A season's best unbeaten 80 from former England wicketkeeper Geraint Jones helped Kent to 241-7 after the opening day against Lancashire at Canterbury.

Kent opted to bat but lost skipper Rob Key, run-out at the non-striker's when Joe Denly's drive was deflected into the stumps by bowler Sajid Mahmood.

Denly and Neil Dexter made starts but Kent were 61-3 at lunch and soon 157-6.

Jones reached fifty when he swept Gary Keedy for his seventh four, and hit 10 in total in a 151-ball innings.

Key made a strangely stagnated seven from 33 balls before he fell to that most unfortunate of dismissals, well out of his ground when the ball crashed into the stumps.

Denly was more fluent, but with the score on 48 he gave the exuberant Dominic Cork a wicket when his square drive went straight to backward point.

Cork also added the wicket of prolific Martin van Jaarsveld shortly before lunch.

Neil Dexter, dropped at slip on 12, accelerated the scoring after lunch with some bold shots, but having reached 38 he was caught in the gully.

Jones and Ryan McLaren took Kent to 153-5 at tea, but in the fourth over of the final session the partnership ended on 52 when McLaren was yorked by Mahmood.

Loye took his third catch when James Tredwell sliced to gully, but Jones cut Glen Chapple to the boundary and gave his team a chance of posting a respectable first innings total.