By Scott Heinrich

CB Fry, an all-time great and a top batsman in the early 1900s

At the turn of the 20th century it had become quite apparent that Sussex would not be long in winning the county championship.

Formed in 1839 as the first county side, Sussex had firmly established themselves over the next six decades.

By the early 1900s, boasting a wonderful batting line-up and a genuine overseas star on their books, Sussex knew their time was nigh.

But the team's great promise was never fulfilled, and instead supporters had to wait another 100 or so years to finally taste glory.

Way back then, as they have suddenly become now, Sussex were a great team.

Captained by William Murdoch, often regarded as the greatest Australian batsman before Victor Trumper, Sussex boasted other heroes like CB Fry and KS 'Ranji' Ranjitsinhji.

But near miss after near miss meant it never happened for that team, who were generally regarded as the best Sussex team of all time. Until now.

Hove stalwarts will say it is better late than never, but equally they will wonder why it took the first county so long to claim its first title.

The answer, in the early days anyway, could have lain in their bowling ranks.

Sussex have long enjoyed a tradition as a fine batting side, with Ted Bowley, Duleepsinhji, Jim Parks Senior, Harry Parks, John and James Langridge and George Cox junior flying the flag up to the '40s.

Ted Dexter brought one-day trophies to Hove

Since then, top batsmen like David Sheppard, Ted Dexter, Ken Suttle, Jim Parks, Tony Greig, Imran Khan, Paul Parker, Alan Wells, Chris Adams and Michael Bevan have graced Hove at various times in the past 50 years.

But though Albert Relf and George Cox senior were good bowlers in Sussex's early days, Maurice Tate and Arthur Gilligan were the county's first strike pair of note.

Even their reign in the 1920s did not bring a championship title to Hove, and three second-placings in the '30s only served to frustrate followers further.

Later down the line, a succession of paceman like John Snow, Imran Khan and South African Garth Le Roux could not bring that elusive first crown to Sussex.

Silverware did eventually come, but only when the game of cricket was condensed to a one-day format in the 1960s.

Led by Dexter, Sussex annexed the inaugural one-day competition in 1963 and again the following year when it was called the Gillette Cup.

The club continued to perform well in one-day cricket, reaching six more Gillette Cup finals and winning trophies in 1978 and 1986.

In the last five years, results have been a mix of the good, the bad and the disastrous.

In Mushtaq Ahmed Sussex finally found the last piece of the puzzle

They won the second division of the National League in 1999, the year they narrowly missed out on qualifying for the top tier of the newly-modified championship.

Calamity awaited Sussex the following year as they finished last in the National League first division and last in the second division of the championship.

But the club rebounded stylishly by returning to the top-flight of the championship as second division champions in 2001.

A fifth-placed finish in the 2002 season was a creditable performance, though not one that served as a tantalising precursor to what would follow.

Solid batting contributions from Tony Cottey, Matt Prior, Murray Goodwin, Chris Adams, Tim Ambrose and Richard Montgomerie provided the framework for a title assault.

But the final piece of the puzzle was Mushtaq Ahmed, the Pakistani leg-spinner who with 100 wickets tormented opposing batsmen throughout the 2003 season.