Sussex went top of the Championship after producing their most ruthless performance of the season to sweep aside Essex in less than three days.

True, their stay as leaders of the First Division might not last more than 48 hours with Surrey already in a strong position to beat Leicestershire and regain top spot sometime over the weekend.

But, as they sipped celebratory beers in the Colchester dressing room at tea-time and savoured victory by an innings and 120 runs, Chris Adams and his team looked like a side ready to enjoy the moment, no matter how long it lasts.

Before this game Adams had predicted that two wins and two draws from their final four matches would be enough to bring the title to Sussex for the first time in the county's long history.

They have one of those wins but it still looks an optimistic forecast bearing in mind Surrey are also trampling over all and sundry at the moment in the same remorseless way as their only serious rivals for the pennant.

Sussex, though, are playing like a side who believe they are on the verge of making history and there is no reason why the momentum which has seen them win six of their last eight games should not continue right through until the end of the season.

A year ago, Adams would have fretted over the absence of fast-bowling spearhead James Kirtley but, in the England man's absence, Sussex have won their last two games with his replacement Billy Taylor producing match-winning spells on both occasions.

They have the opportunity to re-group and re-charge their batteries next week before the final push against Middlesex and Leicestershire at home either side of the trip to third-placed Lancashire.

Adams joked afterwards that his only contribution to this latest win, which was wrapped up 25 minutes before tea, came when he won the toss and got first use of a dry pitch which he knew would eventually break up.

He must have a short memory because the brilliant pick-up and direct hit which ran out Darren Robinson in the first over yesterday was arguably the highlight of the three days.

The Essex opener had only dawdled a couple of yards out of his crease after turning down Will Jefferson's call for a single to mid off. Adams made ground to his right and in one movement swooped and then knocked the only stump he had to aim at out of the turf.

It was just the start Sussex needed and although there were periods during the day when Essex hinted at prolonged resistance, the overwhelming impression was that the county would eventually work their way through a side patently lacking in confidence and who look doomed to a quick return to the Second Division.

Jefferson went on to hit eight crisp boundaries in his second half-century of the match, but he was caught and bowled by Robin Martin-Jenkins after putting on 85 for the second wicket with Andy Flower.

That was a deserved reward for the Sussex all-rounder who should have had more to celebrate than that solitary success after bending his back in two probing spells either side of lunch.

Flower laboured dilligently for 36 overs to make 32 and looked the most at ease against Mushtaq but, once he had prodded a googly into the hands of short leg in the third over after lunch to give Mushtaq Ahmed the first of three wickets, the end was nigh for Essex.

Aftab Habib and James Foster were both bamboozled by Mushtaq's googly which took his haul for the season to 89.

Mushtaq has been troubled by back and groin stiffness since the first day, but with the tail exposed the leg spinner must have fancied his chances of more easy pickings.

Instead, Taylor replaced the luckless Martin-Jenkins at the Catchpool Lane End and produced a burst similar to the one which had unseated Lancashire's top order at the weekend to finish things off.

Taylor grabbed the last four wickets to fall, the first when he got a ball to explode off a length which Ronnie Irani could only help on its way through to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.

James Middlebrook sliced a drive straight to extra cover and Jon Dakin clipped a ball to Murray Goodwin at mid-wicket.

The end came at 3.45pm when Mohammad Akram was leg before to a yorker.

Even the notoriously hard to please Essex crowd gave Adams and his men a standing ovation as they trooped off.

There is no doubt that the popularity of a Sussex Championship success would extend far beyond the county boundaries. It could happen.

Sussex won by an innings and 120 runs