Chris Adams has been as good as his word since promising to make a substantial contribution with the bat to the county's bid for a first Championship.

Adams was enduring the worst run of form of his Sussex career when he made his brave pledge after the win over Leicestershire, having scored just 162 runs in his 11 previous innings.

Since then he has hit so many balls in the nets trying to recapture his form that he had to miss a couple of one-day games last week because of tennis elbow.

But after making his first century for 15 months against first division leaders Surrey a fortnight ago, he followed it with a superb 140 which provided the highlight of an entertaining first day in the contest between Surrey's two closest pursuers.

Adams' innings contained 16 boundaries and five sixes, four of them off slow left-armer Gary Keedy. The first, driven handsomely over the sightscreen at the Sea End, was undoubtedly the best but one blow came to rest under the lunch table in the committee room while another disappeared over the pavilion roof.

Solid support at either end of the innings from Richard Montgomerie (72) and Mushtaq Ahmed (60) helped Sussex reach 385 from 100.3 overs and Lancashire had reached 12-0 in reply at the close.

Adams' opposite number Warren Hegg groaned in dismay when he lost the toss but it looked like being Lancashire's day when their seam attack, led by the barrel-chested John Wood, reduced Sussex to 257-7 just before tea.

The malaise which is affecting Sussex's limited overs batting at the moment did not quite spread to the four-day format but too many of their batsmen surrendered their wickets on a blameless pitch where few deliveries misbehaved once the shine had disappeared off the new ball.

Mushtaq Ahmed would not be high on your list if you were looking for someone to bat for your life, but he provided the reliability Adams had craved all afternoon as he watched five partners come and go at the other end.

The pair put on 75 in 16 overs, the biggest stand of the innings, and even when Adams and Paul Hutchison fell in the same over from leg spinner Chris Schofield, Mushtaq cut and carved his way to a maiden half-century as he helped Billy Taylor put on 53 in 11 overs for the last wicket before becoming Schofield's third victim.

With the bounce true, the pavilion boundary just 50 yards away and the parched outfield lightning-fast, the run rate never dropped much below four an over all day but several Sussex batsmen will feel they missed the boat.

Wood produced two beauties which moved late off the seam and unhinged Murray Goodwin in the fourth over and later Robin Martin-Jenkins.

But Tony Cottey cursed himself all the way back to the pavilion after guiding a long hop from Kyle Hogg straight to point. Tim Ambrose spooned a mis-timed pull to mid on to give Wood his third wicket while Matt Prior was caught behind cutting at Keedy's slow left-arm.

Montgomerie and Adams put on 72 for the third wicket either side of lunch and the opener looked to be settling in for a long vigil when he passed 50 for the third time in the last four games with a typically effortless pull off Hogg.

Martin returned to the attack to have Montgomerie, who had struck 11 boundaries, caught at slip and prompt a mid-innings slide which saw five wickets fall in 33 overs. Adams, however, was determined that his side would not surrender the initiative.

His half-century came at a sedate pace off 108 balls, but once passed that milestone he went into overdrive and put the conditions in perspective.

His second fifty was made off just 42 deliveries with 42 of them coming in boundaries and he celebrated his hundred by planting a kiss on the badge of his helmet before acclaiming the applause of a good-sized crowd.

Adams was particularly savage on Glen Chapple who could not have imagined how his day would turn out when he got up yesterday morning. Left out of the Test team, he took 30 minutes negotiating Brighton's crowded streets at the end of his journey from Trent Bridge before taking the field at 3.00pm.

Twenty minutes later he came on to replace Keedy and 20 minutes after that he was out of the attack after conceding 27 runs in three overs. Things went from bad to worse when he dropped Mushtaq on nought, three balls after Carl Hooper had deceived Mark Davis with a quicker ball to leave Sussex 257-7.

It did not look like proving too expensive when Schofield, belatedly introduced to the attack, had Adams leg before playing across a top-spinner before removing Hutchison three balls later when the batsman padded up.

But Mushtaq cut loose on his way to 60 off 87 balls with five fours and a pulled six off Hooper to earn Sussex an unlikely fourth batting point.

Sussex seconds were routed by an innings and 101 runs by a strong Yorkshire side inside five sessions at Horsham.

Replying to Yorkshire's 380-9 declared, Sussex were bowled out for 207 and then, following on, they were skittled for 72.

Sussex finished with nine wickets down second time around as trialist James Morris was forced to retire hurt after being struck a blow on the helmet from Pietar Swanepoel.

South African-born pace bowler Swanepoel followed up his first innings haul of 3-49 by taking 5-30 in nine overs for a match return of 8-79.

There were five ducks in Sussex's second innings, and it was 3-3 at one stage with Kevin Innes and Anthony Botha both falling to Swanepoel while Neil Turk went second ball to Matthew Hoggard. Krishna Singh (22) was the only batsman to reach double figures.

Scores: Yorkshire 380-9 dec, Sussex 207 and 72-9.

Sussex's academy director Keith Greenfield has been awarded a testimonial in 2004.