Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Major breakthrough!
Kent gymnasts took two of the top five places in the men’s vault final at the European Artistic Championships.
Giarnni Regini-moran, from Gravesend, claimed his first major championship medal as a senior after taking bronze while Maidstone’s Courtney Tulloch finished fifth.
The return of the County Championship began with a group stage to determine which division teams would be in when the competition resumed in late August. The top two in each group would play in Division 1, the third and fourth-placed teams in Division 2 and the fifth and sixth-placed sides in
Division 3.
Kent drew their opening Group 3 match after a snow-hit final day at Northamptonshire and three heavy defeats followed - a 200-run loss to Yorkshire, an innings defeat to Lancashire and a 10-wicket loss to Glamorgan.
Speaking after the two-day defeat in Cardiff, Kent coach Matt Walker said: “It was not good enough over the day and three quarters for which the game lasted. It wasn’t an easy pitch to play on and when you look at the batting that was reflected by the scores.
“Regardless of the pitch we have to be better than that and we didn’t find the answer. Some of the boys will look back on good balls which got them out, but we have to better.
“Glamorgan bowled very well. Michael Hogan was outstanding. It always looks bad when you lose a game by 10 wickets.
“We haven’t played well and this result typifies that. Some of our players aren’t performing to the levels they can.”
Gillingham’s play-off bid in League 1 suffered a blow. After boss Steve Evans was named manager-of-the-month for March, and striker Vadaine Oliver was player-of-the-month, the Gills could only win one of their next five games - conceding two-goal leads on successive weekends against Oxford and Northampton. The Oxford result, in particular, would come back to haunt Evans.
Dover announced they would go part-time for 2021/22 - but boss Andy Hessenthaler confirmed he would stay on.
“I wasn’t going to walk away - I just had to check he [chairman Jim Parmenter] wanted me to stay,” said the 55-year-old.
“We had a good meeting and we are certainly going to have to approach it a different way and go back to how they have approached it before, really, being part-time. So we are going to have to go part-time, in a fulltime league.”
In snooker, Ditton’s Barry Hawkins, a world championship finalist in 2013, was knocked out in the second round at the Crucible, losing to Kyren Wilson 13-10.