Sussex 244 (71.5 overs) and 319-9 declared (78 overs)
Hampshire 128 (59 overs) and 238 (54.4 overs)
Sussex (19 points) beat Hampshire (3 points) by 197 runs
Sussex completed a dominant victory over neighbours Hampshire after a century from captain Tom Haines and Tom Price’s 5-33 helped them to a 197-run victory in the Rothesay County Championship.
Bottom-of-the-table Hampshire were routed at 26-4 at lunch and were bowled out for 238 in the final session of day three.
The Martlets take 19 points from the game to finish third in the table, having been deducted 12 points at the start of the season. They might otherwise have finished runners up.
The day began with Tom Haines reaching his century, having been 99 not out overnight. He brought up three figures off the first ball, scoring his first century in the Championship since April 2025.
With the lead already at 332 runs going into the third morning, Sussex looked to get a move on with half an eye on having Sunday off.
The visitors batted for just over an hour, with spinners Felix Organ and Andrew Neal bowling all but two overs of the session.
In that time, the visitors racked up 103 runs before declaring on 319-9, leaving Hampshire the almost impossible task of chasing 436 to win.
Neal had Jack Leaning, who made 78 in the first innings, out early on for 12 before Haines was trapped LBW by Organ, looking to sweep to the short boundary, for a magnificent 130.
The wickets gave Jack Carson a chance to have some fun, as he blasted 28 off just 16 deliveries – 24 of them coming the way of sixes in consecutive overs.
First-innings hero Jaydev Unadkat joined the party as Sussex decided they had tortured the hosts enough and skipper Haines called them in at 11:37am.
The Indian left-armer then struck with his third ball, wrapping Organ on the pads after Nick Gubbins had been dropped at second slip the delivery before.
Tom Price then had Toby Albert plumb in front before bookending his second over with the wickets of Tom Prest and Joe Weatherley for ducks.
This left Hampshire reeling at 3-4, with loud jeers from the crowd when a single brought the runs to level with wickets on the scoreboard.
After being 26-4 at lunch, Hampshire were soon reduced to 29-5 when Brown was caught behind. But Gubbins stayed strong.
He reached a battling half-century, with minimal celebration, and put on 85 with 18-year-old Ben Mayes for the sixth wicket but both were dismissed in quick succession off the spin of Carson.
Andrew Neal and James Fuller battled through to tea, playing with the fluency that the top order would have liked, to see Hampshire to the break at 192-7.
Tom Clark pulled off another screamer, to back up his one-handed grab from yesterday, to remove Fuller for 39 as Neal moved to his maiden Championship fifty.
But the job was done for Sussex when Andrew Neal and Kyle Abbott were pinned LBW by Price to give him his fifth career five-wicket haul.
It is the final season at Hove for many of the Sussex players, with several off to new pastures, but they will be buoyed by the strong showing in this summer’s Championship, with seven victories to their name – equal to title-winning Warwickshire.
Hampshire head to Division Two for the first time since 2014, with Sussex’s Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Leicestershire’s Rishi Patel added to their roster.
But with only four batting points this season and Kyle Abbott not getting any younger, can their younger players find their feet in the second tier?
