By Neville Scott at Canterbury
First day of four: Kent (117-0) trail Durham (229) by 112 runs
GIVEN a warm, cracked pitch, its tufted grass separated by patches of bare earth from which a Min Patel delivery could spit and turn to have John Morris taken at slip as early as the 34th over, Durham's modest total may just keep them alive, though they have only one youthful spinner available.
If so, they will thank Michael Foster and Steve Harmison, 19, two of a dozen former under-19 internationals on the staff, for a buccaneering 10th-wicket stand which put on 102 in 20 overs and fell just a single short of the Durham record.
But they will also have to bowl rather more to the conditions than their wayward seamers managed in a crucial last session. Kent roared away, their openers cutting at wide balls with abandon as Robert Key reached a confident maiden fifty.
Morris, hampered by a tweaked hamstring, had become Durham's highest first-class run-maker before he was the third in a collapse of eight wickets for 50. Patel profited against fatally static batsmen to collect his first five-wicket haul since injuring a knee at the start of last season.
Yet Durham's dedication was notable, the calm Michael Gough, 18, who was one of Carl Hooper's two victims in three balls, again impressing. Only two batsmen fell rashly, trying to break Kent's domination, and the wisdom of counter-attacking was later confirmed.
Foster reached 76 not out from 84 balls with superb placement against defensive fields, while Harmison's 36 was his best yet. Blessed with an accent which makes Jackie Charlton, another native of the Ashington pit village, sound like Lady Penelope, Harmison eventually succumbed to one which Patel tossed high and slow.
Day 2: Marsh swallows up Durham's attack
By Neville Scott at Canterbury
Second day of four: Durham (229 & 30-1) trail Kent (495) by 236 runs
AN ASSURED maiden century in his fourth innings from opener Robert Key, who turned 19 only 10 days ago, set Kent on their way to a probable second championship victory. But it was their admirable captain, Steve Marsh, with a glittering 95-ball 92, who killed off Durham's modest attack as 173 runs came in the 33 overs to tea.
That period looks to have settled the match. For 90 minutes Durham's inexperienced and inaccurate seamers had at last bowled consistently straight enough to exploit the pitch's variable bounce. Steve Harmison, bringing the ball down hard from a high action, claimed three wickets in 39 balls as Kent went from 168 for none to 252 for five.
David Fulton, now with 318 from his last five innings, was undone by one which lifted and Trevor Ward top-edged his hook to be caught by the sprinting wicketkeeper, Martin Speight.
The ball which startled Carl Hooper as it kicked from a length and hit a glove managed, momentarily, to puncture even his sang-froid, bringing Harmison his first success and showing what might have been.
Key, built like a heavyweight boxer, fell three balls after reaching his hundred, bowled by one which kept low, before Matthew Walker was yorked.
However Marsh, complemented by Alan Wells' more sedate 95, then launched his assault. Pace and lift meant that anything wide was hammered, and using his feet beautifully Marsh so deliberately savaged spinner Nicky Phillips that 51 came from six overs, ending his threat on a turning pitch.
Day 3: Durham suffer the brunt of Headley's hostility
By Neville Scott at Canterbury
Third day of four: Kent v Durham
DEAN HEADLEY, in a splendidly ruthless, sometimes frightening spell, exploited the venom in a pitch of steepling lift from a spot on a length to set up Kent's victory over Durham by an innings and 27 runs at Canterbury yesterday.
Durham's more callow seamers had notably failed to emulate Headley's feats on Friday, which was the main reason for their heavy defeat. Having already disposed of young opener Michael Gough, fending to short leg, the previous evening, Headley removed Nicky Phillips, edging a lifter to gully, and had Nick Speak and Paul Collingwood, both unsurprisingly on the back foot, for ducks.
Figures of four for 44 in a 12-over new-ball spell hardly conveyed Headley's hostility, witnessed in an involuntary flinch even from the boundary. The courage displayed by Jon Lewis, who was thrice struck on arm or hand and eventually spectacularly stumped off a Min Patel ball which spat and turned two feet from the same spot, was acknowledged by the ovation that his 107-ball 72 received.
Headley also ran in from long leg to take a top edge after Martin Speight had hooked at the largely wayward Martin McCague. Sadly McCague will not soon be challenging again for Headley's England slot.
Rehabilitation in the second XI followed a last over in his previous competitive game, a month ago, which contained three wides and two no-balls. Here McCague, who, like many snorting fast bowlers, is more frail of self-belief than his demeanour would suggest, showed rhythm in patches but might be pressed to resist the claims of Ben Phillips to his county place.
But there are other seamers around seeking Test calls. According to Durham's senior bowler Simon Brown, there are many more in the frame now than for some 15 years. One could list a dozen under-25 fast men whom it would be no surprise to see selected in the next few summers.
This is not to say they would last - even after nine Tests, Headley faces demotion demands - but it is a change indeed. Part of the reason is that counties have begun to take seriously their obligation to find talent in the communities which once were bowling reservoirs.
Brown, himself an electrician by trade from near Sunderland, points to his team-mate Steve Harmison, 19, who would have been a miner had there been a pit left in the North-East to enter. ``In four-day cricket,'' he adds, ``you now badly need people with pace. When pitches were more helpful, and games contrived, that didn't apply. Counties have become desperate for quick men today.''
Switching ends to allow Patel to continue, Headley proved swift again in his post-lunch spell, having the injured John Morris at short leg with one which may have stopped and John Wood in the gully. Four lusty Harmison boundaries in his final over hurt Headley's figures (six for 71) but the innings victory came with more than 150 overs to spare.
Day 4: Durham's sin of omission
By Neville Scott at Canterbury
Kent (495) bt Durham (229 & 239) by an innings & 27 runs
THE dread words ``unfit for first-class cricket'' were muttered by senior Durham players on Saturday, following a defeat with 153.4 overs unused. They meant the pitch, of course, though, in this match, they might equally have indicted their county's attack.
Having performed rousingly well in three previous games, Durham's bowlers, by the side's own admission, were dreadful here. The decision - laudable when made, mistaken in hindsight - was to leave out Simon Brown, though fit again, and keep faith with his junior colleagues.
Brown would have known where to bowl. On a pitch which granted Dean Headley (six for 71 in the second innings) quite dangerous lift off a length from the Pavilion End, only Steve Harmison, in one seven-over, second-day burst, showed the accuracy to reply in kind.
The same end also delighted Min Patel, who took eight for 140 in the match without bowling that well. Balls climbed and turned at pace from the first morning and frozen Durham batsmen lacked the technique and experience to counter.
Kent let none of this impede them. Robert Key cut and pulled loose bowling for a maiden century and veteran Steve Marsh, twice his age but entirely as nimble, destroyed Nicky Phillips, Durham's off-spinner, in an assault which was almost painful to watch.