WHEN you are feeling sore, as Robert Key was entitled to be after being omitted from England’s first Test match of this Ashes summer, there can be no more soothing balm than the beautiful Nevill Ground.

Playing initially with great skill against the moving ball, as he and David Fulton frustrated the Surrey seamers for 43 overs, Key then responded to the sight of Martin Bicknell taking four wickets in 20 balls by leading a determined Kent recovery in the afternoon sunshine. Some of his strokes, especially off his pads, matched the splendour of the setting and it came as quite a shock — to Key as much as to a good-sized crowd absorbed by the cricket — when he drove James Benning’s medium pace straight to short extra cover.

Key, however, certainly has good reason to be fond of Tunbridge Wells. On June 2 last year, during the surge of early-season runs that culminated in a successful England Test return, he became the first batsman to 1,000 first-class runs while taking 180 off Lancashire. This time, his second hundred of the summer will go some way to easing the pain of seeing Ian Bell preferred for the first Test against Bangladesh, starting at Lord’s today.

Key admits to being hurt by his exclusion, feeling that he had battled hard in South Africa when replacing the injured Mark Butcher for the last three Tests, but he also knows that his next England opportunity might be around the corner. Yesterday’s 5¼ hour innings, containing 18 fours, was all he can do for now.

Kent’s scorecard makes strange reading, with Fulton and Andrew Hall also batting with great sense and excellent judgment of what to attack. Bicknell, expertly exploiting the moisture under the surface after Tuesday’s rain and a 15-minute delayed start, could have had several wickets in a ten-over new-ball spell costing seven runs, but he returned after lunch with a superlative spell of 9-4-10-4. Key, though, treated Nayan Doshi ’s left-arm spin roughly and Hall helped him to add 100.