Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Clifford: Progress made but we came up short
JAMIE CLIFFORD remained upbeat, despite a season in which Kent narrowly missed out on the semi-finals of the CB40 and T20 competitions and slipped out of the County Championship Division 2 promotion race in the final game. Kent’s chief executive said: “It has been a year of progress. Although I accept it has been ultimately frustrating, to me it is far less so than last year. “Long-term I am much happier than I was 12 months ago when I was quite concerned at the amount of ground we had to make up. We were not tipped for success at the start of the season by those who are supposed to know, we had a first-year coach and a squad that people thought had been thrown together. We started so well but just came up a bit short at the end.” He added: “There are lots of things to look back on at the end of the season, the one wicket we needed at Hampshire, the bad light at Yorkshire when we were in such a good position and the fact that it was at a ground without floodlights. “To score over 500 at a side
HOW THEY FINISHED
LV= COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP Division 2 PW L D Bat Bow Ps Derbyshire .... 16 6 2 8 31 43 194 Yorkshire ...... 16 5 0 11 41 40 194 Kent ............. 16 4 3 9 39 40 170 Hampshire .... 16 4 5 7 28 40 153 Essex ............ 16 3 3 10 27 40 145 Glamorgan .... 16 3 6 7 28 35 131 Leicester....... 16 3 3 10 24 33 130 Northampton 16 2 5 9 37 34 130 Gloucester .... 16 3 6 7 22 35 126 many were tipping for the title showed the belief was there.” He added: “Every team in Division 2 goes into the season wanting to get promoted and I think that our commitment to be competitive in all forms of cricket is evident and we’re not far off delivering on that objective.”