THE Castle Park cricket ground in the garrison town of Colchester is the fitting venue for Kent’s totesport League relegation battle with Essex on Sunday.

The Division 1 strugglers go head to head this weekend with the losers nigh on certain to take the drop into Division 2.

After just four wins from 13 starts Spitfires travel east in eighth place with 20 points to their name, while Eagles lie seventh with 22 points having also landed four wins.

With matches at leaders Glamorgan and fellow strugglers to follow, Kent coach Paul Farbrace understands Sunday’s trip to Colchester represents his side’s last chance saloon.

He said: “They are right down there with us and need the points as much as we do, so it’s a tough game for both sides. We talked to the side after the defeat at Edgbaston and they are well aware that we haven’t played fantastic one-day cricket this year.

“Of our four wins, three were down to individual performances, Smith at Beckenham, Symonds at Tunbridge Wells and Sami against Gloucestershire. Only one success was down to a good, overall team display and that was at The Oval and that’s the sort of level of performance we have to strive for in our last three games.

“It doesn’t help having Saggers, Jones, Key and Symonds out, they are big shoes to fill and it has added pressure on the rest of the side, and to be fair, I feel the young lads are putting in steady performances. The bottom line is, we aren’t the one-day side we might have been.”

Farbrace is aware Colchester is a fairly quick scoring ground and that could be instrumental in Kent’s team selection come Sunday. Indeed, short boundaries and the proximity of the River Colne will heap further pressure on Kent’s rookie spinners James Tredwell and Rob Ferley.

Farbrace added: “I played there for Middlesex in the mid-1990s and it was a compact and very busy ground, so there’s bound to be a good crowd there this Sunday. It was a typical club pitch and took turn right from the start and that is bound to make for one hell of a game.

“It’s a fairly compact ground with short, straight boundaries which creates its own problems, particularly for our spinners. For the first half of the season Tredwell and Ferley were our two best containing bowlers, but in the last few weeks they’ve come across the likes of Michael Hussey at Cheltenham and Matthew Elliott and Matthew Maynard for Glamorgan.

“That’s been a huge test for those two, but I would still back Tredwell and Ferley to be our two most economical bowlers and they will play a big part this weekend.”

The Castle Park Ground is equidistant from the Colchester North and Town Centre rail stations (0.75mile) and there will be limited car parking at the ground. Overflow parking is available at Kings Meadow off Sportsway, priced at £5 per day.

The match is due to start at 1pm.

Kent from: Fulton, Smith, Tredwell, Loudon, Bevan, Walker, O’Brien, Dennington, Ferley, Khan, Butler, Carberry, Trott, Joseph.