Kent reduced Hampshire to 213 for seven at stumps on a weather-affected first day in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury.

Matt Parkinson took three for 31 and George Garrett three for 60 as the hosts exploited the conditions at the Spitfire Ground.

James Vince hit 88 for the visitors, but their next highest scorer was Liam Dawson, who made 31.

No play was possible before lunch, but when Kent won the toss a home supporter was moved to say: “If we can’t bowl a side out in these conditions, we never will.”

And while the bar is admittedly low, this was as good a day as the division’s basement side have enjoyed at the St. Lawrence in red-ball cricket all season.

It was damp, overcast and blustery and Fletcha Midleton was soon bowled by Garrett for eight, playing the wrong line.

Joey Evison then removed Toby Albert with his second ball for 11, playing on, before Nick Gubbins joined Vince. They put on 83 for the third wicket before Gubbins was caught behind off Garrett for 24.

When the light deteriorated, tea was taken at 3.10pm, with Hampshire on 135 for three. Conditions improved significantly after the restart but Ben Brown tried to hook Garrett and was caught by Evison for nine.

Vince was on 77 when he pulled Evison to midwicket and although Joe Denly couldn’t take the catch, the former England man atoned with a brilliant diving one-handed grab when Vince tried to drive Matt Parkinson through cover.

Parkinson then got Liam Dawson for 31, caught by Charlie Stobo at second slip, but Harry Finch missed a chance to stump James Fuller when he was on one, but he’d only added six more when Finch took his chance at redemption, grabbing a violently turning ball from Parkinson. 

With darkness encroaching once again, play was eventually abandoned for the day at 5.47 pm, with 11 overs remaining.

Kent’s Matt Parkinson said: “It was nice, it’s been a tough season for the boys and there haven’t been too many days in the championship where we’ve finished and said ‘yeah, that was a good one’, but that was good and I thought the seamers bowled well.

“We weren’t too sure about the pitch. The aim was obviously to make it a spin a bit more, it hasn’t spun too much all season so to pick up three wickets was fantastic. Vince’s class isn’t he? I’ve played against him for a long time now and he does make tough pitches look easy, so to get him was great. I think in general the boys bowled well. We probably didn’t get it right this morning as much as we should have but I thought after tea we looked fantastic.

“I think in September it is the time when as a spinner you think, please groundsman, can we have some spin? But as I’ve said it’s been a tough season and we’ve fielded so many overs, so to have only fielded 50 overs and taken seven wickets was great.”

(On Denly’s catch) “It was fantastic (although) he did drop a sitter before that off Jevvo (Evison)! But Denners is a great fielder and it’s been nice to have him back this week. (George Garrett) must be pleased as well. As I said, I don’t think we got it right this morning as a seam group, I think it was doing enough and probably as a collective we weren’t spot on but I thought after tea all the seamers were fantastic and for Gazza to pick up three was great.

“We’ve got to stay patient I think that’s what we did well this evening. The spell where Jas bowled was fantastic for someone as young and raw as he is.”

Hampshire’s Adrian Birrell said: “Everyone else struggled and James Vince didn’t look like he had any problems scoring. At one stage, I think at 70, he was going at a run a ball so he’s an incredible weapon for us because he bats so fast and gets the game going. While he was there we were scoring at over four an over and I think his innings was a superb innings.

“They (Vince and Gubbins) were a perfect combination the two them, of left and right. Gubbo’s pretty solid and he allows Vincey to score the way he does, so it was a very good partnership, followed by another one of course.

“I was surprised they brought spin on so late but maybe they thought (with) the overhead conditions and a good new ball they could use that for their seamers but their seamers didn’t look that threatening and Parkinson did change the course of the innings a little bit with the turn he extracted out of the pitch.

“He bowled slowly but he gave it a lot of air and did get a lot of turn. It was surprising. None of us saw that coming and we might have not picked the team we did pick if we’d seen that and they obviously didn’t see it likewise because they didn’t pick a second spinner. I think both sides maybe misread the pitch today and maybe it’s because it’s a little bit tacky, but it turned and we’ll see how it plays when it gets flatter later in the match.

“We’re not sure, there are a lot of unknowns. We’re not used to these conditions coming here, it’s usually a very, very good batting pitch and you think you’ll need 400 as par. Here I think 250 is about par.”