Rain and Fell blunt Kent

Worcestershire 241 for 7 (Fell 75*, Tredwell 4-34) trail Kent 324 by 83 runs
Scorecard

Worcestershire teenager Tom Fell again blunted Kent's hopes of continuing their recent improvement in the LV= County Championship in two small passages of play on a rain-ruined third day at New Road.

The 19-year-old batsman advanced his career-best score to 75 not out as the home side moved to 241 for seven in their first innings - still trailing by 83 runs - after adding 28 in 7.4 overs after tea.

Following downpours in the morning, play was delayed until 4.45pm and the players were back in the pavilion within 20 minutes after more rain. On their return they stayed out for only a couple more overs before umpires Rob Bailey and Michael Gough quickly called off proceedings for the day when more rain rolled in from the Malvern Hills.

Fell has so far hit 11 boundaries in an impressively composed innings and his eighth-wicket partner, Jack Shantry, looked a more than a capable batsman in reaching 30 in an undefeated stand of 83 in 28 overs.

Worcestershire were in danger of following on when those two players linked up on Saturday and now they are only nine runs short of a second batting bowling point.

Fell, a student at Oxford Brookes, played two first-class matches for Oxford MCCU early in the season and met with mixed fortunes on breaking into the county team last month. Dismissed for a duck on his Championship debut against Glamorgan, he made the most of a second opportunity with scoring 62 not out against Australia.

Other than playing for more bonus points - Kent still need two wickets - this game now looks set to be a victim of the weather which wrecked two meetings when the teams were last together in the same division.

In 2007 the game at Worcester was a complete washout as the ground failed to recover from a summer flood and play was possible on only one of the four days in the return fixture.

Kent, who are unbeaten in their last six Championship games, are looking to climb away from the bottom two of the Division Two standings while Worcestershire are in mid-table.