Karen Winter and Rod Hawkins are the new Sussex Super League singles champions after the finals at Brighton Trades and Labour Club.

Winter, the Sussex women's captain from Littlehampton, won a closely fought final, beating Newhaven's Donna Rainsley 3-2, while Brighton star Hawkins swept to victory over another Littlehampton player, Simon Wood, 3-0.

In the semi-finals, Winter defeated Glenys Laker, from Littlehampton, 3-1, while Rainsley knocked out Bevendean's Bridget Guilford 3-0.

Hawkins was in blistering form, also overcoming Bognor's Jason Hills 3-0 in the semis, while Wood edged out Ricky Blay, from Brighton, 3-2.

Both Hawkins and Winter, however, failed to make it a double when they were beaten in the finals of the pairs.

The top Brighton pairing of Hawkins and Keith Price were turned over 2-1 by the Littlehampton duo of James Greenfield and Phil Hill.

Greenfield and Hill beat Mick Clarke (Crawley) and Dave Read (Littlehampton) in the semi-finals, while Hawkins and Price defeated Paul Eves and Andy Sexton, of Newhaven, both matches finishing 2-0.

Winter and Littlehampton team-mate Sue Grig lost 2-0 to the Brighton pairing of Lucy Johnson and Rhonda West.

In the semi-finals, Johnson and West defeated Kate McDonald (Crawley) and Tina McGovern (Hastings) 2-0, while Winter and Grig beat Bridget Small and Sue Bird, from Crawley, 2-1.

The mixed triples final was won by Larry Kavanah, Tommy Lewis and Bridget Small, who beat Mick Clarke, Peter Blackman and Tina McGovern 2-1.

Brighton captured the league championship when they beat last year's winners, Littlehampton Tower, in a nailbiting title play-off at Three Bridges FC.

Tower led 2-1 after the pairs, but Brighton showed their power by winning all four of the men's singles to take a 5-2 lead.

The best game was between Keith Price and Simon Wood, the Brighton man winning 3-2 with an average of 27.71.

Littlehampton took advantage of Rhonda West's absence to win both ladies' singles, including Chris Allen beating Lucy Johnson with a 20-plus average.

Simon Wood, Chris Allen and James Greenfield then set up a last-game decider by winning the first triple to level the scores at 5-5, Wood hitting his second 180 of the night and twice checking out.

In a thrilling finale, Brighton outscored Littlehampton by six tons to two, and they clinched the title when Rod Hawkins hit double eight in both winning legs.

Now in its fifth year, the league paid out nearly £1,900 for points won, performance awards and play-off prizes.

Lee Gladman had the best running average for the season of 27.10, while Rhonda West was the top lady with 20.65.

In the pairs, the best individual averages were 29.19 by Rod Hawkins and 19.83 by Karen Winter.

Best in the mixed triples were Keith Price with an average of 26.12, while the top lady was Donna Rainsley with 20.04.

Karen Winter won all of her 14 singles matches, while Rhonda West had ten out of 11 lady of the match awards.

Best average in a match was 32.67 by Mick Clarke and Lee Gladman and 25.69 by Rhonda West, and the highest finish was 158 by Andy Wood.