Magnificent Murray Goodwin put Sussex in sight of the Championship summit after he led a merciless assault on the Essex bowlers on the first day at Colchester.

Goodwin looked like a man keen to extend his stay with the county into a fourth season and beyond as he made a career-best 210.

Before the close Matt Prior had raced to an 86-ball hundred as Sussex piled up a remarkable 521-8 on a day of carnage in Castle Park.

A dispiriting day for Essex was neatly summed up by Darren Robinson's comment to Tony Cottey when the players went in for lunch with Sussex 161-0.

"It's time for the indoor buffet now," he said, only half-jokingly. You would have got long odds that it would be Sussex's least productive session of the day.

Richard Montgomerie fell four short of a deserved century, but only after helping Goodwin put on 202 in just 45 overs for the first wicket while Prior reached his third hundred of the season after a breathless assault on an increasingly dispirited home attack after tea.

By 3.30pm Robinson was watching his rarely purveyed leg breaks dissapearing all over Castle Park. It appeared with that decision that skipper Ronnie Irani had already run up the white flag yet oddly it coincided with Essex's most productive period of the first day as five wickets fell in the afternoon session including Chris Adams for a first-ball duck.

Goodwin remained steadfast as he lost partners and after tea normal service resumed when Prior came in to play the sort of innings he tends to produce when there are runs on the board and the sun is on his back.

He raced to 50 off just 41 balls, scoring 44 of his runs in boundaries including successive pulled fours off Graham Napier which made sure Sussex achieved their first objective of maximum batting points in the 82nd over.

But the day belonged to Goodwin who had a reprieve when he was dropped at second slip on 24 but otherwise drove, cut and pulled his way to a career-best, passing 1,000 first-class runs for the season when he had made 197.

When the bowling is consistently short no one is more likely to cash in than Goodwin and of the Essex attack only Graham Napier, who also had Montgomerie dropped in his first over, bowled a consistently full length while James Middlebrook's off breaks were collared straight away and he could make little impression.

Not that the Sussex spinner are likely to suffer the same fate. Just after lunch Essex's latest overseas signing, Pakistani seamer Mohammad Akram, made a couple of balls go through the top surface.

By the time the Essex attack adjusted their lengths Goodwin and Montgomerie were rattling along at five an over.

It was only with three figures in sight that Montgomerie, who collected the majority of his 13 boundaries in his favourite leg side areas, slowed down.

In Tony Pallidino's previous over he edged one just short of slip and had not added to his score when Palladino trimmed his off stump via a thick inside edge in his next over.

Goodwin's first 100 was made at a relatively sedate pace off 151 balls, but when he effortlessly hoisted Middlebrook over the stand at mid-wicket and then repeated the shot off Robinson's first ball it was clearly time for accleration.

Not even the fall of wickets at the other end could disturb his progress. Akram played the last of his nine Tests in 2000, but he produced a world-class inswinging yorker to unseat Adams first-up before shaping one away from Tim Ambrose who thick-edged to slip.

Cottey was left one short of 1,000 runs for the season when he was run out after Goodwin wisely declined his call for a single while Robin Martin-Jenkins got a bottom edge cutting at Middlebrook.

Even though Adams had said beforehand a score of 350 would be more than acceptable, Sussex were in danger of squandering their excellent start at 324-5.

Prior re-launched the innings after tea in a blaze of attacking strokes as Goodwin had to play second fiddle.

The Zimbabwean duly reached the second double century of his career, however, the second hundred coming off just 105 balls.

By the time Akram, armed with the second new ball, broke through his defences he had stroked 30 boundaries and departed to a generous standing ovation.

That was not the end of Essex's suffering. Prior and Jason Lewry added 65 in nine overs for the ninth wicket, Prior reaching his century with successive sixes over long on off Napier. He also hit 15 fours.

Close: Sussex 521 for 8 (104 overs)