Somerset have never won the County Championship but, with six Test players in the eleven playing at Horsham and their eyes firmly fixed on the pennant still flying on Sussex’s flagpole, their long-serving stalwart Roy Kerslake, successively captain, chairman and president of the club, is not alone in believing that it might happen at last in 2008. Led for more than three hours by Marcus Trescothick before he fell to the first of two fine diving catches behind the wicket by Matt Prior, they made a resolute riposte to the home county’s total of 419 in the face of bowling that lacked consistency rather than bite.

Only the lack of a matchwinnIng spin bowler makes Somerset’s ambition unlikely to be fulfilled if August and early Septmber are dry. Not that it has affected the issue in this match so far. Ollie Rayner, whose five wicket analysis against Hampshire at Arundel helped to revive Sussex’s own dwindling hopes of retaining their title, was no more effective yesterday than Ian Blackwell had been on the first day. Targeted by Trescothick and Zander De Bruyn, whose rattling century partnership was eventually checked by good spells from Jason Lewry and Robin Martin-Jenkins, he could not find the right pace for a pitch that remains hard and true.

There is, indeed, no margin for error for bowlers at Horsham. It is the ultimate “good cricket wicket”, offering some zip but bringing four runs almost in the instant that any shot has evaded the infield. Both Trescothick and De Bruyn, the South Africa Test player who came to Taunton as a Kolpak player at the start of this season and has hit form with two hundreds, an 80 and now an 70 in his last four games, hit ten fours in their first 50 runs. In the circumstances Chris Adams might have saved a dozen boundaries by posting a third man but his eye is on a victory and he risked boundaries in the quest for wickets on a humid day.

Twenty-two overs were lost to light rain and bad light, making a breakthrough for the Sussex bowlers in the the first session of the third morning crucial to their chances. James Hildreth remains, albeit having survived half chances off Lewry and Martin-Jenkins. The all-rounder, playing on a ground where he first played cricket at the age of seven, dismissed Justin Langer in the last over before lunch with a ball that came back into the left-hander and Trescothick, after a disciplined innings that included 16 fours and a six, with one that left him.

Scoreboard

Sussex: First Innings
M H Yardy c Trego b Caddick 68
C D Nash b Willoughby 6
L J Wright c Langer b Willoughby 22
M W Goodwin b Caddick 137
M J Prior c de Bruyn b Willoughby 16
*C J Adams lbw b Trego 61
C D Hopkinson c Kieswetter b Jones 42
R S C Martin-Jenkins c Hildreth b Jones 16
O P Rayner c Caddick b Trego 9
C D Collymore not out 6
J D Lewry c Blackwell b Trego 2
Extras (b 5, lb 13, w 2, nb 14) 34

Total (110.5 overs) 419

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-60, 3-144, 4-187, 5-291, 6-381, 7-389, 8-400, 9-413.

Bowling: Willoughby 24-1-96-3; Jones 21-3-75-2; Caddick 23-5-89-2; Phillips 14-1-53-0; Trego 15.5-4-46-3; Blackwell 13-0-42-0.

Somerset: First Innings
*J L Langer b Martin-Jenkins 15
M E Trescothick c Prior b Martin-Jenkins 92
Z de Bruyn b Lewry 77
J C Hildreth not out 26
P D Trego c Prior b Wright 32
I D Blackwell not out 0
Extras (lb 11) 11

Total (4 wkts, 56.3 overs) 253

C Kieswetter, B J Phillips, P S Jones, A R Caddick and C M Willoughby to bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-33, 2-174, 3-198, 4-253.

Bowling: Lewry 14-1-51-1; Collymore 11-2-40-0; Martin-Jenkins 16-3-64-2; Rayner 8-0-55-0; Wright 7.3-1-32-1.

Umpires: J H Evans and T E Jesty.