Opening combination goes undisturbed as Canterbury tale ends tamely

Openers Steve Titchard and Steve Stubbings have recorded the second highest partnership in Derbyshire's history but their feat carried little relevance beyond the statistical as their team's Championship fixture with Kent ended in a tame draw at Canterbury today. Titchard and Stubbings batted undisturbed through the fourth and final day of the match to take the visitors to a second innings score of 293/0 before play was called off in late afternoon.

Titchard's unconquered 141 represented his highest score for his new team since his transfer from Lancashire at the start of 1999, while Stubbings' 135 snared him a morale-boosting maiden hundred for the county. Both played very straight - on and off drives were in abundance - but neither the pitch nor the attack posed too many terrors. It was a measure of the extent to which the match had lost any genuine meaning that Kent captain Matthew Fleming even found time toward the end to ensure that all eleven of his players received a chance to bowl at some stage of the day. The home team also took the opportunity of resting Rahul Dravid and Min Patel just after tea, sending on substitute Ben Trott and physio Martin Sigley in their places as the inevitable early finish loomed.

By the time that the match was finally brought to a merciful halt at 5:20pm, the teams had each taken nine points away from it. This a result which leaves Kent entrenched in sixth place on the Division One table but which has seen Derbyshire relegate Hampshire to bottom position. It is Hampshire which Derbyshire meets in its next match (beginning on Wednesday at Derby). Kent's players, meanwhile, stay at home to ready themselves for a clash with Leicestershire which starts the same day.