Sussex's batting unit has yet to really fire this season with two honourable exceptions and how the county needed Mike Yardy and Murray Goodwin to be at their feisty best yesterday.

On another slow Hove pitch, the only two players who went into the game against Warwickshire with more than 200 Championship runs so far grafted for nearly four hours together in a crucial third wicket partnership of 164 in 51 overs.

Yardy, capped before the start of play, nearly made a special day even more memorable but fell 12 runs shy of a hundred.

But Goodwin achieved what he has been threatening pretty much since he returned to Hove last month in sublime form by notching the 37th century of his career and 20th for Sussex who finished the first day on 282-6.

The only conclusion to draw from yesterday's events is that this is another Hove wicket where a batsman can never truly say he feels totally at ease so who knows what a par first innings total is?

Goodwin has played here long enough to know what is required though and apart from the six overs either side of tea when he was stuck on 99 there never seemed much doubt that he would reach three figures.

As ever his judgement of length was impeccable and although Warwickshire bowled with discipline all day there were still enough opportunities when they pitched short for Goodwin to rock onto the back foot and carve the ball through point.

It may have given him extra satisfaction to reach his century with a single off Heath Streak and predictably there was a bit more spice when Goodwin came up against his former Zimabwean team-mate, who was the pick of the Bears' attack with 3-42 from 22 overs.

Having looked in so much control it was a surprise when he mis-timed a pull off Neil Carter and the ball lobbed gently to point. Goodwin departed with a rueful glance at the pitch having hit nine fours and faced 183 balls.

The biggest compliment you can pay Yardy is that he looked as composed and organised as he has all season. When the bowlers pitched short or strayed in line they were punished and both batsmen used their feet well to negate the threat of England's Ashley Giles, who has already bagged 24 victims with his left-arm spin this season.

Yardy hit ten boundaries but on 88 he was pinned by Streak. It must have been a tight call, the ball striking Yardy well above the knee roll.

Yardy said: "I didn't want to get my cap and then get a golden duck. It would have been nice to get a hundred but batting was hard work."

The pair came together after Sussex had lost both openers in an attritional first 70 minutes when just 35 runs were chiselled out in 18 overs.

Richard Montgomerie rated Streak as the best bowler he faced last season but it was his new ball partner Dewald Pretorius who unhinged him in the fourth over, rapping him on the back leg.

Montgomerie's six Championship innings this season have yielded just 40 runs and, for the first time in his Sussex career, his place must be under serious threat. Ian Ward never settled and had scored just three off 48 balls when he was brilliantly held by the diving Alex Loudon at second slip in Carter's third over.

Warwickshire were probably ahead on points when Matt Prior, deceived by extra bounce, gloved a catch to the wicketkeeper.

At 237-5, Chris Adams and Robin Martin-Jenkins, who had passed a morning fitness test on a troublesome knee, needed to be watchful and they appeared to have seen the job through to stumps.

However, in the penultimate over Streak tempted Martin-Jenkins into a hook and he was caught at fine leg.

After losing his wicket in similar circumstances too often in the past the penny seemed to have dropped. Apparently not. No wonder he banged his bat against his pad in frustration as he shuffled back to the pavilion.

May 11, 2005