COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP : Tonker Taylor lets rip with morning 100

BARRY FAIRALL reports from Canterbury Kent 397-4 v Leicestershire

It could have been the chill air, in which case there was every reason to adopt the brisk approach. As it was, Neil Taylor had a point to prove and a century before lunch on the first day here certainly made it. This was Tonker Taylor and Kent had better sit up and take note.

Taylor's beef is that he cannot make the team for the one-day matches and it was just Leicestershire's luck to run into him in the sort of mood that left bowlers wondering where to pitch the next one.

If Taylor had previously been considered a bit of a slouch, his 19 boundaries before the break suggested otherwise. He owed his chance to Trevor Ward's fourth-ball dismissal for a duck and some tinkering with the order, which had him listed in his regular championship slip at No 5.

As Ward walked back, leg before to David Millns and fortunate to have survived that long after a big shout off the first delivery of the morning, Taylor walked out. Millns, once the great white hope of English fast bowling until struck by an Achilles problem, may have wished he had not with figures of 2 for 100 off 18 overs by the close. Millns, who tended to over-pitch, had six fours taken off him in two overs by Taylor, whose half-century included 10 boundaries.

It was then a question of whether or not Taylor could keep plundering in similar vein as the clock ticked away. Adrian Pierson's off-breaks came in for some tap, but it was Hanse Cronje's seamers that provided the essential acceleration and it was the South African who sent down the final over of the session, conceding two more loose ones for Taylor to feast on.

Nowadays, a three-figure contribution before lunch - let alone in the first session - is a rarity and Taylor had reached his milestone off 119 balls. Though there was nothing exceptional in the strike rate, it was noted that the last Kent batsman to achieve the feat was Carl Hooper against Essex at Chelmsford last season, besides which only Peter Richardson, 31 years ago, had managed it for the county on the St Lawrence Ground.

All this smash and grab could be regarded as the tip of the iceberg from Leicestershire's point of view. They may have seen the back of Taylor when he swished at Alan Mullally outside the off-stump and was caught behind for 127, but Mark Benson, then on 60 and the stand worth 192, was simply biding his time.

Benson next featured in a partnership of 134 with Aravinda de Silva, who wrapped up well and made a half-century, and the captain was still there having batted all day for his 159.