Kent Spitfires thrashed the Warwickshire Bears in the CB40 at Canterbury on Friday night condemning them to their first defeat of the season in all forms of cricket.

The game was curtailed by a spell of rain with the visitors deep in trouble, but it didn’t put a dampener on matters as Kent went on to win comfortably.

The visitors’ top order was blown away by a fantastic opening spell of bowling from Mark Davies, who bowled his eight overs straight through for figures of 3-10, with three maidens before rain cut short Warwickshire’s embarrassment at 94 for seven.

But it was no better for the Bears with the ball, Kent openers Sam Billings and Rob Key scoring 58 and 24 respectively in a 10-wicket Duckworth-Lewis thrashing.

Matt Coles made the initial breakthrough for Kent as Varun Chopra edged behind to Geraint Jones for a duck, before former Durham seamer Davies took centre stage.

First he induced a nick from William Porterfield that wicketkeeper Jones pouched, before Bears skipper Jim Troughton offered a straight-forward catch to James Tredwell at second slip.

Tim Ambrose flashed outside off stump but only succeeded in looping a catch to Sam Northeast in the gully, at which stage Warwickshire were nine for four and Davies had incredible figures of 3.4-3-1-3.

Darren Maddy and Rikki Clarke set about repairing some of the damage with a stand of 43, before the former was bowled by off-spinner Tredwell for 18 via his inside edge.

Clarke hit some pleasing boundaries, Azhar Mahmood in particular coming in for punishment, and the former England all-rounder was ably assisted by Chris Woakes.

Darren Stevens eventually bowled Clarke for 39 as the former Surrey man attempted to work the ball into the leg side, before Keith Barker was pinned plumb in front by Tredwell.

Woakes had reached 25 not out when the heavens opened, bringing an abrupt end to the Bears’ innings after 26.3 overs.

Set a revised target of 96 to win from 26 overs, 20-year-old Billings displayed an impressive range of shots all round the wicket as he and skipper Key carried the Spitfires over the line with almost 10 overs remaining – Chopra dropping Billings off Maddy’s bowling with the score on 50.

Warwickshire won the toss and elected to bat.

Kent side: Key, Billings, Mahmood, Stevens, Nash, Northeast, Jones, Tredwell, Coles, Ball, Davies.

Warwickshire side: Chopra, Porterfield, Troughton, Ambrose, Maddy, Clarke, Woakes, Barker, Piolet, Patel, Wright.

Umpires: RA Kettleborough & RT Robinson.

Result: Warks 94 for 7 (26.3 overs), Kent 96 for 0 (16.3 overs). Kent won by 10 wickets.

Picture by Sarah Ansell. To see more of Sarah’s pictures, visit www.sarahcanterbury.com