HOVE (England), Sept 18: Sussex clinched the county championship for the first time in their history on Thursday, finally ending a 113-year wait to claim the biggest prize in English domestic cricket.

After dismissing Leicestershire for 179 in 69.5 overs on Wednesday, Sussex resumed on 137-1 with a target of 300 runs to secure the three batting points needed to ensure they could not be caught by nearest rivals Lancashire.

Leicestershire’s bowlers did their best to keep the champagne on ice for as long as possible.

But they were powerless to prevent Sussex passing the 300 mark shortly after lunch to a rapturous response from the 3,000-strong crowd.

Appropriately, it was opener Murray Goodwin, the county’s highest run scorer this summer, who brought up the target, pulling former England seamer Phil DeFreitas for four to move to 170 not out.

Skipper Chris Adams was on 56 not out as Sussex, on 302-2, looked set to conclude a memorable season with a victory in their final match.

Among the spectators were Sussex exiles who had flown in from Canada, the United States and all four corners of the British Isles to witness the county triumph for the first time since the county championship began in 1890.

Sussex’s failure to clinch the title over all those years is made all the more surprising by the fact that they were the first county to form a first class cricket club, back in 1839.

Goodwin enjoyed the limelight on Thursday but it is Pakistan spinner Mushtaq Ahmed who has been Sussex’s hero throughout a summer which has seen record temperatures bake pitches up and down the country.

On Wednesday Mushtaq became the first bowler for five years to take 100 wickets in a season, a haul which has included five ten-wicket matches.

After returning figures of 4-71 on Wednesday to lift his season’s wicket total to 103, Mushtaq revealed that he wants to play for Sussex for two more seasons.

Mushtaq was the first bowler to take 100 wickets in a season since West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh, playing for Gloucestershire, and Somerset and England’s Andrew Caddick achieved the feat in 1998.

No spinner had reached the milestone since Indian leggie Anil Kumble, who did it for Leicestershire in 1995.

Close of play scores on Wednesday:

(First day of four):

Division One:

At Canterbury: Kent 379-3 (E.T. Smith 121 not out, A. Symonds 88, R.W.T. Key 54, D.P. Fulton 51, M. Walker 50 not out) v Warwickshire.

At Trent Bridge:

Nottinghamshire 376-9 declared (J.E.R. Gallian 83, R.J. Warren 75, D.J. Bicknell 75, K.P. Pietersen 52); Lancashire 3-0.

At The Oval: Surrey 318 (J.N. Batty 87, N. Shahid 67, B. Scott 58 not out; J. Middlebrook 4-93); Essex 112-1 (A. Cook 63 not out).

At Hove: Leicestershire 179 (D.L. Maddy 55; Mushtaq Ahmed 4-71); Sussex 137-1 (M.W. Goodwin 71 not out).

Division Two:

At Derby: Derbyshire 317 (Hasan Adnan 84, A Gait 63; J. Hamblin 6-93); Hampshire 76-0.

At Chester-le-Street: Glamorgan 270 (M. Wallace 121, J.P. Maher 63); Durham 142-4 (G. Pratt 58 not out, P.D. Collingwood 50).

At Northampton: Northamptonshire 196 (J. Cook 57; G. Batty 4-53); Worcestershire 139-6 (S.D. Peters 69; G.P. Swann 4-56).

At Headingley: Yorkshire 476 (D.R. Martyn 238, M. Wood 116); Gloucestershire 5-0.—AFP