Can things get any worse for Sussex in the National League?

The answer is probably not because it is hard to believe the county can play as poorly as they did in succumbing to promotion-chasing Lancashire at Hove last night.

There again you cannot take anything for granted at the moment with a side who have completely lost their way in one-day cricket.

After being bowled out in 32.1 overs for 112, the result against a Lancashire team who have returned to the top of the second division was never in doubt. The only question was whether this particular Lightning strike would be over before day turned to night.

The remarkable thing is that the Sussex crowd are still turning up in numbers to watch floodlit matches. More than 2,500 filed in last night and the hospitality tents were full, but the punters were entitled to feel they had been short-changed after the visitors had secured a seven-wicket by 8.40pm with 18.1 overs unused.

One supporter reckoned that the races between youngsters perched on mini golf buggies during the interval had been more competitive and it was hard not to disagree. At least the club carried out a good bit of PR by offering £3 off admission to the Championship match which starts today.

Overcast, clammy conditions certainly helped exponents of swing on both sides. Kyle Hogg took 4-24 after Peter Martin had destroyed Sussex's top order with three wickets in his first three overs. But on a typically slow Hove track there really was no excuse for the county rolling over for their lowest league total of the season after Chris Adams had won the toss.

It is hard to think what Adams and director of cricket Peter Moores can do to arrest a dismal slump which has seen them lose their last four games. Every member of the staff, with the exception of rookie seamer Shaun Rashid, has had an opportunity and any number of permutations in the batting order have been tried.

Last night Murray Goodwin opened with Bas Zuiderent, who was making his first appearance of the season, but it could hardly be considered a success given that Goodwin went for a first ball duck. Sussex wickets fell with a depressing regularity once Martin had made the breakthrough with a delivery which swung late and clipped the edge of Goodwin's bat onto the off stump.

Zuiderent was caught behind in Martin's next over as he pushed tentatively forward, but there was no doubt which wicket gave the Lancashire spearhead most satisfaction. Adams, back in the side after missing two games with tennis elbow, had just come down the pitch and clobbered Martin over the 50 yard boundary on the scoreboard side for six.

Attempting to repeat the shot to the next ball, he got a thick edge to second slip. Martin gave Adams what cricketers call a 'send off' and words were exchanged although umpire Barry Duddleston later confirmed that the bowler had subsequently apologised.

Hogg took centre stage after Michael Yardy had played on to John Wood in the tenth over. Swinging the ball late at waspish pace from the Cromwell Road end, Hogg destroyed Sussex's middle order with 4-24, three of his wickets falling to catches behind the wicket including a stunning diving effort by Carl Hooper to remove Tim Ambrose after he had put on 27, comfortably the highest stand of the innings, in a sixth wicket alliance with Robin Martin-Jenkins which briefly hinted at a recovery.

Martin-Jenkins played sensibly to top score with 36 before Chris Schofield dived to his right to take a fine catch at backward point while Carl Hopkinson could consider himself unlucky when only wicketkeeper Warren Hegg, and not Hogg, made a half-hearted appeal for leg before.

Mark Davis hung around for 11 overs but ran out of partners and it soon became apparent that as powerful a batting side as Lancashire would not be inconvenienced chasing down a modest target on a parched outfield with one boundary so short that well-timed defensive pushes were going for four.

Mal Loye continued his good one-day form, reeling off his fifth league half-century in the last eight innings with nine fours and two impressive sixes. Both were slog sweeps over mid-wicket, one off Billy Taylor and the other, which sailed out of the ground, off his new ball partner Paul Hutchison whose figures did not do him justice.

Swinging the ball back into the right-handers almost at will, Hutchison's solitary reward was the wicket of Mark Chilton who played the ball into his thigh pad and watched in horror as it bounced onto his stumps.

Loye fell for a belligerent 58 cutting at Davis while Mark Currie pottered around for 14 overs to make 16 before falling to Martin-Jenkins as Sussex belatedly got back a little self- respect. But by then the target was down to just 22 which was never going to tax the combined talents of Stuart Law and Hooper.

Sussex's second XI were hit by a superb century from Richard Blakey as Yorkshire took control on the opening day of the Championship clash at Horsham.

The former England player, one of four internationals in the Yorkshire team, smashed 102 off only 87 balls in a Yorkshire total of 380-9 declared.

Sussex suffered two early shocks by losing Kevin Innes and South African Anthony Botha cheaply in reaching 40-2 in reply.