Former England wicketkeeper Geraint Jones scored his fourth century of the championship summer as Division Two leaders Kent upped the batting tempo on day two of their game with neighbours Surrey.

Jones posted his second career hundred against the Brown Caps from 158 minutes and with 17 fours and a six as Kent reached stumps on 242 for three in reply to Surrey's 423 all out.

The hosts will trail by 181 going into the third day with Jones unbeaten on 102 alongside fourth-wicket partner Darren Stevens with 25 not out as the hosts rattled along at almost 3.8 an over.

It might have been much different for struggling Surrey had they held onto a chance that Jones offered to the very first ball he faced.

Taking guard after Rob Key (13) had been trapped lbw on the back foot by a Jade Dernbach yorker, Jones fenced at a lifting leg-cutter next ball up but Michael Brown at the finer of two gulleys was unable to hold on to a regulation chance.

Jones made the Brown Caps pay dearly for the let-off as he and Sam Northeast added 91 in 23 overs until England Under-19 batsman Northeast clipped back a soft return catch to off-spinner Matt Spriegel to fall two short of a deserved half-century.

Martin van Jaarsveld, who had scored three hundreds in as many championship innings against Surrey, teamed up with Jones to add 81 in 20 overs broken only by the tea interval until Van Jaarsveld blotted his copybook.

The South African missed an attempted paddle sweep against the leg-spin of Chris Schofield to go leg before for 28 leaving Surrey's players jubilant to see the back of him.

It proved the visitors last success of the day, however as Jones then dug in Darren Stevens (25 not out) to make it through to the close without further alarm, reaching his hundred in the penultimate over of the day when sweeping two to fine leg against Schofield.

Kent's injury-hit attack had done well at the start of the day to mop up Surrey's six remaining wickets in a shade over 40 overs for the addition of a further 162 runs, with five wickets tumbling in the opening session.

Kent's joy was unrestrained five overs into the day when they accounted for Surrey's leading scorer Mark Ramprakash for 45. Following a Simon Cook leg-cutter that popped off the surface, Ramprakash fenced the ball to second slip where Van Jaarsveld pocketed the first of three catches in the session.

Schofield (nine) followed suit when pushing at one from debutant Phil Edwards that went down the Canterbury slope to graze the outside edge then, in his first over back at the Pavilion End, Amjad Khan enticed Stuart Meaker (23) to nick into Van Jaarsveld's safe hands low to his left at second slip.

The tall Justin Kemp extracted some extra bounce to have Dernbach caught off a sliced drive at cover point to make it 347 for eight then, only 15 balls before the 120-over cut-off point, Khan ensured Kent posted maximum bowling bonus points with the wicket of Spriegel.

Spriegel was also just short of a half-century, having hit 49 from 123 balls, when he was trapped on the crease when working to leg by a full-length ball from Khan to go leg before.

Soon after lunch Khan ended a lusty last-wicket stand worth 58 between Tim Linley (35no) and Pedro Collins (23) when Collins edged an attempted pull onto the base of his stumps.

Edwards took three for 72 on championship debut and Khan finished with flattering figures of five for 113, leaving Collins and Linley to both march off with season's bests.