Somerset 201 and 125 for 4 (Abell 60*, Hunt 4-28) need a further 470 to beat Sussex 294 and 501 for 7 dec (Haines 141, Simpson 110, Leach 4-167)
Sussex's imperious form continued into the third day at Hove, led by yet another commanding performance from their captain, John Simpson. His unbeaten 110 from 117 balls bludgeoned Somerset into submission, setting the visitors a notional target of 595 to win, and Sussex made strides towards finishing the contest as Sean Hunt added to his first-innings five-for by dispatching four of the top five across two fiery spells.
Hunt, who has the frame of a rugby union second row and facial hair straight from Aussie rules, hammered the ball into what had been a relatively benign surface to land potentially the decisive blows during the evening session. His third delivery snagged Sean Dickson's outside edge and flew to fourth slip, and Hunt then surpassed his previous best match haul of six wickets by having Archie Vaughan caught on the hook at deep backward square leg.
The 23-year-old's golden match continued when he returned to break a 63-run stand between Tom Lammonby and Tom Abell with his first ball, plunging to his right in his follow through to hold a spectacular return catch. He finished the over by uprooting Tom Banton's off stump, and should have notched ten for the match soon after, putting down a much simpler caught-and-bowled chance when James Rew had made 1.
Abell played punchily during an unbeaten half-century that saw Somerset to the close, giving them a glimmer of hope - Worcestershire, after all, escaped Taunton on Monday having gone into the final day five down. But the scale of the likely challenge here was encapsulated by Jack Carson's sixth ball, which ripped past Rew's outside edge into the gloves of Simpson; Sussex were convinced of a nick, but replays suggested it had done too much.
Hove isn't the sort of ground where you would be likely to see a banner lauding Simpson as "Captain, Leader, Legend", but it's fair to say his tenure has been nothing short of inspirational. Having never officially captained a side during his 14-year career at Middlesex, his elevation to the role on joining Sussex was initially confirmed only for the first half of the 2024 season. Come the end of it, he had guided them to promotion and the Division Two title, racking up five hundreds and more than 1000 runs in the process.
As one of the few Sussex players to have previous experience of the top tier, he went into the new campaign impressing on his team-mates the need to be "better for longer" - and straight away set the tone with an unbeaten 181 in a strong showing away to Warwickshire. His efforts in the second innings against Somerset lifted his first-class average for Sussex to 86.50, with seven hundreds in just 16 matches (all with the added burden of captaincy). Contrast that with an average of 33.07 for Middlesex, with 10 centuries in 200 appearances, and it's hard not to conclude that Simpson has found the sea air to his liking.
The only conceivable grumble about how he has overseen Sussex's efforts in this match centred on the declaration, which came at tea on the third day and with Somerset having given up on the pursuit of wickets in order to post eight men on the boundary.
With the pitch continuing to play well, Sussex were clearly wary about leaving the door ajar. They were given a scare here last season, when Leicestershire fell 19 runs short of chasing 464 in the fourth innings, inspired by Louis Kimber's brazen double-century. Doubtless the team analyst would have been able to inform Simpson and Paul Farbrace that Somerset successfully hunted down a target of 415 on the last day against Warwickshire at Taunton, too.
Proceedings therefore began with Sussex content to shore up their position, wary of making early missteps on returning to Division One after a ten-year absence. Tom Haines resumed with a century under his belt, his partnership with Tom Clark ticking over towards three figures until the latter was drawn into a push outside off and edged Josh Davey behind. Haines was next to go, adjudged lbw playing across the line to Vaughan, before Tom Alsop feathered behind off Jack Leach. Simpson survived edging to slip off Vaughan on 3, Gregory missing a catchable chance, and at lunch Sussex's total had advanced by 88 runs in 32 overs, the lead already 427.
With Somerset content to sit in while bowling their spinners in tandem, the onus was on Sussex to raise the tempo. As the seagulls swooped, a healthy crowd, encouraged by free entry on Sunday, waited patiently for the martlets to do likewise. Simpson immediately swept and drove eight runs from Leach's first over back, though his partnership with James Coles was one of steady accumulation rather than all-out attack.
Coles brought out the reverse-sweep but fell playing its orthodox counterpart, Rew scrambling back to take a big top edge. There followed a period of stalemate, Sussex seemingly wavering about exactly what sort of target they wanted to set, Leach adding his third and fourth wickets - before Simpson finally flicked the switch and started lumping sixes towards the Shark Stand. Carson followed suit, as the eighth-wicket pair piled on 84 in 9.1 overs before Simpson decided he had enough. Few of a Sussex persuasion were looking to quibble come the close.
