Francis once beat Williams and also shared the ring briefly with Mike Tyson but it is likely that Sam will take care of him before the end of round eight.. In conditions to get the fingers of even the oldest seamer twitching, Sussex moved into a commanding position against Middlesex here yesterday in their first Championship outing of the summer. On a pitch offering movement to the quicker bowlers throughout and with the forecast promising similar conditions over the next two days, a lead of 317 with one wicket remaining should be enough to ensure that Chris Adams’ competitive side get their season off to a winning start. After a disappointing winter, in which he just failed to gain selection for England’s World Cup squad, Kirtley slipped straight into the sort of rhythm which suggests it will not be too long before the national selectors once again frequent the south coast.Bowling unchanged from the Nursery End for an hour and a half, Kirtley used all his skill and experience to make the most of a muggy, overcast morning.There will be occasions when the 28-year-old bowls worse for greater reward than his 3 for 51, but it was the wickets of the in-form Ed Joyce and Sven Koenig, both trapped leg before wicket, that wrecked any hope Middlesex might have had of moving away from their precarious overnight position of 79 for 4.But for a freak incident Kirtley would have had even more to smile about. Bowling at Chad Keegan, Kirtley and the fielders behind the stumps went up for a regulation caught behind as a noise was heard when the ball passed the batsman’s bat Remarkably though the ball had not taken the edge. He received handsome support from Jason Lewry, whose left-arm in-swing accounted for a shot-less Abdul Razzaq.

Both bowlers delivered a fullish length, which enabled them not only to dart the ball about but give Middlesex’s battery of left-handers very little to hit. The fact that six wickets fell for just 37 runs in 18.3 overs highlighted the stranglehold Sussex had over their opponents.With a first-innings lead of 123, Sussex’s batsmen then set about the task of putting this match out of Middlesex’s reach. They received just the start they wanted when 12 runs came off the first over bowled by Joe Dawes.The strapping Queenslander got his revenge by trapping Murray Goodwin in front, but hard as Middlesex’s seamers tried – Keegan was comfortably the pick ending the day with figures of 4 for 27 – they could not match Sussex’s discipline.The innings of the day came from Robin Martin-Jenkins, who went some way to making up for the fact that he didn’t get his hands on the ball in the morning by scoring an important 50 while wickets fell regularly around him. On reaching his half-century Martin-Jenkins became the ninth batsman of the day to be given out lbw, proving that it was not just the fast bowlers whose fingers were twitching.. James Anderson, who will be commandeered by England within days, is old enough at 20 to know that fast bowling is a dangerously erratic career: here today, gone tomorrow, wine and roses one day, tears and bruises the next. Given the traditional Stretford End on yesterday’s perfect morning he trapped Jason Gallian with a fast near-yorker to end his first over and went on to give Darren Bicknell a hard time in his next five.

The ball was no longer new and Cairns leaned eagerly into wide and over-pitched deliveries, driving 11 runs in one over. By that stage, Lancashire’s old firm of Glen Chapple and Peter Martin, the latter coming on first change for perhaps the first time in a decade, had taken a wicket each. Anderson’s huge promise is endorsed by his strike rate of a wicket every 34 balls.Then came frustration: after losing 80 overs at The Oval when in a commanding position, Lancashire saw the rain intervene again – costing another 65 overs. They are not yet in the driving seat here and every point, before Anderson and Andrew Flintoff are whisked away, is precious.Leg-spin, like a rare and beautiful butterfly, is not often seen in April – a happy reminder of how dry and bright the last few weeks have been – and Chris Schofield, a bowler who has learned all about heartaches in his career, had six overs before the rain came. He appeared, on schedule, just before lunch, the traditional moment nowadays to introduce the first spinner of the day.He won sufficient response, bowling in the current style into the bowlers’ rough on the leg-side, to be kept on after lunch and, what’s more, be rewarded with a silly point. Although Schofield restrained Cairns, and found a couple of edges, nothing went to hand and further experiments will have to wait until today, the weather permitting.Jim Troughton gave the England selectors a brief glimpse of his international potential as Warwickshire added what runs they could on a rain-ruined second day of their First Division match against Essex at Edgbaston. Troughton, unbeaten on 107 overnight, had time in 40 minutes of play – before a band of rain wiped out the day – to move to 129 not out in a first-innings 446 for 7, in the presence of England’s chairman of selectors, David Graveney, and the Academy director Rod Marsh..