Safety first and last for Adams

Here's a tip, courtesy of Chris Adams, the Sussex skipper. If you want to be entertained by a run chase on the fourth day of a Championship match, try a Second Division game. Points matter more in the top division and that discourages frivolity. So it is no surprise to learn that Sussex, having overcome a deficit of 64 on first innings, batted until the game was dead, declaring when Somerset required 333 from 40 overs, which left time to give their bowlers some practice in the middle. Six Sussex bowlers had a go, including Adams, but it was desultory stuff.

It sounds like a recipe for a long sleep after lunch, but if you like county cricket, there was enough to stay awake for. It is intriguing to watch a newly-promoted team like Sussex adjusting their game. There was a second century of the summer for Adams and a stylishly violent knock from Robin Martin-Jenkins who seemed certain to get a hundred until a leading edge undid him on 86. But, to tell the truth, the supporters of Brighton and Hove, who celebrated their team's promotion to the First Division by parading noisily down the seafront, probably had a better time than the loyalists who arrived to watch a game that never recovered from a day lost to rain on Friday.

First thing in the morning there was enough cloud cover to get the ball moving off the seam and Sussex, who led by 114 with three wickets down, were not out of trouble. A Somerset breakthrough could lose them the game. Richard Johnson got bounce and movement, though too many deliveries could be safely left by Adams and 21-year-old Michael Yardy.

But with Matthew Bulbeck at the other end, Somerset provided Sussex with a testing hour before Adams was out with the score on 225 and a draw was already the most likely outcome.

Adams had scored his second century in two matches, his 101 here following 114 against Surrey at The Oval last weekend. He was angry to have been caught off a back-foot cover drive by Ian Blackwell and asked the umpire to confirm that the ball had carried, but he was pleased enough by his form. He said afterwards, in an expression of the mild paranoia that Surrey induce in their opponents, that if he was playing for Surrey he might well be lining up for the first Test against Sri Lanka. But he was encouraged by the team's performance.

His batsmen have scored more than 300 in each of their four innings, and although they lost to Surrey, they put up a better show against "the outstanding team in the Championship" (according to Adams) than the champions Yorkshire did last week.

"We couldn't have had a tougher start so the signs are good," says Adams. But he is already conscious of the difference between the two divisions. Last summer Sussex won every time they played at Hove. "The onus was on winning to secure promotion. In the First Division the thing is not to lose points."

Better to secure four points a draw than to try for 12 points by charging after a win. "I'm not about playing for draws but you have to pull in your reins," he says.

The good news was the lanky Martin-Jenkins, who hit 14 fours, clubbing the ball to midwicket, playing smoothly off his toes and driving punitively through the covers. The bad news for Sussex is that their chairman has been overthrown (they make a habit of it here), and David Gilbert, an experienced chief executive, has been succeeded by a former military man and school bursar. It sounds like a win for the amateurs.