County rugby chiefs have told their top two clubs to sort out a Greene King Sussex Trophy fixture clash.

Holders Haywards Heath are refusing to send a team to their second round tie at Worthing tomorrow with 19 of their players committed to the away game with Old Patesians in National Three South.

Meanwhile Worthing are unwilling to shift the date, saying they played an outstanding league game with Canterbury in midweek rather than tomorrow to help clear the way for the Heath tie.

Worthing, having missed out on promotion from London One, have made the Trophy their priority while Heath are still battling it out for safety in the league.

Chairman Tony Dalby played down claims from first team skipper Alex Meredith that Heath would pull out of the cup.

The club originally listed the Worthing game on their website as a second team fixture and Worthing coach Ian Davies believes they should stick to that.

Meredith said the club were unwilling to send back-up players to meet the might of Worthing's first team.

Heath's seconds were instead due to concentrate on their Kent Invicta League ficture, ironically at home to Worthing II. Now, though, Davies has said his club will not travel to that game.

Heath could end up playing none of their scheduled games with Old Patesians' pitch suffering the effects of heavy rain.

Meredith said: "I'm a bit annoyed. Sussex should have made it a Sunday game and not left it up to the clubs. We've got 19 players going to Cheltenham. We would have to field our third choice hooker and our No. 4 prop and it's not acceptable."

Davies insisted: "If we'd known Heath were going to pull out we wouldn't have played Canterbury in midweek, left out 12 players and taken a 42-6 beating.

"We would be very disappointed if we were made to play the game on a later date. Maybe the county are scared of Haywards Heath."

Trophy organiser Bob Dray said it was up to the clubs to agree a date by the end of the month and added he did not want to have to intervene.