Not even a curious reprise of the problems at Edgbaston, when batsmen repeatedly lost balls against the background of committee-room windows in the third Test, distracted those firm friends, Luke Sutton and Dominic Cork, from reviving Lancashire.

On a pitch where the ball is bouncing and turning already, and Ollie Rayner claimed five for 65, their eighth-wicket stand has spared Stuart Law's blushes and given hope to a side that should be bowling last.

In the end, the pair added 53 through 29 overs either side of tea and a bad-light stoppage, during which a table cloth was hastily draped acoss the sliding doors of an offending hospitality box. Cork was all but bowled by a ball from Jason Lewry that emerged from the darkness above the sightscreen and was fended off by instinct. But nothing could avail him against Rayner from the other end, when the 6ft 5in off-spinner went round the wicket for the first time and immediately had him leg-before for 32.

It was the 22-year-old's fourth scalp after an impressive 15-over afternoon spell of three for 30 and a morning in which Lewry, summoning lavish swing, needed only 25 balls to undo the first three of four men to fall. This after Law, the last of them, had chosen to bat, only to see his side reach 131 for seven, 50 minutes from tea.

It was not Rayner, with the second five-wicket championship haul of his career - both gained within the last four innings - but Mushtaq Ahmed who took time to settle on an unusually accommodating pitch. Indeed, after a five-week lay-off and two knee operations since May, Mushtaq, understandably lacking rhythm and hitting the wrong length, went for 48 runs in his first ten overs. His only success came when Gary Keedy was leg-before in his 28th over, and, seven balls later, Rayner finished the innings for 206 as Sajid Mahmood lifted him to long-on. Sutton, battling to the end, remained undefeated with 45.

The only real resistance earlier had come from Stephen Croft and Francois du Plessis who shared a 59-run fifth-wicket stand until the South African, failing to go on once again, swiped at Rayner and top-edged back to the bowler. Croft showed far better judgement in reaching 46 but eventually drove ambitiously at Rayner's arm ball and edged to slip. Despite brief rain and bad-light interruptions, Lancashire had bowled three more balls than the day's quota when another shower ended play, with Michael Thornely, on his championship debut, not yet off the mark, but still there to begin another day.

Scoreboard

Lancashire: First Innings
P J Horton c Prior b Lewry 12
L Vincent b Lewry 0
I J Sutcliffe b Lewry 0
*S G Law c Prior b Wright 9
F du Plessis c and b Rayner 37
S J Croft c Adams b Rayner 46
L D Sutton not out 45
G Chapple c Lewry b Rayner 5
D G Cork lbw b Rayner 32
G Keedy lbw b Mushtaq 2
S I Mahmood c Martin-Jenkins b Rayner 4
Extras (b 2, lb 8, nb 4) 14

Total (87.3 overs) 206

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-11, 3-16, 4-31, 5-90, 6-123, 7-131, 8-184, 9-201.

Bowling: Lewry 14-5-33-3; Martin-Jenkins 15-8-20-0; Wright 5-2-13-1; Mushtaq 28-7-65-1; Rayner 25.3-5-65-5.

Sussex: First Innings
C D Nash not out 7
M A Thornely not out 0
Extras (nb 2) 2

Total (no wkt, 6.3 overs) 9

L J Wright, M W Goodwin, M J Prior, C D Hopkinson, *C J Adams, R S C Martin-Jenkins, O P Rayner, Mushtaq Ahmed and J D Lewry to bat.

Bowling: Chapple 3.3-1-3-0; Cork 3-1-6-0.

Umpires: J H Evans and T E Jesty.