Chris Read must have lost count of the number of times he has had to revive Nottinghamshire with the bat this season but he still had one more captain's innings left in him after they had run into trouble against relegated Sussex yesterday.

Nottinghamshire, needing to avoid defeat to overhaul Somerset and claim the £225,000 runners-up prize, had slumped to 107 for six, only 192 ahead, before Read hit an unbeaten 64 off 84 balls with nine fours and a six to lift them to 236 for seven.

It looked as though their batsmen were going to squander £110,000 - the difference between finishing second and third - when they resumed on four for one and promptly lost two more wickets. Luke Fletcher, the nightwatchman, was leg-before shouldering arms to Corey Collymore and Mark Wagh went the same way, playing across the line against Dwayne Smith.

At least Alex Hales, the 20-year-old batsman who has played some eye-catching innings in one-day cricket but has yet to establish himself in the championship side, got his head down to make 38 off 141 balls before he was bamboozled by a Piyush Chawla googly.

By then, Samit Patel was threatening to take the game away from Sussex with some handsome strokeplay that brought him 54 off 82 balls with nine fours and a six but when he carelessly hooked Smith down long leg's throat and Alistair Brown was leg-before to Smith third ball, Read had to march out and rescue his team once more.

He was given dogged support by Akhil Patel, Samit's younger brother, who took 19 balls to avoid a pair on his championship debut but then joined Read in a seventh-wicket stand of 80 in 25 overs before he was caught behind cutting at the occasional off spin of Chris Nash.

The debutant gave way to Mark Ealham, who is retiring at the age of 40 after a 21-year first-class career that has brought him 11,235 runs, 641 wickets, eight England Test caps and 64 one-day international appearances.

He was given a guard of honour by the Sussex players before he showed that he has lost none of his appetite for the game by joining Read in an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 49 before bad light ended play.

Nottinghamshire: First Innings 328 (C M W Read 88, M A Wagh 67)
Second Innings
B M Shafayat lbw b Collymore 4
A D Hales b Chawla 38
L J Fletcher lbw b Collymore 0
M A Wagh lbw b Smith 2
S R Patel c Martin-Jenkins b Smith 54
A Patel c Hodd b Nash 37
A D Brown lbw b Smith 1
*†C M W Read not out 64
M A Ealham not out 23
Extras (b 9, lb 1, w 1, nb 2) 13
Total (7 wkts, 81 overs) 236
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-4, 3-15, 4-86, 5-106, 6-107, 7-187.
Bowling: Collymore 14-3-34-2; Lewry 7-3-23-0; Smith 22-7-50-3; Martin-Jenkins 9-2-32-0; Chawla 18-3-55-1; Hamilton-Brown 4-0-8-0; Nash 7-0-24-1.
Sussex: First Innings 243 (C D Nash 135; A R Adams 4 for 63)
Umpires: N G B Cook and R T Robinson.