Sussex are on the verge of a first ever Championship after duly completing their seventh win in the last nine games 15 minutes after tea at Hove yesterday.

Every run was cheered to the echo by the biggest Monday crowd at the County Ground for years as Sussex knocked off their target of 106 in 97 minutes to record a seven-wicket win.

The gates might have to be locked if Sussex secure the title in their final home match against Leicestershire on Wednesday week, but there is every likelihood that they will cross the finishing line at Old Trafford sometime later this week.

The county headed to Manchester today knowing that ten points will wrap it up and that is assuming both Lancashire and Surrey pick up maximum points from their remaining matches.

The reality is that they are playing for second place prize money. The £104,000 winners' cheque already has Sussex's name written on it and if the trophy engraver is not sharpening his chisel yet he will be soon.

Middlesex made Sussex work for their ninth win of the season, their last five wickets adding a further 98 in 45 overs thanks mainly to a dogged half-century from Paul Weekes.

But it was no surprise that their innings was topped and tailed by the irrepressible Mushtaq Ahmed who needs one more wicket to become the first to take 100 in the Championship since 1998.

He collected his fifth ten-wicket haul of the season by taking the last three in 11 balls at a cost of three runs shortly after lunch.

It had been a fruitless morning for Mushtaq. Countless frenzied appeals were rejected by the umpires and his frustration was almost palpable when Simon Cook's top edge sweep was taken at slip only for Roy Palmer to rule contact had come with the pad and not the bat.

But two balls later Cook was bowled through the gate by a googly and in the next over Weekes' three hours of defiance ended when he was caught off bat-pad at silly point, his 65 having been made off 164 balls with seven fours.

Victim number 99 came like so many others this season as Joe Dawes was leg before playing back to the flipper.

If his Sussex team-mates are n't holding their own private sweepstake on who will be Mushy's 100th you can bet that the sizeable contingent of Sussex supporters heading to the north-west will be.

Mushtaq finished with 4-80, giving him a match haul of 10-225. It would be nice to think that he will spend part of his considerable bonus on a bottle of something for groundsman Derek Traill and his staff who has consistently produced Hove wickets to assist Sussex's main attacking weapon this season.

It left the county with a potentially tricky target and Dawes caused one or two uncomfortable moments when he had both Murray Goodwin and Tony Cottey, whose brilliant mid-season form now only seems to be a fond memory, leg before in a hostile burst with the new ball.

Adams was reprieved early in his innings when Simon Cook shelled a head-high return catch and celebrated by adding 70 in 14 overs either side of tea with Richard Montgomerie.

Adams fell to a bat-pad catch in the first over after the interval, but by then the target was down to 14 and Tim Ambrose duly drilled Weekes to the mid-on boundary to secure victory with 22 overs to spare. Richard Montgomerie finished unbeaten on 54 with seven fours, his fifth half-century in the last seven innings.

Montgomerie is one of several players eyeing personal milestones as the season enters the last lap.

Matt Prior, Tim Ambrose, Chris Adams and Robin Martin-Jenkins could all reach 1,000 runs, making it six Sussex batsmen in all to reach the milestone. Mushtaq, meanwhile, is on the cusp of becoming the first slowie to take 100 Championship wickets since Anil Kumble eight years ago.

Individual achievements are all very nice of course, but the success Sussex are surely about to enjoy has been based on a phenomenal dressing room spirit and team-work ethic nurtured so carefully by Adams and director of cricket Peter Moores.

It's been six years, almost to the day, since Adams met former chief executive Tony Pigott to discuss his move to Hove and the pair parted promising to make Sussex the champion county. Their efforts and those of so many others are about to bear fruit.

As Ambrose and Montgomerie walked off to 'Sussex by the Sea', the crowd stood in salute. It seems even the long-suffering Sussex cricket public, who have seen a few false dawns, finally believe their side will make history.

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