-1.

Kent first innings

R W T Key c Batty b Nicholson 6
J L Denly b Clarke 85
M van Jaarsveld not out 127
J C Tredwell st Batty b Doshi 17
D I Stevens not out 32
Extras 2

Total 269 for three after 66 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-18, 2-179, 3-218,

Bowling: Akram 17-6-42-0, Nicholson 14-1-71-1, Saker 8-1-34-0, Clarke 5.3-2-16-1, Salisbury 11-1-54-0, Doshi 6-0-34-1, Butcher 4.3-0-16-0.

Bonus points: Surrey 1pt, Kent 5pts.