IT HAS been a rotten weekend for Rikki Clarke, the Surrey all-rounder. On Saturday he was dropped from the England squad for the NatWest Series against New Zealand and West Indies; yesterday he conceded 24 runs in one over as Alex Loudon put Kent on the way to victory with his first fifty in the totesport league.

Loudon, who had gone in with Kent struggling at 19 for two in pursuit of a target of 231, struck two of Clarke’s first three balls to the boundary. The next delivery was a no-ball, which Loudon also hit for four. It cost Clarke two extras as well and presented Loudon with a free hit that resulted in a six over long-on. A straight-driven four completed the over.

Clarke was not invited to bowl again but the damage had been done. Loudon went on to reach his fifty off 40 balls with a six and ten fours and though he was then bowled driving at Tim Murtagh, he and Michael Carberry had put on 85 in 12 overs to give Kent the initiative.

Carberry, playing against his former county, was also out, leg-before to Adam Hollioake, as soon as he had reached 50 but Matthew Walker and David Fulton only had to play sensibly to make victory a formality with a fifth-wicket partnership of 95 in 18 overs.

It was a fourth defeat in six games for Surrey, the champions, who have just had a week off to reflect on a desperate start to the season that has seen them knocked out of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy by Ireland and plunged into the relegation zone in both the championship and the league.

The break did not seem to have done them much good after Kent put them in. They had slumped to 143 for seven before Nadeem Shahid, playing his first league game of the season, hit an unbeaten 61 off 55 balls with nine fours and a six to lift them to 230 for eight.