Kent fans are being urged to come out and show their support for the side after a great start to the season.

On the field, Rob Key and the team have been competitive in all formats of the game, culminating in a three run win over the Hampshire Royals in the Twenty 20 at the Ageas Bowl on Friday night.

Under the leadership of new Head Coach, Jimmy Adams, the Spitfires have gone from strength to strength as they look to get promoted from the Second Division of the County Championship, compete in the Clydesdale Bank 40 over competition, whilst they attempt to make it through to the Quarter Finals Day of the Twenty 20 Cup.

The one thing missing for the side this season and that’s not exclusive to Kent, is the weather. It has plagued them somewhat this year with the Tunbridge Wells week all but washed out, but Chief Executive Jamie Clifford is urging fans to get out and show their support for the side as we head into a crucial period of the season:

“I feel we have made a huge amount of ground in the last two years rebuilding the financial structure of the club, rebuilding the ground to the point where we’ve got fantastic facilities and it’s irritating when something like weather can interrupt your progess on getting that strategy moving and implemented.”

“If every member brought a friend, a paying friend to one game, to one day this season we’d close the gap made by Tunbridge Wells week, it’s as simple as that.”

“It’s a case of getting people to forget the wet period and look forward to what I think is a tremendous season of cricket. We have had quite a lot of County Championship cricket, but we’re not halfway through Twenty 20, there’s a lot to come in the CB40 and there are a lot of showpiece days of cricket to come, back in the ground at Canterbury.”

“There will be a lot of people that haven’t been to the ground since it’s been redeveloped and we would urge people that come maybe just once a year, coming more regularly would help and we as a county need fans to follow us and show their support.”

The difference the fans can make to a club like Kent is huge as their support could be what puts enough money in the coffers to offer new contracts to players such as Geraint Jones, James Tredwell and Darren Stevens who are all out of contract come the end of the season.

That point isn’t lost on Clifford and he feels the fans need to come and watch the side on a regular basis if they want to see Kent retain their quality expreienced players:

“Our strategy covers the infrastructure as well as the playing side and we’ve spent a lot of time on focusing on getting the buildings right and re-engineering the financial model, but our strategy was also about how we addressed the cricket side and we went through a detailed process in the winter, in terms of recruitment, our Head Coach and then the players and they’ve worked extermely hard to get to the position where they are now.”

“I think they deserve the support for the rest of the season as they are good cricket that’s attractive to watch. There’s nothing greater as a fan than going home having seen your side win, but if we are going to carry on that journey in terms of our playing staff, the model needs to work and you need to keep re-investing.”

“That’s where there is a call to arms and for the Kent support to get behind that determination to be successful on the field.”

Around 4,000 fans turned out at Beckenham last Sunday for Kent’s last home game in the Twenty 20 and Clifford was heartened by the level of support shown to his side and was especially pleased with the amount of fans that elected to turn up on the day:

“It shows that when the sun does shine, we do get good crowds. I hope people come to the game this Sunday (against Hampshire Royals) as we have a family day. I think it’s important we get the young fans in, especially as we’re playing so well.”

To ensure the county doesn’t get inflicted with too much cost if they do lose games to the weather, Kent insure some of the more high profile games, but Clifford revealed that can be as expensive as around £29,000 per year:

“You can not insure every day of the season as the premiums would far outweigh any pay you might get, so we insure all Twenty 20’s, all floodlit games, the South Africa fixture and the Sunday of Canterbury week.”

“We insure what we believe will be out highest yielding days. Hindsight says we should have insure all of Tunbridge Wells week, but you can go through a whole season and not have a single pay out and ended up frittering away a lot of money on insurance and it never pays out.”

“In a sense, it’s a bit of a gamble.”

“You can not insure against everything and I think we will look closely next year as to whether we are getting good value for money. The company we use is likely to be under stress because they will have paid out a lot this year and the likelyhood is that premiums are going to go up, so we will have to shop around.”

Clifford also wanted to reassure fans that if any game is washed out, it won’t hit them in the pocket:

“If a Twenty 20 is washed out as we had against Sussex, we’d offer a full refund, because we recognise that when people go home having seen nothing it’s only fair.”

“In circumstances when a game is underway, we’d then offer tickets for subsequent games as it’s important we keep people’s faith in what we are doing.”

Kent now enter a vital period of the season starting against the Hampshire Royals in the Twenty 20 on Sunday afternoon. From there, they play the Middlesex Panthers at Canterbury in the T20 on Tuesday night with the England Women taking on their Indian counterparts earlier in the day.

After that, they have a game against the Essex Eagles on Friday 6th July, which will be their last home Twenty 20 game of the season, with the South African side coming to Canterbury for a three day game beginning on Friday 13th July.

These six days of cricket could prove vital to Kent’s financial success and Clifford is hoping the club’s marketing strategies will get the fans out in force:

“We’ve got three more games in the T20 at home and we’ve got three specific promotions. This Sunday is our family day and the focus is on getting children and families into the ground. We’ve got the usual things like a bouncy castle and we’ll focus on making sure we give people a fun day out.”

“We’ve got a boys night out next Tuesday and that’s sponsored by Spitfire and then we’ve got the Bacardi girls night out which will be the Essex Fixture (July 6th), which we did very successfully last year and got a tremendous turnout. It was a great night out and it was great to see the ground full for that game.”

“We’ve also got a promotion running on our website for the first thousand people that come to the boys and girls night out.”

“We then have the South Africans coming and I think that represents our biggest opportunity to claw back some of the missing attendance back. It will be just before the First Test and the expectation levels will be very high.”

“The South Africans haven’t been to Canterbury for quite a while and then we have Canterbury week and that’s always a bumper Festival and the marketing team have worked very, very hard creating a special week.”

The emphasis for Kent at present has got to be the Twenty 20 Cup with their next six fixtures in that competition and qualifying for the Quarter Finals, especially a home tie proving a lucrative chance for Kent to claw back some money:

“There’s no pressure for the guys.” said Clifford. “A home Quarter Final, in terms of the impact that could have is massive.”

“That would cover our losses for that period (Tunbridge Wells week) in itself, but there are lots of sides trying to get into the Quarter Finals and everyone will be wanting to get a home Quarter Final.”

“In a way we have to treat that as a bonus if it happens. We certainly don’t plan as that being our strategy, but it can be lucrative and would be a great night out for everybody that comes and watches it.”

To book your tickets for any of Kent’s home games, visit www.kentcricket.co.uk