Bermuda, Social Club and Somerset Cup Match fast bowler Kevin Hurdle will embark on a seven-week playing stint with Folkestone Cricket Club in the UK at the conclusion of the national team?s current tour of England and Guernsey.

Hurdle, 29, is the second Bermudian bowler behind Ryan Steede to be recruited by an English club in the past two weeks.

Steede is set to return to Atherstone Cricket Club in Warwickshire also for a seven-week spell ? with a team he previously represented in the early 1990s playing under Bermudian player/coach Noel Gibbons.

?I am very happy to get this opportunity and I?m certainly looking forward to capitalising on it,? Hurdle told from the national team?s hotel in Guernsey yesterday.

So far on Bermuda?s current tour, Hurdle has only managed to take one wicket. However, the younger brother of Bermuda?s rugby captain Bobby Hurdle is determined to keep chipping away and eventually produce the goods.

?It?s a bit cold over here . . . but that is something you have to deal with. But I?m pretty much pleased with my performances so far and I know I can do better. I just have to keep working at it,? added Hurdle, whose figures of six for 25 during last summer?s Cup Match classic at Wellington Oval was the best by a Somerset bowler since Lloyd Simmons snared six for 19 in 1940.

Bermuda skipper and assistant coach, Clay Smith, said Hurdle would have everything to gain at Folkestone, a town on Kent?s south coast.

?I think this is a great opportunity for Hurdle because he will be playing a lot more cricket on a more regular basis and that will help him with his consistency and he has a lot to gain,? said Smith, also speaking from Guernsey.

The Cleveland County player/coach ? still recovering from knee surgery ? said he was satisfied with Bermuda?s bowling performances on tour thus far and inspired by Hurdle?s commitment to ?perfect? his personal game.

?Bowling in Trinidad (last month) made the guys realise that you have to have more than one ball in your arsenal because you can?t just bowl the same ball on a flat track,? added Smith, the only local batsman to score three centuries in Cup Match.

?I think Kevin realises this and has been working tremendously hard on his slower ball and has become somewhat confident with it now. And I?m sure over the next month or two bowling on a more regular basis he is going to perfect it.

?But generally speaking the bowling so far has been rather good and I think these guys have been consistent on bowler friendly wickets. I think the guys have now realised they have to be more consistent with their line and length and have been working on their games and have come a long way.?

Smith reckons Hurdle and Steede?s experience in England will enhance Bermuda?s chances of defending their ICC Intercontinental Cup Americas Group title against Canada in Toronto in August.

?Going to a place like England is only going to help them (Hurdle and Steede) because it will give them time to work on their game and fine tune it,? added Smith, who featured in a record second-wicket Cup Match partnership worth exactly 200 runs in 1992 with elder brother brother Wendell at Wellington Oval.

Smith said he hoped to be fit enough to regain leadership of the team and bolster Bermuda?s batting order in the ICC Intercontinental Cup.

?I have always looked at August as my goal to get back and that was something I have always targeted,? he added. ?It?s (ICC Intercontinental Cup) a major tournament and I always felt that with some good training and physiotherapy I should be ready to get back by then.

?I have another seven to eight weeks to prepare myself and so I intend to do a lot of work trying to get myself in tip top shape and getting my knee stronger.

?But at the end of the day I will have to make a decision maybe three weeks before the tournament starts as to whether or not I can actually participate, because if I?m not fit than I am not going to take any risks.?

Smith underwent knee surgery earlier this year and last represented in Namibia last October.