County Championship: Kent build big lead against Somerset and are safe from relegation

Zak Crawley has scored 467 Championship runs for Kent this summer, without hitting a century

Kent secured Division One survival with a classy batting display against Somerset at Canterbury.

After resuming on 195-9, the visitors lost their final wicket for the addition of just seven runs on the second morning.

Kent then turned the screw as Zak Crawley and Tawanda Muyeye produced a glorious opening partnership of 176 - the home side's best of the season.

The runs continued to flow down the order and Kent collected maximum bonus points, putting them mathematically beyond the reach of Warwickshire following their early declaration against Hampshire.

Day two of this match was billed as Stevo Day in honour to Kent stalwart Darren Stevens, who leaves the club this week at the age of 46 after 18 years of service at Canterbury.

• Relive the second day's Championship action as it happened

On a day when home supporters were encouraged to celebrate the past, they were treated to a tantalising glimpse of the future as Crawley, 24, and 21-year-old Muyeye produced an array of quality shots which found the rope at regular intervals to lay the foundations for a big first-innings lead.

It took just 10 minutes for Nathan Gilchrist to wrap up the Somerset innings, with Lewis Goldsworthy edging to keeper Ollie Robinson after adding one run to his overnight 93.

The 22-year-old paceman ended with a career-best 6-61, while Matt Quinn finished with 3-33.

Kent's reply began brightly and Somerset used seven different bowlers in the opening 26 overs as skipper Tom Abell searched for the right formula.

Muyeye was put down by keeper James Rew off the bowling off Craig Overton on 20 and the youngster made them pay as he breezed to a half-century.

At the other end Crawley passed 3,000 first-class runs for Kent and produced some sumptuous drives before he was eventually bowled by Ben Green for 79 from 102 balls, 13 of which were boundaries.

Muyeye followed him back to the pavilion just 11 balls later for an equally impressive 85, edging Kasey Aldridge to Rew to bring his best knock of the summer to a close.

After Kent had nudged into the lead and picked up a second batting point, Aldridge rearranged the stumps of Daniel Bell-Drummond (36) to make it 251-3 and less than four overs later tempted Joe Denly (38) into an injudicious pull shot which was caught just inside the deep square leg boundary by Sajid Khan.

Jack Leaning was caught by Abell at backward point for 41 after mistiming a delivery from Sajid with the lead already at 152.

In his final Kent appearance before joining Durham, Ollie Robinson gave a reminder of what Kent will be missing with a swashbuckling 52, in which he cleared the ropes twice, before being bowled by Sajid in his next over.

Rew put down another chance, with Hamid Qadri given a reprieve off Overton, but Sajid held on when he was picked out by Joey Evison (21) to become Aldridge's fourth victim.

Qadri cracked six fours and brought up maximum batting points on his way to an unbeaten 27 before bad light saw the players leave the field with the score on 405-7 - a lead of 203.

Warwickshire's declaration capped their potential points haul, meaning they can only overhaul Yorkshire if they are to secure Division One survival.

Memorable day for Stevens

At the end of the first session, Kent players and staff formed a guard of honour through which Darren Stevens walked out at Canterbury for the final time as a Kent player.

The all-rounder was denied the chance to pull on a Kent shirt for the 644th and final time this week by a groin injury sustained in their One-Day Cup triumph at Trent Bridge on 17 September.

Since his first appearance against Derby in April 2005, 'Stevo' has amassed 22,506 runs and collected 864 wickets for the club, helping the Spitfires to claim three trophies along the way.

Throughout the day, fans were encouraged to record their memories in a book of thanks hosted in the club shop, while the familiar giant 'Stevo is God' flag fluttered in the autumnal breeze at the deep square leg boundary.

In the middle it was striking that Kent's opening partnership of Zak Crawley and Tawanda Muyeye were 73 days younger than Stevens, combined.

After a morning of largely bright sunshine, angry clouds gathered as lunch approached before dumping a sharp shower on a crowd of several hundred who had gathered in front of the pavilion to hear Stevens' emotional final interview and to watch a video montage of his finest moments on the big screen.

After hugging teammates and staff, and being presented with a framed shirt bearing his number three, which the club are retiring in his honour, the sun came out as Stevens embarked on a lap of the pitch hand-in-hand with his young sons, taking in one final round of applause from an adoring Canterbury crowd.

"It's very emotional," he said. "Our job as professional cricketers is to win trophies for Kent and at the end of it I've got three trophies to my name for the club.

"Obviously we'd have loved to have won more and the one that gets me is the (County) Championship. Not winning that is the one I'll look back on and be a bit disappointed about, but obviously three trophies in the cabinet is nice."