Hellingly skipper Matt Craig is launching a one-man takeover in his local village.

Not bad for a New Zealander who only came to the Sussex countryside via a weekend at the Amsterdam Sevens.

Craig, 28, has taken over the captaincy of the Sussex Division One side after a spell at Heathfield.

He also runs the White Hart pub, which overlooks the rugby club's base in the village of Horsebridge, near Hailsham.

On top of that, he is also captain of the cricket team.

Craig joked: "I'm running a monopoly here.

"The pub has always been in rugby hands. By chance someone had just left when I moved here so I took it over."

Apparently it can get quite rowdy in there on a Saturday night and the party must have been particularly good last Saturday after a thumping 41-10 win over Burgess Hill.

They were celebrating too when they won Rye's pre-season tournament.

Now Craig is planning a few more good Saturday nights as his side look to get among the promotion favourites.

Craig first linked up with Heathfield in Amsterdam and was given the chance to play in Sussex.

He said: "I got to know some of the Hellingly players and decided the opportunity of helping a smaller club was more beneficial to them and to me.

"This is my second season here but my first as captain.

"We won the Rye tournament and it was the first time in Hellingly's history that we had done that.

"We were written off before we got there but we beat some strong sides.

"I have brought in a new style of training and we now come in two nights a week. It seems to be paying off."

Not surprisingly, Craig will target the two games against Heathfield for special attention.

But he admits Hellingly are too small a club to be progressing into the regional leagues.

He said: "Sides like Heathfield will be scalped by us.

"Heathfield will be the big games for us, particularly as we have five of their former players.

"We are dark horses for promotion but we are not really big enough to go up and expand.

"You will struggle if you go up without the backing of junior sides as Heathfield found out."

But you get the impression it will take less than promotion to get them knocking the beers back in the White Hart.

BRIGHTON believe their game at East Grinstead two weeks from today will see the return of Daniel Venter.

The giant lock has been struggling with a back problem and has also been back home in South Africa.

Coach Bert Merritt was impressed by the way his side took a 17-0 lead in last weekend's defeat at Crawley but said: "We need to keep it going for 80 minutes. Failing that, let's keep going for 40 and then re-group at half-time."

Brian Owen brian.owen@theargus.co.uk