A GILES WHITE century put Hampshire in a healthy state to complete their marathon, although in the end they puffed and panted their way over the line on the third day of their Cricinfo County Championship clash against Sussex at The Rose Bowl.

White's first championship century in three years provided the spine of Hampshire's play as they went in search of the 351 needed to avoid the follow-on.

Chalkie's 141 left him four runs shy of a new championship personal best, and he left the middle cursing himself for being gulled by the oldest trick in the book.

Having pulled Jason Lewry through mid-wicket for the 16th four of his innings, White (above) then tried to repeat the feat two balls later, only to be too early on the shot and steeple it up high enough to serve a meal and show an in-flight movie on it. Matt Prior was waiting for it as it came down.

White's perseverance and patience over six-and-a-half hours, during which he faced 345 balls took Hampshire a fair distance along their route.

He was there at the start of the day when Hampshire resumed at 92-1, still needing another 259 to make Sussex strap the pads on again.

White said: "I had a lean start to the season and the other lads have been getting the runs so I thought it was my turn. It was hard work out there but it was good to get my first century of the season."

Hampshire ran up six centures last season but this time out they already have five, and White added: "We're batting wth the confidence we did not have last year. Last season we had a poor start and people lost confidence. This year we started in good form and it has been a good collective effort. We are all feeding off each other and we have always had somebody to come up with a big score when we needed it."