AN UNBEATEN 54 from Ben Smith steered Worcestershire Royals to a five-wicket win over Kent Spitfires at Canterbury and lifted them four points clear at the top of the Norwich Union League Division One.

The Royals passed Kent's target of 225 with 12 balls to spare after valuable knocks from Vikram Solanki (57) and Graeme Hick (44) had swung the game their way.

Matthew Walker hit 94 for the Spitfires after they had been in the mire at 52-5, but Worcestershire were always in front of the required run-rate with wickets in hand.

Stephen Peters put on 63 for the first wicket with Solanki before driving James Golding to James Hockley at mid-on.

Solanki scored at exactly a run-a-ball, going after David Masters in particular, but was brilliantly stumped by Paul Nixon off Golding.

Hick was not at his destructive best, his innings contained only three boundaries, but he showed all his guile to work the ball into the gaps and keep the Royals on track for victory.

Kent were given a sniff of a chance when the former England man top-edged an attempted sweep off James Tredwell, but David Leatherdale scored a quick-fire 25 in partnership with Smith.

He steered Worcestershire to within 26 runs of victory before holing out to Hockley, and Smith never looked troubled from then on.

Steven Rhodes drove Martin Saggers through the covers for the winning boundary, and on this form Worcestershire will fancy their chances of a prolonged stay at the top of the table.

Earlier, Walker blasted a flamboyant 94 off 77 balls for the Spitfires as their innings threatened to implode after a dreadful start. He was joined at the crease by Nixon with the score on 52-5, but the pair put on 116 for the sixth wicket.

The 28-year-old's innings was a pleasure to watch, and his big-hitting was underlined by the 14 deliveries he sent crashing to the boundary rope. He took a particular liking to the medium pace of Leatherdale, exploiting anything dropped too short or straying onto a leg-side line.

Worcestershire pace bowler Matthew Mason had ripped through the Kent top order with figures of 3-37 -- figures which reflected his ability to extract movement and bounce early in the innings.