Sussex's season may have lacked the excitement which accompanied promotion to Division One 12 months earlier.

But as the post-mortems get underway today, players, management and supporters are doubtless in agreement that staying up meant much more than getting there in the first place.

Sixth place represented the county's best Championship finish for 18 years, a commendable achievement considering the obstacles which presented themselves along the way.

Even before a ball was bowled, Sussex cricket was in shock after Umer Rashid's life was tragically cut short on the pre-season tour of Grenada.

It is hard for anyone on the outside looking in to imagine just how deeply the loss of a player who was the life and soul of the Sussex dressing room affected its occupants.

Memories of a much-loved team-mate will never diminish and it is a testament to the team spirit which Rashid did so much to foster that his death served to motivate his colleagues even more.

What was just as impressive was the way the county coped with the loss of three key members of the promotion-winning squad for a third of the Championship programme.

Skipper Chris Adams was in the form of his life, having just hit a double hundred against Lancashire, when he was finally subdued by the knee injury which has plagued him for as long as he can remember.

He missed six games while his deputy James Kirtley, having regained his England one-day place, was absent for seven Championship matches after breaking his hand preparing for an international against Sri Lanka. It's a testament to Kirtley's enduring skill that he still managed to take 50 wickets for the fifth time in his career.

It seemed strange at Arundel to watch a Sussex attack performing without either Kirtley and his regular new ball partner Jason Lewry for the first time in five years, but it was a sight supporters got used to in the second half of the season. Plagued by a knee problem at the start of the summer and no doubt weighed down with the responsiblities of his benefit, Lewry has his leanest season yet with 33 wickets in ten games.

Paul Hutchison, signed from Yorkshire as second high-quality left-armer, had little opportunity to prove himself either. Shin splints ruled him out for all but three of the Championship games, though he made an encouraging return in the last game against Warwickshire.

Most sides would have struggled without one of their genuine match-winners, never mind three, so it is a tribute to coach Peter Moores and Adams that they managed to engender a rallying response from the other players.

For the first time in 23 years, eight different players scored first-class hundreds and, crucially, the Sussex lower order finally started contributing on a consistent basis after years when opposition attacks regarded the county as a seven out-all out side.

Three players reached 1,000 runs. It was no surprise that Murray Goodwin, who had another solid year as overseas player, did so again. Both he and Richard Montgomerie found first division attacks a far different proposition to those they had encountered in their first year together as the county's opening pair.

The band of loyal supporters who follow the county home and away would no doubt liked to have seen Goodwin score one of his five hundreds on opposition soil but everyone enjoyed Montgomerie's career-best 196 against Hampshire which came after a lean spell with the bat.

The other player to reach 1,000 was Robin Martin-Jenkins. Having worked hard on his fitness during the winter, the all-rounder finally established himself as a permanent fixture at No.6.

Had he not been troubled by a niggling side injury in the second half of the summer he would undoubtedly have become the first Sussex player since Tony Dodemaide to complete the all-rounder's double by adding 50 wickets as well.

England recognition still eludes him, but he is moving in the right direction. There were others whose careers continued on an upward curve. No one at Headingley in June will forget the thrilling strokeplay of Tim Ambrose whose maiden hundred laid the foundations for a first win over Yorkshire.

He added another against Kent. Both he and another youngster Matt Prior, whose maiden hundred against Hampshire was the first by a Sussex wicketkeeper for five years, came desperately close to joining the England academy in Adelaide.

Find of the season was undoubtedly Kevin Innes. His career had stalled at Northamptonshire but he was invigorated by a new challenge on the south coast, adding an extra yard of pace to his bowling and scoring important runs down the order.

Pitches again gave little encouragement to spinners, but Mark Davis shouldered the slow bowling responsiblity admirably in Rashid's absence, the maiden hundred against Somerset a glorious but not unexpected bonus from a player who values his wicket dearly.

By his own admission, Tony Cottey's four years at Hove have been largely disappointing. But he scored successive hundreds after winning back his place. In contrast to Goodwin, his best performances were again away from Hove.

Even though he missed a third of the season, Kirtley was outstanding, 29 wickets in the first six games including a match-winning 10-90 at Headingley earning him the England recall he had worked so hard for after re-moelling his action for a second time during the winter.

Billy Taylor enjoyed his best season for the county and was leading wicket-taker in one-day cricket with 40 including one of two hat-tricks (Kirtley took the other) during the season. It was a surprise, then, when his contract was not extended beyond next year.

There are aspects of Sussex's season which will concern Moores, not least another dismal year in the National League. Since losing their place in Division One the county have won just 12 games and by the end of the season excuses about the batsman's desperate struggles to cope with the white Kookaburra ball were wearing a bit thin.

Will House, Jamie Carpenter, Dominic Clapp and Paul Havell were all released while the recruitment of Mushtaq Ahmed as a second spinner of proven quality means a squad of just 18 professionals next season, eight fewer than the squad Moores and Adams inherited when they teamed-up in 1998.

The quality has undoubtedly improved in that time, but although Sussex are still some way off challenging Surrey's dominance, they are at least moving in the right direction.

Hove: Sussex 352 (M W Goodwin 93, K J Innes 60 no, D R Brown 5-103, A Richardson 4-76) & 341 (M W Goodwin 111, M J G Davis 66, M A Sheikh 4-78) v Warwickshire 293 (N M Carter 103, T Frost 73, B V Taylor 5-90) & 405-7 (M J Powell 103, D P Ostler 90, D R Brown 79 no). Warwickshire (17pts) beat Sussex (7pts) .