Sean Dickson scores 318 for Kent in County Championship

Sean Dickson completed a triple century for Kent on day two of their Specsavers County Championship Division Two match against Northamptonshire at Beckenham.

South Africa-born opener Dickson was eventually out for 318 from 408 deliveries, the second-highest score by a Kent batsman, having smashed 31 fours and three sixes. SCORECARD

Bill Ashdown's 332 against Essex at Brentwood in 1934 remains the Kent record after Dickson was caught by Ben Duckett off Max Holden after lunch on day two, before the hosts declared on 701-7.

Kent's total was their second-highest ever, after the 803-4 they amassed against Essex 83 years ago when Ashdown posted his record 332.

Dickson, 25 - who suffered a rare handled-ball dismissal in a Championship match against Leicestershire last season - trumped his coach, Matt Walker's, post-war Kent best of 275, set against Somerset in 1996.

The right-hander - whose previous best score was 207 not out against Derbyshire in 2016 - also shared a Kent-record stand of 382 with Joe Denly (182) for the second wicket.

Northants then cut their arrears to 521 runs by stumps after reaching 180-1 - Duckett scoring an unbeaten 101 and Rob Newton dismissed by Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah for 57.

Also in Division Two, Gloucestershire completed a two-day, 10-wicket win over Glamorgan at Cheltenham - Chris Dent (68no) and Cameron Bancroft (62no) easing the hosts to their target of 135 in just 31.3 overs.

Twenty-five wickets fell on day one with Glamorgan bundled out for 117 and then slipping to 59-5 in their second innings after Gloucester had been skittled for 141.

But Dent and Bancroft encountered few scares on day two after their team-mate Liam Norwell (6-38) had ended some middle-order resistance from Glamorgan to polish off the Welsh county for 158 second time around.

Derbyshire captain Billy Godleman (98) fell two runs short of a fourth ton of the campaign but did extend his 10th-wicket stand with Gurjit Sandhu (46) to 102 as the hosts posted 368 all out against Durham.

Imran Tahir (5-98) then reduced Durham to 205-8, before Paul Coughlin (62no) and Barry McCarthy (32no) lifted the North East county to 274-8 with an unbroken partnership of 69.

In Division One, meanwhile, Somerset bossed a weather-affected day against Yorkshire in Scarborough - Craig Overton's 5-78 reducing the hosts to 159-7, a deficit of 109 runs, in the 44 overs of play possible.

Hampshire racked up a massive 648-7 declared against Surrey at The Oval, with skipper George Bailey (161) backing up day-one centuries from Jimmy Adams (144) and James Vince (104).

Surrey closed on 113-1 after Mark Stoneman, who scored a hundred in his side's Royal London One-Day Cup defeat to Nottinghamshire on Saturday, was dismissed for 57.

Plus, Stevie Eskinazi's career-best 178 not out helped Middlesex to 302-6 against Warwickshire to leave the reigning County Champions - whose next highest-scoring batsman was Dawid Malan (39) - 32 runs behind.