Somerset find themselves in deeper relegation trouble after they slipped to their third county championship defeat of the season when they were well beaten by Kent at Canterbury today.

Resuming on 221 for 6, the hosts lost Mark Ealham when he was caught by Rob Turner off Richard Johnson for 60, but Min Patel kept the score moving forward until Kent declared after 8 overs with the score on 286 for 7, Patel ending unbeaten on 71.

Requiring 331 for victory the Cidermen got off to the worst possible of starts when they lost Jamie Cox with the score on 4 and Mike Burns with the score on 18.

Two more wickets fell before lunch, by which time Keith Parsons was at the wicket and Somerset were on 47 for 4.

From this situation however Somerset were always struggling against a good bowling attack and despite a fighting innings from Keith Parsons who made 52 and 35 from Rob Turner , they were all out for 177 to give Kent victory by 153 runs.

At the end of the game Kevin Shine told me: "This was a poor day for us and we were thoroughly outplayed by them. They got 70 runs too many in their first innings and then when we batted apart from `Woody' and `Bowls' there were no partnerships. Then we were set 331 to win, they ran in and bowled aggressively and put the ball in the right spot and got us out."

He continued: "Of course we are disappointed but we have all talked it through and we now have to pick ourselves up. We have set ourselves a target to win three out of the last six championship matches."

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