Crawley Eagles have closed the gap at the top of the West Sussex League to seven points and they still have a game in hand on leaders West Blatchington.

With Blatch not in action, the 1999 champions jumped above Patcham into second place after beating Dome Mission by 76 runs.

Zahin (46) and Najjan (44) were the maintstays in a total of 185, R. Green taking 4-31 before Shiyan and Shadid each took three wickets as the home side were dismissed for 109.

Patcham's title hopes suffered a potentially fatal blow when they lost by five wickets to Worthing Chippingdale.

Only Stu Forster's 33 gave Patcham something to defend as they were bowled out for 101, T. Hall taking 4-19.

Dave Knight took 3-20 in the reply, but D. Roberts (30) and M. Adams (27) steered the home side to a shock win.

On a day of generally low scoring, Lancing Manor bucked the trend when they rattled up 233-8 against Blackstone although their top scorer was G. Mason with 38. Blackstone fell well short, finishing on 183-8 with K. Woods also making 38.

Palmers squeezed past Hove Medina's 187-3 with two wickets to spare while St Matthias came up 14 runs short chasing Shoreham's 161-8. Mander took 5-42 for Saints while Lee's 45 boosted the Shoreham total.

Three Bridges III beat their Brighton & Hove counterparts by five wickets after restricting the home side to 137-7, Ian Catt taking 5-38. John Gray's 34 and an unbeaten 33 by R. Staples sealed Bridges' victory.

In division two Kemp Town Belgrave pulled off a sixth successive win when they defeated Ram by 55 runs.

It was the leaders' first defeat for three seasons. On a slow pitch a second wicket partnership of 93 between Terry Stanley (47) and Matthew Vinicombe helped the home side reach 163-5 and they soon had Ram in dissaray, reducing them to 29-8 at one stage.

Kartik's 56 pulled them around, but A.J. Potter (3-17) and Lee Joseph (39) helped bowl out Ram for 108 in 35 overs.

Best batting in the division was Keith Dalmon's 89 in the 164 run win over Ocean while Lancing Athletic J.Denton took the day's bowling honours, finishing with 4-38 as Partridge Green were bowled out for 167 in reply to Athletic's 205.

In division three Roffey III cannot have fancied their chances much after being bowled out for 35 against Southwick III with P.Caplin taking 5-10. Amazingly, they then dismissed the hosts for 34 to secure a one-run win.

In contrast West Blatchington II rattled up 276-7 against Lancing Manor II with half-centuries from S. Warne and D. Taylor. They then bowled out Manor for just 54, D. Kirby taking 4-10.