Jason Lewry will not forget Sussex's visit to Liverpool after taking the 500th first-class wicket of his career yesterday.

But the memories for his team-mates will be less pleasant.

The county were hammered by nine wickets inside two days and although they will retain the leadership of the first division for another week at least, their run of five successive Championship wins will be nothing more than a nice memory if they continue to perform as poorly as this.

On this evidence Lancashire, with their strong seam attack and top-heavy batting line-up, look a good bet to end their own 72-year wait for the Championship.

They outplayed Sussex, as skipper Chris Adams readily conceded afterwards.

With only two one-dayers to play before the next Championship game in a fortnight, Adams and his squad have a much needed opportunity to rest and regroup.

There is no doubt that they have started to feel the effects of a punishing recent schedule although Adams rightly refused to use that as an excuse for this capitulation.

The pitch continued to offer seamers who put the ball in the right areas excessive bounce but Sussex's second innings was a sorry story of soft dismissals.

Lancashire effectively won the game in the afternoon session.

Last wicket pair Dominic Cork and Gary Keedy added 59 to extend their lead to 99 and Sussex lost seven wickets clearing their arrears.

Adams was last out for 68 but Lancashire's target was just 68 and they claimed the extra half hour to knock off the runs with seven balls in the day remaining.

James Kirtley produced a pearler which bounced and left Mark Chilton to claim his first Championship wicket of the season but that was scant consolation after two chastening days by the Mersey.

Sussex's second innings got off to the worst possible start when Carl Hopkinson shuffled in front of Glenn Chapple's second ball.

Richard Montgomerie and Chris Nash seemed to have done the hard part, surviving 13 overs against the new ball without too many problems.

Enter Sajid Mahmood. The England quickie had looked out of sorts on the first day but in the space of 17 balls he took three wickets to blow away Sussex's top order.

Nash squandered a solid start by gloving his second ball down the leg side. Murray Goodwin was floored by a yorker which struck him on the right foot and Montgomerie offered up a simple return catch in the same over.

Adams then stood at the other end as the next three batsmen all tossed their wickets away when the situation demanded a much more pragmatic approach.

First there was Matt Prior who was caught low down at mid on when left-arm spinner Gary Keedy temptingly gave the ball some air. The trouble was that Prior had attempted a similar shot to the previous delivery and it only just dropped short of mid off.

Robin Martin-Jenkins could not resist having a dart at Keedy either but only mistimed his drive to long off instead and Luke Wright, having been dropped at second slip off the previous ball from Chapple, played exactly the same airy waft at the next and Tom Smith made no mistake this time.

Mushtaq Ahmed played a few shots before Chapple struck again but Kirtley and Lewry hung around long enough to see Adams through to a half-century before he was last out, trying to mow Mahmood over extra cover.

He made the highest score in either innings by a Sussex batsman with six fours and two sixes off Keedy. Apart from his first ball from Mahmood, a brutal lifter which nearly seperated his head from his shoulders, he was in control against a quality attack.

All of which would have made what he witnessed at the other end even more frustrating.

Mahmood's 5-52 was a Championship best and how Sussex could have done with their own firebrand earlier in the day.

Sussex will hope it is mere coincidence that they have lost both games Rana Naved has missed through injury this week. Certainly they missed his ability to make short work of tail-enders.

Mushtaq removed night-watchman Smith in the first over and when Lewry bowled Australian Brad Hodge via an inside edge, Lancashire were six down and still 38 runs behind.

But Chapple took the attack back to Mushtaq, hitting two boundaries and two sixes in his first four scoring shots before clearing the rope again in the leg spinner's next over.