Kent reached 70 for two at stumps, on day one of their LV=Insurance County Championship match with Glamorgan at Canterbury. 

Ollie Robinson scored 43 and Jordan Cox was unbeaten on 26 at the end of a weather-affected day in Group Three, which saw the first two sessions wiped out. 

Glamorgan’s Timm van der Gugten took two wickets for 0 before play was abandoned due to a combination of rain and bad light at 5.57 pm.  

Fans were allowed back at the St Lawrence ground for the first time in 603 days, but although conditions were dry at the scheduled start time of 11 am, a saturated outfield delayed the morning session and four subsequent inspections took place before it actually started raining at 2.30 pm. 

Of the 950 members lucky enough to have won tickets in the ballot, only around 150 remained by the time play began at 4.28 pm, although they generated a healthy roar when Kent’s openers finally took to the field.  

Captain Sam Billings made his first appearance of the season for Kent, replacing Tawanda Muyeye and the hosts reshuffled their batting order, promoting Ollie Robinson to opener and dropping Daniel Bell-Drummond down to six.  

Glamorgan were unchanged and having won the toss they elected to bowl, under leaden skies and in winds that gusted up to 40 mph. The wind speed meant the floodlights couldn’t be turned on but conditions remained just about playable and Robinson looked elegant in his new role until he was caught low at first slip by David Lloyd off van der Gugten, ending an opening stand of 60. 

The same duo then removed Zak Crawley for an eight-ball duck and van der Gugten closed with impressive figures of 4-4-0-2 when the elements intervened. 

Kent’s Ollie Robinson said: “I’ve done it a bit (opened the batting) in the twos before. It’s a bit different at first team level but it’s a challenge I’m obviously excited about. I embraced it and fortunately I got a few runs. I probably should have got a few more but at the start of the day I probably would have taken 43 first crack. It’s a pretty good pitch actually, a good cricket pitch in terms of if you bowl it in the right spot there’s a bit there for you. If you don’t bowl in the right spots there’s opportunities to score. 

“Even 200 people feels like a lot of people, just that little bit of energy you get when hit a four and there’s a little ripple from the crowd, it just makes such a difference and it was special for me and Jordan Cox when we went out to bat. There was a big cheer and it’s things like that you miss and take for granted a lot of the time.” 

Glamorgan’s Timm van der Gugten said: ““We had the four seasons out there today, a bit of sun, a bit of rain, a bit of wind, they were testing conditions and we did our best to haul them back after they got off to a good start.

“Luckily I got to bowl with the wind and it was easier than coming up the slope, but I’ve been happy with the way I’ve been bowling recently and it was nice to get a couple of wickets.

“It was nice to see the crowd but we didn’t really hear them much, we were filling in time by doing crosswords for most of the day and learning some new words! Hopefully the weather clears for the rest of the game and they can enjoy some cricket.” 

Picture supplied by Kent Cricket.