10.45am Pretty miserable morning, but given the lousy forecast it's a pleasant surprise that the captains have tossed, and play is due to start promptly with Lancashire batting after Chris Adams called incorrectly, writes Andy Wilson at Old Trafford. This has tended to be a heavyweight battle in recent seasons between two counties who have often finished first (Sussex) and second (Lancashire), with the last two meetings at Aigburth in Liverpool described as having Test match intensity.
But Sussex go into their first championship match in Manchester since 2004 down in sixth in the table, with Lancashire one point and one position above them, having played a game fewer. Having said that the leaders Nottinghamshire are only 18 points ahead of Sussex in the congested First Division table, and they and all the other title hopefuls will note nervously that Mushtaq Ahmed returns to the Sussex team today after a second knee operation. Old Trafford pitches have traditionally suited leg-spinners, so Stuart Law will doubtless be relieved to have won that toss and avoided having to bat last.
Lancs are unchanged from their last championship match, a home draw against Hampshire, while there is one new name in the Sussex team - Michael Thornely, a 21-year-old opener from Horsham who makes his debut in place of Michael Yardy, who has a shoulder injury. Jason Lewry is preferred to Corey Collymore and might fancy himself to find some swing in sticky conditions.
11.30am The sun's out at the Rose Bowl but there will be no play until at least noon when the umpires next inspect, writes Mike Averis. Overnight rain has, apparently, made the outfield unplayable.
1pm Lunch at Old Trafford, and Lancashire 59 for four, which sounds pretty grim but actually represents a minor recovery, writes Andy Wilson. As has already been noted down below, Jason Lewry did indeed find the conditions to his liking. First he exposed Lou Vincent's inability to play the swinging ball, raising further questions about Lancashire's decision to employ the New Zealander as their overseas player for the rest of this season. If that was a fairly orthodox delivery for the left arm over bowler that a decent opener should have coped with - as Paul Horton had already proved - then Iain Sutcliffe could not be blamed as he was squared up and lost his off stump to Lewry's next delivery. Stuart Law survived the hat-trick with aplomb and played patiently and cleverly until a short rain break.
However by then Lewry had struck again with a clever piece of bowling, angling one across Horton to have Lancashire's consistent young opener caught behind. That was 16 for three, but given Law's prolific record against Sussex over the years, the visitors would still not have been entirely happy. That changed when Luke Wright replaced Lewry from the Stretford End and suckered Lancashire's captain into a loose drive, with Matt Prior taking a good low catch diving towards first slip. Francois du Plessis, who looked lucky to survive a loud lbw appeal from the first delivery he faced, from Lewry, and Steven Croft did well to see Lancashire through until lunch as Mushtaq started to twirl dangerously from the Statham End.
1.10pm We've just had an extraordinary session here. Somerset looked likely to get bowled out before lunch - and there was a late start following rain. It's very damp in the West Country and both sides were clearly determined to make as much progress as they could in the time available to them. Don't you love this short-form cricket?
Nottinghamshire, looking to extend their lead at the top of the table with their fifth victory, won the toss on a pitch which looked as though it needed a shave. Off the last ball of the third over Justin Langer was lbw to one that swung in from Charlie Shreck. In the next over Marcus Trescothick was caught by the diving Mark Ealham in the gully off Darren Pattinson: two for two and their best batsmen gone.
It didn't get much better. Zander de Bruyn, who had been dropped on six, made only three more before he was caught at third slip, driving at a length ball from Pattinson and it was 24 for four when Peter Trego had his off bail trimmed by Andre Adams.
Ian Blackwell was fifth out at 25, when he turned a delivery from Pattinson straight to square-leg, and when James Hildreth was sixth out at 35, caught at first slip playing a poor stroke, Somerset looked in danger of under-cutting their lowest ever score against Notts, which is 62. There was just time for Somerset to lose another one before the interval. Craig Kieswetter, defending, lost his middle-stump and the home side, who are third in the table themselves, lunched on 59 for seven.
3.50pm Tea at Old Trafford, and Sussex still well on top, with Lancashire 147 for seven, writes Andy Wilson. Each of the three wickets that have fallen in the afternoon session has gone to Ollie Rayner, the tall off-spinner who has been really impressive - although he could hardly have asked for better conditions, with a biscuit-coloured pitch already offering plenty of turn and the Lancashire batsmen perhaps relaxing after combating Mushtaq's box of tricks from the other end.
Rayner's first wicket was a gift, as Francois du Plessis squandered an hour's hard graft by top-edging a sweep. Steven Croft, who offered further encouraging evidence of his development in a patient 46, edged an arm ball to slip where he was snapped up by Chris Adams, and Glen Chapple also poked a catch to slip - although he was taken by Jason Lewry, as Adams had briefly left the field.
4pm Yorkshire, without a win in the championship since early June, were struggling at tea on the first day at the Rose Bowl, writes Mike Averis. After losing the morning because overnight rain had left the outfield unfit, Yorkshire took 38 overs in the afternoon to get to 77 for three - and that was after something of a late burst of scoring.
Watched by the likes of Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge, back in town for a reunion of Hampshire old boys, Yorkshire took 28 overs to pass 50 after winning the toss and electing to bat. By then they had lost Andrew Gale to the fifth ball of the innings, a rising delivery from Chris Tremlett which ballooned off the shoulder the bat to Dimitri Mascarenhas running in from gully, and Anthony McGrath in the 12th over with the score at 17 for two.
McGrath, back after three weeks nursing a hamstring, took 38 balls over his three runs - not all his fault because there was plenty of stuff he did not have to play - before he was trapped on the crease and lbw to a delivery from Mascarenhas which nipped back into his pads.
Once Christopher Taylor and Jacques Rudolph had passed 50 there was a slight blip in the run rate, but then Taylor's patient innings - nearly two hours for 27 - ended with a delivery from James Tomlinson which slid across his bat and on to the keeper.
5pm Somerset haven't been the luckiest lot today, writes Paul Weaver at Taunton. Having been bowled out for 106 in 39.1 overs the sun has come out and the pitch has flattened out a bit.
They've just resumed after tea and the Nottinghamshire batsmen are bearing down on that total with six wickets in hand. Mark Wagh went a while ago, caught at square-leg after failing to keep down a ball that was well pitched up on middle-and-leg. Then Adam Voges was out lbw, but at 89-4 Notts are still bossing the game.
Earlier, the ball swung and seamed but not enough to excuse some rather shoddy batting from Somerset. Darren Pattinson took 5-40 and and Andre Adams 4-39 and the best Somerset score was Steffan Jones' unbeaten 27.
When Notts batted the ball was still doing a bit but Somerset did not bowl as well. There were too many fours hit off the back foot for the liking of Justin Langer, the Somerset captain. Matt Wood, the former Somerset player, was caught at first slip off Andrew Caddick and Bilal Shafayat was bowled by an inswinger from Peter Trego.
The crowd is really disappointing for such an important game. I know the weather is a bit dodgy but so far we've lost only the first five minutes of the day.
