SUSSEX lost both openers in the first hour of thee Championship match against Lancashire at Old Trafford today.

Skipper Warren Hegg snapped up an outstanding catch in front of first slip to get rid of Richard Montgomerie and Murray Goodwin fell to the first delivery from teenage paceman Kyle Hogg.

But skipper Chris Adams and Tony Cottey steadied the ship in an unbroken third wicket stand of 48 as Sussex reached 88-2.

Adams won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first on a pitch which is expected to offer plenty of assistance to the spinners.

It could mean plenty of work later in the match for Montgomerie and Cottey as support to Mark Davis, but today they found the new ball darting around under heavy Manchester cloud cover.

Montgomerie collected two boundaries through the gully in the first over from Peter Martin, while new ball partner Glen Chapple had an lbw shout against Montgomerie turned down in his second over with a ball which was a shade too high.

Martin broke through in the seventh over when he located Montgomerie's edge with an away swinger and Warren Hegg dived full-length in front of first slip to take an outstanding one-handed catch.

Adams was soon onto the offensive, cracking Martin through the covers for four in his next over before collecting successive boundaries off Chapple, the first pulled when the bowler dropped short and the next driven straight after Chapple overpitched.

Goodwin took 39 minutes before he got off the mark with a four through backward point off the 23rd ball he faced, but the Zimbabwean's relief turned to despair when he was dismissed in the 12th over, the first bowled by 18-year-old Hogg.

His first delivery may have hit a footmark and hardly bounced as it rapped Goodwin on the pads in front of all three.

Hogg bowled three maidens in his opening five-over spell and conceded just two runs. Even Mark Chilton was making the ball wobble about with his medium-pacers, but any indiscretion in line was still being punished, notably when Adams hammered Hogg through the covers and then pulled him for another four after Hogg had replaced Chapple at the Stretford End in the 22nd over.

Lancashire brought in leg-spinner Chris Schofield for his first Championship game of the season while Kevin Innes was due to bat at No8 on his Sussex debut.