Kent were bowled out for 284 by Somerset on a fluctuating second day in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury.
Joey Evison hit 85 and Harry Finch 54 as the hosts recovered from 114 for five.
Somerset captain Lewis Gregory’s first over went for 20, but he rallied to take four for 66, including the key wicket of Evison, but bad light stopped play before Somerset had the chance to reply, with 23 scheduled overs remaining.
The weather had wiped out the first day at the Spitfire Ground and conditions were still so blustery on Saturday morning that the advertising hoardings had to be stacked safely away from the boundary.
Somerset, who left out the England spinner Shoaib Bashir, chose to bowl and produced a torrid opening spell. Kent scored just 17 off the first ten overs from Josh Davey and Jake Ball, but when Gregory came on from the Nackington Road End the batters were initially able to cut loose.
Tawanda Muyeye took 24 balls and 39 minutes to get off the mark, but once the opening pair had been seen off he hit 33 from 55 balls before Gregory bowled him.
Gregory struck again in his next over when he had Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond caught at second slip by Kasey Aldridge and Jack Leaning then went for a golden duck James Rew caught behind down the leg side off Ned Leonard.
Matt Renshaw had Joe Denly caught by Gregory for 19 with the final ball of the session to leave Kent on 110 for four at lunch.
The normally staid Compton tried to hook Gregory and was caught on the boundary by Leonard for 32 but Kent responded with a partnership of 93, Evison joining Finch to take the hosts past the 200 mark.
Kasey Aldridge then tilted the equation back in Somerset’s favour with two wickets in the 53rd over. Finch drove him to Tom Banton at mid-wicket and he then had Wes Agar caught for a duck in the slips by Gregory.
Sensing he might run out of partners, Evison went on the attack, swiping Renshaw for six over cow corner. He was dropped by Tom Lammonby, off Aldridge, on 51, but Goldsworthy then claimed his first ever first-class wicket when he bowled Nathan Gilchrist for just two, leaving Kent on 235 for eight at tea.
The hosts countered with a stand of 61 for the ninth wicket which was only broken when Evison tried to drive Goldsworthy, who deflected the ball on to the stumps at the non-strikers end and ran out Matt Parkinson for 25.
Evison then fell on the deep square leg boundary when he tried to hook Gregory and was caught by Goldsworthy.
Somerset’s openers Tom Lammonby and Sean Dickson made it as far as the middle when the umpires took a light reading and suspended play. With no improvement looking likely, the evening session was abandoned at 6.05pm.
Kent’s Joey Evison said: “At 115 for five it’s obviously a tricky period and you want to get the team up to 150, 200, and 250, but we lost a couple of wickets in clusters. We did quite well to get up to 284, but I think we have left a fair few runs out there because it is a nice wicket to bat on.
“I think we would have liked 350 or more. We had some nice partnerships of 60, 70 and 80 but we would have liked them to be a hundred plus.
“At five down there was a lot of pressure on us but the ball was just getting older and older. There wasn’t much bounce and the ball was getting a bit softer. It was getting easier the longer we stayed out there and I always like batting with Finchy. He’s a calm, level-headed guy and Parky (Matt Parkinson) batted for over 60 or 70 balls there, which was crucial.
“All runs are key. The last five wickets we were able to get over 30 for a couple of partnerships and that was crucial to getting that batting point. We had a couple of unlucky dismissals but wickets in clusters is something we’ve got to look at. Hopefully that 350 mark will come in the next innings.
“It’s a new ball wicket, there’s not much bounce, so you do need to make early inroads as a bowling unit.”
Somerset’s Jason Kerr said: “We would have settled for that. When you win the toss and bowl you want to bowl the opposition out and we’ve managed to do that on day one.
(On the Kookaburra ball.) “You’ve got to try and find a way and take that chance. I thought we set the tone brilliantly. Davey and Ball did brilliantly but didn’t get their rewards. It was really difficult to break partnerships as the day went on.
“Kasey (Aldridge) and Lewis (Gregory) were outstanding. Lewis was behind the eight ball after his first over. He’s been limited with overs because he’s carrying a couple of niggles but he showed class. Kasey had to be patient until we was brought into the attack but I thought Lewis used him brilliantly. He ran in, managed to get a little bit out of the surface and caused problems.
(On Bashir’s exclusion). This wicket has been under the covers for the last week and it’s rained for the last two days pretty much non stop, so there’s a huge amount of moisture. With it being a shortened game we didn’t feel that Bash was going to bowl overs. Due to us being slow with the over rate and the wind being a factor, blowing the bails off, we fell behind, so we needed to use Lewis (Goldsworthy) and Matt Renshaw to accelerate that.
“He was available for selection and I think if it had been a four-day game there’s a good chance he would have played.”