Somerset Sabres took another step closer to relegation to the second division of the NUL when they slumped to another disappointing defeat at Canterbury last weekend.

After being put into bat the Kent openers Matthew Fleming and Ed Smith got off to a racing start having taken the score onto 38 from 5 overs before Fleming was out for 31.

James Hockley joined Smith and they brought up the half century but three runs later Bulbeck struck again to see the back of Hockley.

With the score on 75, Steffan Jones, who missed the championship match at Canterbury, claimed the scalp of dangerman Andrew Symonds cheaply.

Smith and Matthew Walker then shared a fourth wicket partnership of 78 until Walker became the first of Keith Dutch's two wickets when he was caught by Matt Wood for 45. The off spinner struck again shortly afterwards when he caught and bowled wicket-keeper Paul Nixon to make Kent168 for 5.

Opener Smith was the next to go when he was caught by Jamie Cox off Steffan Jones for 83, but Mark Ealham stayed until the end of the overs by which time the Spitfires had reached 238 for 6 and he was unbeaten on 44.

For the Sabres there were two wickets each for Bulbeck, Dutch and Jones.

The Somerset reply got off to a bad start when with the score on 7, Peter Bowler became the first of paceman Martin Saggers three victims.

Mike Burns joined Wood, but with the score on 23 the young opener was run out for 14. Two runs later Burns became another of Saggers victims, and then on 33 Cox was also run out.

From this point Somerset lost wicket steadily until Ian Blackwell offered some resistance scoring 23 which took him well over an hour to compile.

When Blackwell was out Somerset were 88 for 9 and although Simon Francis weighed in with some lusty blows by hitting 27 which included 1x6 and 3x4's, this merely delayed the inevitable outcome, and the Sabres were eventually all out for 112 to give Kent Spitfires victory by 126 runs.

After the match Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This was one of our poorest performances. We made some mistakes when we batted and we had a couple of run outs and our confidence has gone at the moment and now we have to pick ourselves up."

He continued: "We will be getting together as a unit to discuss the situation on Tuesday to try and sort things out. We have got 7 NUL games left, that's 28 points and 6 championship matches left to avoid relegation, plus we have got the C and G Final, and that's a lot of cricket still to play."

He concluded: "You don't suddenly become bad cricketers, I still believe in these guys and I see them hurting after a performance like today. We're going to get together and get down to the business of sorting things out."

© SOMERSET