COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION TWO, Horsham:
CLOSE OF PLAY, DAY TWO: Derbyshire 242 & 27-2, Sussex 576-3dec
Sussex 8pts, Derbys 1pt
Match scorecard

Sussex ensured a return to the head of the Division Two table as their top four all hit centuries against hapless bottom club Derbyshire at Horsham.

After resuming on 170-0, Ed Joyce (164) and Chris Nash (156) both went on to reach three figures as they put on 294 for the opening wicket.

Bob Brown (112) and Murray Goodwin (100 not out) then both also weighed in with tons too as Sussex declared on 576-3.

Derbyshire then slumped to 27-2 by the close and now face a three-day defeat.

Both Paul Borrington, picked up at second slip, and Chesney Hughes, who chopped on, fell in Corey Collymore's new ball spell.

Weather permitting, second-placed Sussex, 307 runs ahead, should now wrap up victory on day three.

But they are already guaranteed to overtake current leaders Glamorgan to head Division Two once more.

It was the first time in Sussex's history that all their top four batsmen had reached three figures in a first-class match.

It was also Brown's maiden first-class ton in just his seventh match.

Chief sufferer in the visitors' bowling attack was young fast bowler Jonathan Clare, who conceded 107 runs from his 12 overs, and experienced the indignity of being both savagely square cut and deliberately uppercut for sixes by Goodwin in the space of three balls.

Joyce and Nash piled up the highest-ever partnership by a Sussex pair, for any wicket against Derbyshire.

In a stand which was also a Sussex record for the Cricketfield Road ground, they surpassed the unbroken 225 put on by Goodwin and Robin Martin-Jenkins.

And it also proved to be Sussex's highest total against Derbyshire, beating the 493 they made at Hove in 1929.

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