Nottinghamshire's hopes of making up ground on leaders Durham foundered as Ed Joyce led a Sussex fightback with a superb 183 on the first day of the LV County Championship Division One match at Horsham.

Skipper Chris Read's hunch that his seamers would prosper in sultry conditions ideal for swing bowling looked spot on when Sussex were reduced to 144 for seven.

But Joyce, helped by some solid support from Sussex's tail-enders, took his side to 309 for nine before he was controversially given out in the penultimate over of the day, lbw to a ball from part-time spinner Adam Voges that looked both too high and to be sliding down the leg side.

Joyce pointed at his thigh pad as he departed, which could earn him a rebuke from umpire Peter Hartley. He faced 300 balls and batted for five and three quarter hours.

The 30-year-old Irishman has been in superb form in one-day cricket this season with three 50 overs hundreds but this was only his second Championship century since joining the county from Middlesex at the end of last year.

Joyce hardly played a false shot and timed the ball impeccably with textbook front-foot drives on both sides of the wicket bringing him the majority of his 28 boundaries.

Unfortunately for him, none of his team-mates were able to give him any sort of support until Ollie Rayner helped him add 60 for the eighth wicket and he put on 104 with number 10 Corey Collymore, a noted batting rabbit who nonetheless survived throughout the final session to reach 22, his highest first-class score.

Earlier, openers Mike Yardy and Chris Nash were bowled off inside edges while Murray Goodwin's miserable summer continued when he missed a full-length ball from Andre Adams and was bowled for 11.

Goodwin, Sussex's most consistent batsmen of the last decade, has now scored only 219 Championship runs and averages 14.

Joyce and Carl Hopkinson led a recovery of sorts to 120 for three but Nottinghamshire took control after lunch when they picked up four wickets for 24 runs in 10 overs.

Luke Fletcher removed Hopkinson and Luke Wright in successive overs as the batsmen were tempted into chasing balls well outside off stump while Adams picked up his third wicket when Andy Hodd was trapped in front by a full-length delivery for a duck.

Robin Martin-Jenkins also drove loosely to give Fletcher his third wicket and leave Sussex reeling.

With the sun out, the ball did not swing as much but Joyce played superbly after coming in during the third over, and when he reached 177 he had registered the second-highest score on this ground by a Sussex batsman.