With thin sunlight struggling to break through the London cloud the weather forecasters were proven correct, although unhelpful, as the pitch remained sufficiently wet from overnight rain to prevent play before lunch.

One cannot, on days like this, help suspecting that Surrey's recent investment in sprinklers, which helped to guarantee a beautiful, fast, green outfield last season, might have been more usefully directed towards more drainage. It might even be not be out of place to suggest that with ample slow and slow medium bowlers on both teams an unconventional choice of opening attack could have facilitated an earlier start. Still, at Lords the great wealth of the MCC was unable to make any play possible all day.

Furthermore as when play did start both sides set off determined to make up for lost time the crowd had limited cause for complaint. Heavy cloud cover at the Oval is often an indication of plentiful swing and the cue for the winner of the toss to insert their opposition, and as in this case it was Surrey they were able to do so without fear of facing their own spinners on days three and four.

The decision proved almost immediately to be a wise one when after a couple of looseners Martin Bicknell troubled and then removed Fulton in the first over. This brought Kent's leading batsmen together and both Smith and Key took advantage of some rare poor overs from Ormond who struggled to control the swinging ball at first except for three deliveries in his second over any of which could easily have brought a wicket. It was Bicknell again though, who with the total on twenty-seven took his his second wicket, removing danger batsman Robert Key for fifteen quick runs, the catch by Batty behind the stumps was a splendid effort.

Shortly afterwards Symonds flailed at a swinging ball from Ormond and the thick edge flew straight and hard to Salisbury at gully, he was quickly followed back into the pavilion by Walker, well taken at slip by Ricky Clarke. The penultimate over of Bicknell's spell saw him secure the wicket of Ed Smith, who failed to control his cover drive and sent a high chance to the hands of Ward at cover point. This left the visitors reeling at 48-5.

By now the openers were tiring and both Nixon and Ealham used a judicious mixture of nudges and shots to edge the total upwards. Ormond was unlucky not to break through again before Giddins took over from the pavilion end and Ricky Clarke bowled a tidy four over spell that will hopefully steady his bowling nerves after going for runs in his previous appearances. Giddins repeatedly passed the outside edge but was unable to split the two gritty campaigners before they had nursed the score on to 100 and Ealham was trapped in front. Fleming then joined Nixon at the crease and they pushed on to 129 before Ormond struck again, before Bicknell wrapped things up with his fine control of the swinging ball either side of tea.

Nixon's 54 was, in the conditions an excellent performance as the ball swung and the Surrey bowlers, for the most part bowled with control and accuracy. Martin Bicknell also deserves a special mention for his fine bowling and the fact that his figures of 6-42 complete his full house – he has now taken five wickets in an innings against each of the other seventeen counties, a feat rare for a bowler so frequently overlooked by the national selectors. In this fixture last season Fulton and Key made an opening stand of 198 during a rain and sleet interrupted draw in one of the coldest Aprils I can recall.

Taking to the field with only 153 behind them Kent knew that they needed to strike quickly and, with a brace of wickets Denmark's Amjad Khan did just that having Ward caught at the wicket and Mark Ramprakash LBW to leave Surrey on five for two and their own total looking far less modest that it had fifteen minutes earlier. Unfortunately for the visitors Khan's control and luck then deserted him and he was knocked out of the attack quickly afterwards by Nadeem's forthright strokeplay. Surrey were quickly back in trouble though as Nadeem unluckily tickled an edge down the leg side, the umpire took an age to decide, but eventually sent him on his way to leave the weakened Surrey batting line up at 39-3.

Saggers had more difficulty getting the swinging ball in the right place than the more experienced seamers in and was replaced by Ealham, but it was from the pavilion end that all of Surrey's wickets fell, with Fleming having Batty caught at slip and frustrating Ricky Clarke out held by Khan.

While Fleming bowled his medium pacers with excellent effect though, Brown, after a watchful start, set about Mark Ealham with his trademark brutality reaching 49 from 43 deliveries, when Saggers returned he too was mauled by this years Surrey beneficiary.

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