Sussex County Cricket Club are playing in Division One of the County Championship and Division Two of the totesport League in 2005. The 2003 County Champions started the season at 6-1 to retake the title. They have a good, well-balanced side, that could turn into real challengers for the 2005 title.
After a draw against the Loughborough students, Sussex started their season at the Oval. It was a fixture seriously curtailed by the rain, which made a draw a certainty, though they were able to pick up 9 points. The next Championship game saw a close draw against Hampshire: a game which might have been won, but for negative play by their opponents at the crunch. They then beat Derbyshire in a thriller in the Sunday League, before a four-day loss to Nottinghamshire. The next day they went down to Yorkshire, and then on the May Day Bank Holiday their game with Durham was abandoned halfway through. On 4 May they easily beat Bedfordshire to progress to Round Two of the C&G Trophy.
They then beat Warwickshire in the totesport League, before securing a convincing innings victory against the same team in the County Championship, and then going on to beat the Bangladeshi tourists by an innings and 226 runs. On 18 May they beat Nottinghamshire to reach the Quarter-Finals of the C&G Trophy. There was then a draw against Middlesex which left them sixth in Division One of the Championship at the end of May. They then drew with Division One whipping boys Glamorgan in a game reduced to 3 days because of rain.
10 June saw an easy win against the Scottish Saltires, before drawing another rain-ravaged match with Nottinghamshire. In the National League on the following Sunday, they won a top-of-the-table clash with Durham, sending them within two points of the Northern lads. In the Twenty20 Cup, there were two meetings with Essex, each team winning one - in between, there was a rained-off match with Hampshire, in which both teams scored a point. Sussex then lost two successive matches, which was thought to permanently damage their quarter-final chances, but they recovered with wins over Hampshire and Kent which sent them into third place of the South Division. However, because they had fewer wins than Derbyshire in the North Division, they were knocked out as the worst third-place finisher.
Following on from their disappointing Twenty20 Cup exit, they lost by 35 runs to Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in the Championship, but recovered to beat Surrey Lions by 48 runs to go top of the National League. A low-scoring draw with Gloucestershire followed, which left both sides struggling in the relegation zone.
August began with an 11-run win over Somerset Sabres in the National League, which gave them a four-point lead in that competition. Following that, Sussex enjoyed a five-wicket win over Surrey in the County Championship which saw them jump past Surrey in the table. A loss to Leicestershire Foxes in the National League followed, however, but they carried their good Championship form into the return match with Gloucestershire to win by 226 runs. However, they lost yet again in the National League, as the Division Two title battle with Durham tightened.
The third week of August saw Sussex thump Middlesex inside two days, beating them by an innings and 232 runs - the highest margin of victory in the entire season - to temporarily go top of Division One, only 18 days after they had been precariously positioned in the relegation zone. However, the week ended with another loss to Leicestershire in the National League, which meant that Leicestershire also involved themselves in the title battle in Division Two. Three days later, Sussex beat Warwickshire in the same competition, mainly thanks to figures of 6-27 from Michael Yardy. In the County Championship, however, they lost to Warwickshire, before finishing August with two National League victories over Scotland and Surrey.
September began with a two-day victory over Glamorgan, which kept their slim Championship title hopes alive, but those were well and truly killed by Nottinghamshire's victory over Kent. However, other teams lost in the National League to give them promotion in that competition, and their fourth National League win in a row - over Kent Spitfires at St Lawrence Ground - left them in control of the race for the Division Two title. Sussex finished the Championship season with an eight-wicket victory over Kent, leaving them third in the Championship, and a win over Yorkshire Phoenix gave them the National League Division Two title.
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