JIM May hardly looked like a revolutionary.

Bespectacled and soberly dressed, it would not have surprised anyone who asked to learn that he held down a responsible management job in the banking industry.

But during the winter of 1996-97, something stirred in May and others like him as they witnessed their beloved Sussex implode.

They watched with growing disbelief as captain Alan Wells was fired and a handful of capped players left the club in the space of a few short weeks. May decided to do something about it.

It will be ten years on Monday since that electrifying night when Sussex members, roused from their deckchairs by the thought that they might actually make a difference, swept away the old guard at an emotional AGM. The hundreds who packed into the Empress ballroom in Brighton's Grand Hotel will never forget it.

And it was May who captured the mood of the meeting. He caught the top table unawares by proposing an unprecedented rejection of the annual accounts and was loudly cheered as he labelled the the committee aloof, autocratic and arrogant.' In less than an hour Ken Hopkins, who had only been chairman for less than a month following the resignation of Alan Caffyn, and his committee had resigned en bloc but not before club surgeon Frank Horan had called the membership rabble rousers' and stormed out of the meeting.

"That's democracy," shouted a voice from the back of the hall. Even the most disaffected member could not quite believe what had been achieved and how quickly.

At the time, May compared it to Eastern Europe before and after the fall of the iron curtain. No one has come up with a better comparison since.

During the intervening decade, some of the key figures in the Sussex revolution have come and gone. Tony Pigott, very much the figurehead around whom the disaffected had rallied, and Robin Marlar are no longer involved, although both remain fiercely supportive of the Sussex cause.

But May has endured. Last year, having retired from full-time work, he became the county's treasurer.

"It's amazing that it all happened ten years ago, it only seemed like last month," he said.

"I don't think anyone who was at the AGM that night will ever forget it. I had done some public speaking before and since but when I stood up that night I knew everyone in that room was with me which was a tremendous feeling."

May, who had been a member for 24 years, was stirred into action after Marlar had appeared on local TV criticising the club's management in typically trenchant style at the end of 1996.

Wells had been replaced by Peter Moores in October and within the space of three months Wells, Ian Salisbury, Martin Speight and Danny Law - all capped players - had been allowed to leave.

May said: "I didn't know Robin at all but I got in touch and we met at the Varsity rugby match in December 1996 and both of us agreed to stand for the committee to try to change things from within."

The following month Pigott joined them. He recalled: "I was speaking at a meeting of the Sussex Cricket Society and you could tell how upset people were, they were very criticial of the chairman and committee.

"I spoke to Jim afterwards and he felt the same way as me. He knew that I would have more of a chance of doing something because I was an ex-player who was still close to the club and had a bit of a profile."

Pigott quickly gathered the 50 signatures necessary to hold an EGM proposing a vote of no confidence in the committee. He even went into the Sussex Cricketer pub at the entrance to the ground where there was no shortage of supporters.

In the event an EGM wasn't needed. May, Marlar and Dick Holste, another rebel, were all voted on to the committee in the annual elections. Richard Barrow, who was already on it, joined them and support for old Sussex' crumbled away.

A decade later Sussex are still a members' club run by a committee, but that is the only similarity between then and now.

"What's happened inbetween was beyond my wildest dreams at the time," said May. "All I wanted to achieve was for Sussex to compete successfully with the non-Test match playing grounds."

The appointment of Moores as coach and Chris Adams as captain in 1998 were the catalyst for an unprecedented era of success on the field, culminating last year when Sussex won the second of two Championships in four seasons and their first Lord's final for 20 years.

Off the field, they have built a new indoor school, revamped the pavilion and, providing they receive planning permission, will undertake a massive redevelopment of the sea end next year.

The profile of the membership has not changed a great deal from that momentous night ten years ago.

But things have changed and very much for the better.

"We've done a lot and I'm proud of the part I played in what we've achieved," said May. "On the pitch we have the best team in the country, we're improving our facilities and Sussex people are playing a significant role in English cricket."

But would it have happened without May, Marlar, Pigott and the other revolutionaries?

No chance.

Sussex fans. What are your memories of the most turbulent period in the county's history?