Nic Pothas's first hundred of the season led Hampshire to a record seventh wicket stand against Sussex.

The Hampshire wicketkeeper was unbeaten on 129 at stumps, his sixth hundred for the county and his first since September.

Together with Sean Ervine, he put on an 191, Hampshire's highest ever seventh wicket stand against Sussex, as the county recovered from 102-6 to close on 293-7.

It was also Hampshire's highest seventh wicket stand at The Rose Bowl, surpassing the 142 between Dimitri Mascarenhas and John Stephenson in the first ever first class game at West End, against Worcestershire, in 2001.

Pothas (129*) and Ervine (69) did brilliantly to lead the county away from the troubled waters of 102-6.

Pothas hit three sixes, the best of which was a driven effort over the cover boundary off Mushtaq Ahmed that took him to fifty in 93 balls.

He reached the 17th first class ton of his career from 172 balls when he scampered a single off James Kirtley.

His third Rose Bowl hundred was chanceless, while Ervine offered only one - to cover when he was on six - before going on to make his highest score for Hampshire.

While Pothas's previous best of the season was the 84 he made against Sussex, Ervine's previous highest for the county was the 57 he made in that game at Hove, which he repeated against Kent at Canterbury.

Ervine batted for 49 overs with Pothas before he drove the last ball of the day to cover for a 124-ball 69 that included nine fours.

When he joined Pothas at the crease, Hampshire were 102-6, having lost Shane Watson courtesy of a juggled caught and bowled for Kirtley.

During a morning session interrupted by rain, Chris Benham edged Kirtley behind.

Two Jason Lewry inswingers trapped Greg Lamb and John Crawley leg before either side of Michael Brown fending Rana Naved to Matthew Prior.

Wicketkeeper Prior then held on to an excellent one handed catch to dimiss McMillan and, after Watson departed, Hampshire dominated the second half of the day, with Pothas facing just 198 balls for his unbeaten 129, including 16 fours.

Pothas said: "We were in a spot of bother, so I rate this hundred right up there, becasue the second half of the season is where it counts and Sussex have a really good bowling attack and are playing really well.

"Lewry started swinging the ball both ways, which made life difficult when it goes off the wicket.

"Sean Ervine was awsome and it helped to have a left hander out there with me, because the bowlers have to adjust all the time. We complement each other well.

"We've both played well all year without building on good starts. I think 293 is a quality score but if we can press on and get 350 we'll be tough to beat."

Hampshire were this morning hoping to have Chris Tremlett back in time to bat at number 11.

Tremlett was due to leave Lord's at 10am after being left out of the England side that was selected for the first Test against Australia, and will replace Billy Taylor for the rest of Hampshire's tenth championship game of the season.