Sport 19-09-2003 Sussex Break 164-year Duck who: Sussex County Cricket Club what: Win County Championship for first time ever where: HOVE when: Yesterday snippet: "It was not the most extravagant way to end 164 years of drought," says The Telegraph`s cricket correspondent Derek Pringle, "but the pulled boundary with which Murray Goodwin sealed Sussex`s first County Championship at Hove yesterday was entirely fitting." At that "strangely astrological" moment, play was suspended for seven minutes, says The Guardian`s Paul Weaver. "It was as if there had been a flypast by a famous comet, or Mars had been sighted. If felt a little like the eclipse, though the sun had never shone more brightly upon this venerable ground." The oldest county club, formed in 1839, can thank director of cricket Peter Moores for their change in fortunes, says The Independent`s Angus Fraser. At the end of the "disastrous" summer of 1997, when he was the presiding captain and coach, he decided to create a new sporting culture at the club based, he says, "around a strong work ethic" and a significant investment in new equipment, technology and staff. Goodwin faced 390 balls in eight hours against relegated Leicestershire to score a club record 335 not out, including 52 fours and a six, before bad light stopped play yesterday. The result is now of course purely academic. [... more]

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