Chris Adams today backed his Sussex side to go the distance in the Championship marathon.

The county are already 25 points adrift of first division leaders Nottinghamshire with a third of the season nearly over after their last wicket pair James Kirtley and Jason Lewry survived 11 balls to secure a draw against Middlesex at Hove on Saturday.

But Adams' men know the course well and he is backing his side to produce a strong finish in the second half of the summer.

He said: "As long as we keep punching hard and we can outlast sides then we will be fine and I expect us to do that over a long, hard season.

"It's when you're punching hard and not getting anywhere that it becomes difficult and I think a few teams will find it hard work in the second half of the season.

"That's when we could have our chance."

Sussex and Middlesex traded blow for blow on an absorbing last day and at one stage the home side were favourites as they chased 314 in 90 overs after bowling out Middlesex for 244 in their second innings.

Murray Goodwin and Richard Montgomerie laid the foundations with a third-wicket stand of 146 in 31 overs of which Goodwin contributed 88 including 11 boundaries after he was dropped twice in the same Paul Weekes over early in his innings.

The contrast between his fluent strokeplay and Montgomerie's painful struggle to find some form at the other end could not have been more marked.

But Montgomerie is a fighter if nothing else and with his place under genuine threat he dug in to lodge his first Championship 50 since last August before he was the third batsman to be dismissed in five overs either side of tea as the contest swung back in Middlesex's favour.

The persevering Alan Richardson did just enough to find Goodwin's outside edge before an unplayable grubber sent Adams' off pole ten yards back.

Montgomerie's four-hour, 150-ball vigil ended disappointingly with a tame prod to short leg. But anyone who followed this absorbing struggle to its conclusion was not surprised that there were a few more twists to come.

Robin Martin-Jenkins and Matt Prior played with increasing confidence to get the equation down to 53 off the last ten overs but Sussex then lost three wickets in three overs and the shutters came down.

Richardson and Scott Styris bowled 52 overs between them and shared eight wickets and when Richardson yorked Martin-Jenkins off the first ball of the penultimate over Middlesex moved in for the kill.

However, Lewry blocked the remainder of the over as if to the manor born and Kirtley was just as solid to deny Styris and the ten fielders clustered around the bat.

Neither Adams nor Lewry, who had earlier taken 6-65 to complete his best return since the Championship-winning match in 2003, felt either side deserved to lose.

"It was a fabulous game to play in," said Adams. "Batsmen who chanced their arm prospered but you don't often see nearly 1,400 runs scored and no one get a hundred. That indicates once again that batsmen were never quite in at Hove.

"Until Mushtaq got out I still thought we could do it but then we had to close the door.

"Even then I knew it would be difficult because if it was hard for the likes of Robin, Matt and myself how difficult was it going to be for tail-enders?

"But credit to James and Jason for seeing the job through. We had three or four opportunities to take control but Middlesex didn't allow us to do so."

Montgomerie's display means he keeps his place in the side which plays Glamorgan at Swansea on Wednesday (11am). Off-spinner Mark Davis has been added to the squad.

May 30, 2005