It's a question which will keep cricket's army of statisticians amused for years. Which player went from century-maker to drinks waiter in the space of ten minutes?

Step forward Sussex all-rounder Kevin Innes who played one of the starring roles on an amazing day at Horsham of brilliant batting and records galore as well as finding a unique place for himself in the record books.

The story would have been complete if James Kirtley, deemed surplus to requirements by England, had hot-footed it from Lord's and taken a couple of Nottinghamshire wickets while the man he was nominated to replace was sitting with his feet up in the dressing room savouring his maiden hundred. Then again, that might have stretched credibility too far.

As it was, the crowd who braved the Horsham chill already had more than enough to chew over as they headed home last night after seeing 374 runs scored in 86 overs on the second day, 203 of them in a sensational morning session when Matt Prior, who cut loose to make a thrilling career-best 133, and Innes took the visitors' attack apart.

Sussex declared immediately Innes reached his hundred on 619-7, the highest ever score at Cricketfield Road and the county's biggest total against Nottinghamshire.

Billy Taylor removed opener skipper Jason Gallian in his first over but the visitors had made a solid start to their reply at 85-1 when bad light forced an early close with 12 overs unbowled.

Innes joined Prior 50 minutes into the second day when Tim Ambrose was caught behind shortly after reaching his third half-century of the season and it wasn't long before the seventh wicket pair were matching each other shot for shot against an increasingly dispirited attack who clearly hadn't learnt the lessons of the first day when they either bowled too short or too wide.

Prior's first 50, off 84 balls, was scored at a relatively sedate pace, but he moved through the gears by collecting three successive boundaries off Greg Smith before hitting Australian leg spinner Stuart MacGill out of the attack with a succession of powerful drives and pulls which had spectators on the boundary's edge on a state of high alert.

That was only the start though. In two overs before lunch Prior went into overdrive as he moved from 98 to 133. He reached his hundred with a pulled six off Kevin Pietersen's off spin into the pavilion and cleared the ropes three more times in the next ten deliveries from Nottinghamshire's part-time bowlers Pietersen and Bilal Shafayat.

His second 50 came up off just 49 balls and when he holed out to deep square leg shortly after the interval he had made 133 off 146 deliveries with 15 fours and six sixes, departing to a standing ovation from a crowd who knew they had witnessed one of the most entertaining innings ever seen on the old ground.

Innes had caught the mood by then as well, hitting MacGill straight for the first of two sixes on his way to a 60-ball half-century.

He was dropped at gully by MacGill off Shafayat on 45 and Prior's departure stalled his momentum slightly, but Mark Davis's sensible approach helped him pick up the thread again in an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 84 in 21 overs.

Innes pulled a long hop from Pietersen for his 13th boundary to reach his hundred, made off 150 balls in seven minutes shy of three hours.

Nottinghamshire's woes would have been complete had the player he was effectively substituting for gone on to take a couple of wickets. Andy Harris was unable to bowl because of food poisoning and Notts' coach Mike Newell saw at first-hand how much his attack were suffering when he came on to field for opener Darren Bicknell after he limped off with a calf strain which means he will have to bat with a runner.

Murray Goodwin at gully got one hand to a difficult chance offered by Guy Welton off Robin Martin-Jenkins in the sixth over but couldn't hold on and Nottinghamshire's openers, sensibly adopting a positive approach, rattled along at four an over until Taylor strangled Gallian down the leg side to end a stand of 71 in the 19th over.

But the follow-on target of 470 is still a long way off and it's inconceivable that Kirtley won't play some part over the next two days while Sussex's two spinners can expect plenty of work as well.

Surrey's Martin Bicknell followed up his career-best 141 with a devastating burst with the new ball as the champions took charge against Essex at Chelmsford.

Bicknell found enough movement and lift to send back Will Jefferson, Paul Grayson and Aftab Habib in a 14-ball spell that helped reduce Essex to 17-4, but Andy Flower and skipper Ronnie Irani led a spirited recovery by adding 82 in 18 overs and Essex eventually finished with 252. Surrey were 7-0 in their second innings.

Notts: 85 for 1 (24 overs)

Sussex: 619 for 7 dec (1st Innings)