There should be plenty of lively conversation the next time Sussex players Tony Cottey and Tim Ambrose get round the dinner table at the house they share in Hove.

And if they toast themselves with a glass of something cold who could blame them?

Cottey made a superb hundred and Ambrose a composed 88 at Arundel yesterday to help drag Sussex back into contention on the second day of the Championship match against Essex.

Sussex's day appeared to be going from bad to worse after Essex had rallied from 215-8 to make 340 before removing their top three with 53 on the board.

But Cottey and Ambrose revived them with a stand of 178 for the fourth wicket before Paul Grayson tipped the balance back Essex's way with three wickets in the final hour. Sussex were 282-8 at the close, trailing by 68.

Cottey and Ambrose adopted a cautious approach in the early stages of their partnership, but once they started to time their shots on a slow pitch they went from strength to strength.

Cottey's eighth hundred for the county and the 26th of a career which has now yielded over 13,000 first-class runs came 20 minutes after tea with a single off Graham Napier. He'd gone to 99 in the previous over with an exquisite swept six off James Middlebrook over mid-wicket.

The only pity for another 3,000 crowd enjoying glorious sunshine was that Ambrose couldn't convert his sixth half-century into a first hundred of the season. And you suspected that his housemate shared their disappointment.

It took an outstanding catch at slip by Andy Flower to remove him when Ambrose, trying to turn Paul Grayson through the leg side, got a leading edge and Flower clung on one-handed diving to his right.

The 21-year-old has made just five scores below 17 in 13 innings this season which is a measure of his improved consistency and, on yesterday's evidence, that first hundred of the summer isn't far away if he stays patient.

It was hard going early on as Scott Brant, who took two wickets with the new ball, and Napier got just enough seam movement to unsettle the batsmen.

Just two runs were scored in 20 minutes after lunch, but when Ambrose glided Brant through the covers for two boundaries in an over the shackles were suddenly loosened.

Middlebrook got some gentle turn with his off breaks, but not enough to disconcert as good a player of spin as Cottey who used soft hands and nimble footwork to find the gaps with uneering accuracy.

He reached his fifty in the 38th over and Ambrose followed him in the 46th before bringing up the century stand with a textbook straight drive off Brant.

As Sussex's seamers had discovered on the first day, it was hard work once the new ball lost its hardness and there was little to disturb the dozing spectators seeking shelter from the sun as Cottey and Ambrose chugged along without alarm during the afternoon session.

Grayson's arrival was delayed until the 69th over and by then Cottey had reached his second successive hundred.

But the part-time slow left-armer duly made the breakthrough after Ambrose had faced 171 balls, hitting 12 of them for four.

The fourth wicket stand was worth 178 in 55 overs and, as so often happens, another wicket fell almost immediately when Cottey played his only false shot, a mis-timed hook off Dakin which Middlebrook dived forward to catch on the square leg boundary. Cottey faced 194 deliveries and hit ten boundaries.

Essex were suddenly reinvigorated. Grayson soon snared Robin Martin-Jenkins and Brant, the pick of the Essex seamers, came back to beat Matt Prior for pace.

Sussex had lost four wickets for 23 in nine overs and although Davis and Mushtaq Ahmed steadied things for a while, Grayson struck for the third time when Davis was caught at silly point four overs before the close. No wonder the sizeable contingent of Essex supporters were wondering out loud why he hadn't been brought into the attack a lot sooner.

The county had been in need of the resolution shown by Cottey and Ambrose because either side of their partnership too many batsmen were out playing injudicious shots.

Richard Montgomerie was caught at second slip following a ball from Brant outside off stump he should have left alone and Brant was celebrating again in his fourth over when Murray Goodwin lost his off stump as he played all around a full-length delivery.

Chris Adams blossomed briefly before Napier tempted him into a big drive outside off stump and James Foster, whose wicketkeeping impressed all day, did the rest. Adams had been dropped by Nasser Hussain at slip in the previous over.

Earlier, Napier had finished with a Championship best 89 not out as Essex's last two wickets added 125 runs.

Napier and Ryan ten Doeschate extended their ninth wicket stand to 116 before Jason Lewry bowled ten Doeschate via an inside edge to claim his first five-wicket haul since 2001.

Lewry finished with 5-72 while Mushtaq Ahmed picked up his second wicket when Brant was last out, caught off bat and pad.

Ahmed could hold the key to the outcome of a match which is fascinatingly poised at the halfway stage, but first Sussex need to extend their innings for as long as possible today.