The 100th Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week has finally got under way – after five umpires’ inspections – at the lovely Nevill Ground, but in the 99 previous festivals there can seldom have been as much frustration as was felt beneath the purple rhododendrons today.
Play finally began at 4.15pm after a long mopping-up operation, but after just 63 minutes – in which Hampshire, put in, reached 50 for three – rain returned to bring an early end to what entertainment there had been for a crowd which, at its height, was around 1,500.
Many spectators had given up hope and gone home, however, by the time the match started with Rob Key, the Kent captain, winning the toss and – predictably enough – choosing to take first use of a surface which had been worked on furiously throughout the day to make it fit for play.
A weekend thunderstorm had flooded the ground in the early hours of Sunday, and more rain during the last couple of days had severely hampered attempts to repair that damage before the start of a cricket week which Kent have celebrated by publishing a special 44-page brochure to mark the 100th playing of a much-loved festival first staged here in 1902.
Not since 1908, meanwhile, when Kent were due to play Sussex on this ground, has the county suffered a total washout in a home first-class fixture, but for a long time it seemed as if 2012 might challenge that statistic as the Nevill groundstaff struggled to make conditions playable while a series of light showers mocked their efforts.
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Inspections at 10.30am, noon, 1.40, 2.45 and 3.30 were made before the umpires, Richard Illingworth and Steve Gale, decided that play could begin. A decent-sized crowd had endured the frustrations largely good-humouredly, a situation no doubt helped by the hospitality on offer at the various marquees in the ‘tented village’ which stretches along one side of the ground, and at least they had some action to enjoy before the weather closed in again.
Charlie Shreck made the initial breakthrough for Kent, drawing Michael Carberry forward and seaming the ball away just enough from the left-hander to induce the edge through to Geraint Jones, the wicketkeeper.
Bilal Shafayat, preferred to James Vince for this match, started with some silky legside strokes against Shreck but, on nine, he shuffled half-forward to Mark Davies and was leg-before.
Simon Katich, who finished with a solid-looking 21 not out, got under way with an extra cover four off Shreck, but Hampshire also lost their captain, Jimmy Adams, who became Davies’s second leg-before victim, before Liam Dawson helped the former Australian Test batsman to see it through to the early finish at 5.18pm.
Kent v Hampshire at Tunbridge Wells (first day of four; Kent won toss): Hampshire have scored 50 for three wickets against Kent
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Hampshire: First Innings
M A Carberry c Jones b Shreck 7
*J H K Adams lbw b Davies 8
B M Shafayat lbw b Davies 9
S M Katich not out 21
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L A Dawson not out 5
Total (3 wkts, 15.1 overs) 50
S M Ervine, †M D Bates, A D Mascarenhas, K Ali, J A Tomlinson and D J Balcombe to bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-20, 3-37.
Bowling: Davies 8-2-21-2; Shreck 4-0-20-1; Stevens 3.1-1-9-0.
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Kent: S A Northeast, *R W T Key, B W Harmison, B P Nash, M J Powell, D I Stevens, †G O Jones, M T Coles, J C Tredwell, M Davies, C E Shreck.
Umpires: S C Gale and R K Illingworth.