KENT had to contend with some serious leather-chasing on the opening day of their Tunbridge Wells Festival Week match as LV Championship leaders Yorkshire amassed 310 for three by stumps.

The top-of-the-table visitors suffered few alarms on the first day in front of a crowd of 2,500 and took full advantage of almost ideal batting conditions.

The car parks were closed by the time the skippers tossed up and it was Yorkshire's Darren Gough who called correctly and he elected to bat first at The Nevill.

Although the pitch had slight flecks of green in it, it played immaculately and openers Craig White and Joe Sayers had no problem in surviving the first hour to post 50.

In truth, Kent wasted the new ball and Andrew Hall from the Pavilion End and Yasir Arafat, from the Railway End, were guilty of spraying it around - almost as much as the graffiti artist who spent the winter daubing the interior of the scoreboard here.

Simon Cook replaced Hall, but he too struggled to control the swing through the air, and it took Ryan McLaren, who replaced Arafat from the 13th over to show what good line and length is all about.

The switch reaped rewards in the 17th over of the day when White pushed at a lifting leg-cutter and edged a regulation catch to Hall at first slip to make it 52 for one.

Sayers and Anthony McGrath, the batsman who might have left Yorkshire but for the return of Gough, batted on sublimely thereafter and Kent were left grasping at straws.

McGrath, who scored a paltry 62 in his first six championship innings this season, seemingly always gets runs against Kent and he had little or no trouble in reaching a hundred from 220 balls.

Kent skipper Rob Key turned to part-time seamer Darren Stevens and occasional leg-spinner Joe Denly as Sayers too cantered past three figures in a second wicket stand worth 203.

The hosts finally made a breakthrough when McGrath, three balls after posting his ton, pushed with bat behind pad at a Hall in-ducker to go leg before to make it 255 for two.

Some 27 runs later, Pakistan's Younis Khan went in the same fashion to Cook for only seven, off balance and playing slightly across the line he became Kent's last victim of the day.

By then, hundreds of supporters had flocked home yet Kent skipper Rob Key was simply relieved. He said afterwards: "It might have been 450 on the board on that pitch."

SCORECARD

Yorkshire first innings

C White c Hall b McLaren 21
J J Sayers not out 137
A McGrath lbw b Hall 100
Younis Khan lbw b Cook 7
J A Rudolph not out 14
Extras 31

Total 310 for three after 104 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-52, 2-255, 3-281.

Bowling: Arafat 17-5-57-0, Hall 10-3-21-1, McLaren 16-2-54-1, Tredwell 24-7-57-0, Stevens 11-2-28-0, Denly 5-1-14-0.

Bonus points: Kent 1pt, Yorkshire 3pts.