Hamsphire struggle against Kent on a truncated day at Tunbridge Wells

The rhododendrons were resplendent, the outfield verdant and occasionally the sun shone but on a day when Kent set out their marquees to celebrate the start of the 100th Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week, the Nevill Ground suffered only frustration.

A flash flood that soaked the royal spa town barely 48 hours ahead of the scheduled start to this four-day clash with Hampshire also helped create a sodden outfield and a crusty-topped pitch that one local likened to a creme brulee. Clearly, they still eat well in these parts.

With damp patches on the pitch and outfield the umpires, Richard Illingworth and Steve Gale, were understandably reticent to start and held five pitch inspections before finally succumbing to the slow hand-clapping that emanated, in the main, from the equally well-watered Camra marquee.

The match officials finally deemed play possible at 4.10pm, by which time the Guardian's former cricket correspondent Matthew Engel was to be found ensconced among the Kentish men in the aforementioned tent from where he watched his first action at this ground since the late 1990s.

Having admitted that he once sub-edited on the News of the World, as a freelance casual of course, Engel ordered up a pint of the aptly-named Red Top for his first and only pint of a frustrating afternoon. Wisely, he had already deemed another local brew, Dartford Wobbler with an ABV of 4.3%, a tad too powerful for a mid-afternoon thirst-quencher.

Yet in the time it took Engel to sup his pint Hampshire were already three down with their top-order struggling to lay bat on ball after Kent had won the toss and inserted them. The wily new-ball pairing of Mark Davies and Charlie Shreck nipped it around at will and caused headaches aplenty during the 63 minutes of play that were possible before the rain arrived again.

Kent's one-time opening bat Michael Carberry followed one from Shreck to edge low to the wicketkeeper Geraint Jones, then, 10 runs on, Bilal Shafayat pushed outside the line of a Mark Davies off-cutter to go leg-before for nine. The visiting captain, Jimmy Adams, followed in near identical fashion with eight against his name when he too played down the wrong line to be lbw to Davies.

The clouds, the drizzle and the covers returned soon after and the faithful trooped home hoping for better weather on the morrow. At least they had not suffered like the crowd for the three-day clash here between Kent and Sussex in 1908, when the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled.